President Trump's final day as president fact-checked
- Published
On leaving office as US president, President Trump has made a number of claims about his record.
We've fact-checked some of things he said in a farewell speech at the Andrews Air Base in Maryland and in a video statement released by the White House.
Claim: "We rebuilt the United States military."
In his final public speech as president, he hailed his government's track record on the military.
He's previously said it was depleted under former President Obama.
It's true that Mr Trump's administration has increased the amount of military funding.
However, the levels of spending are lower than what was spent on the military during Mr Obama's first administration (2009 to 2013), when using data adjusted for inflation.
President Trump has also scaled back the number of troops in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
Claim: "We have the greatest economy in the world."
In his remarks at Andrews Air base, Mr Trump also said "we have the greatest economy in the world", and prior to the pandemic the numbers were "at a level nobody had ever seen before".
The US economy had certainly done well under him prior to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, but there have been periods under previous administrations when it did better.
In his first three years in office, President Trump oversaw an annual average growth of 2.5%.
This was slightly higher than the final three years of the Obama era.
However, there have been many periods when the growth of GDP - the value of goods and services in the economy - was a lot higher.
And in 2020, the economy saw the largest contraction on record because of the pandemic.
It rebounded by 33% in the third quarter last year, itself a record for a quarterly increase, but this did not bring economic activity back to pre-pandemic levels.
President Trump also said: "Now the stock market is actually substantially higher than it was at its higher point prior to the pandemic."
Although there have been recent wobbles, the stock market has bounced back to above pre-pandemic levels.
Claim: "When our nation was hit with the terrible pandemic, we produced not one, but two vaccines with record-breaking speed."
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use for two Covid-19 vaccines - Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.
The government's vaccine programme, Operation Warp Speed, did provide funding for the development of the Moderna vaccine.
While Pfizer/BioNTech did sign a deal with the government to deliver doses, it didn't receive any money to do development or testing.
And although Pfizer is a US firm, this particular vaccine was developed in conjunction with the German-based BioNTech company.
It was their gene-based technology which was the key to making the vaccine.
Claim: "I am especially proud to be the first President in decades who has started no new wars."
This needs context as it depends on how you define war.
The US has formally enacted declarations of war against 11 countries in five separate conflicts. The last formal declaration of war was during World War II.
Most of the time the US enters conflicts using the "authorisation of military force" granted by Congress to the president.
For example, President George W Bush used this for the Iraq war in 2003.
And President Obama sought Congressional approval to intervene in Syria after chemical weapons were used there.
President Trump gave his final address late on Tuesday
President Trump has engaged in military actions abroad using legislation passed by previous governments.
In October 2019, he announced the killing of Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a military operation, but said he decided not to notify Democrat leaders in Congress beforehand.
In January 2020, President Trump ordered an airstrike which killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. The White House cited Congress's "authorisation of military force" granted under the Bush administration as its legal basis.
The Trump administration has also increased US drone strikes in Somalia.
Claim: "We proudly leave... with the strongest border security measures ever put into place… with more than 450 miles of powerful new wall."
Building a wall along the southern border with Mexico was one of his major pledges in the run-up to the 2016 election.
As of 4 January 2021, a total of 452 miles (757km) of barrier has been built since he took office.
However, the vast majority of this new wall replaced existing structures on the border.
Only 80 miles of new barriers have been built where there was none before.
Of this 47 miles is what's called primary wall, and 33 miles is secondary wall that reinforces the initial barrier.
President-elect Joe Biden said he would not build "another foot" of the wall.
Claim: "We... achieved record low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans..."
The African American unemployment rate hit 5.2% in August 2019, and the Hispanic rate hit 4% in September 2019.
These were the lowest rates recorded since the US Labor Department started collecting these statistics in the 1970s.
The unemployment rate has recently spiked significantly for both groups because of the huge impact of the pandemic on the US economy.
And this has disproportionately affected African Americans and Hispanic Americans - their unemployment rates are 3.2 and 2.6 percentage points higher respectively than the overall figure.
Asian American unemployment is currently 5.9%.
It reached a record low of 2.1% in June 2019, but these records only date back to 2003.
Claim: "We passed VA Choice"
VA Choice is a government programme which offers better quality health care to ex-military members in the US.
President Trump didn't pass this programme - it was created in 2014 under President Obama - but he did expand it.
In June 2018, President Trump signed a law that reformed VA Choice, expanding the eligibility requirements for veterans to access private health care.
