Fact Verification: Trump falsely states that Melania Trump "met Kim Jong Un"

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Washington (CNN) - Donald Trump, president of the United States, gave a joint press conference this Monday with Emmanuel Macron, president of France, before his departure from the G7 summit in France. Then he stayed to take additional questions for himself.

Trump made at least eight false claims, seven of which he had made before. (The new one was a strange statement about Melania Trump and Kim Jong Un). And he made at least five expressions that we will call misleading, questionable or contextless.

• After the confusion about trade and Iran, Trump takes a positive turn on the last day of the G7

False claims

Melania Trump and Kim Jong Un

"The first lady has met Kim Jong Un, and I think she would agree with me that she is a man with a country that has tremendous potential," Trump said.

First the facts: Melania Trump was not present at any of Trump's three meetings with Kim Jong Un, and there is no evidence that she talked to Kim.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement on Monday: “President Trump trusts his wife on many issues, including detailed elements of his strong relationship with President Kim, and although the first lady does not he has known him, the president feels that she also knows him. ”

We are still calling the statement false. Trump's writing, "he came to know," clearly suggested a certain level of personal interaction between Melania Trump and Kim.

Donald Trump, during the G7 Summit.

The agreement and the money of Iran

Trump said, of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, that "we gave them 150 billion dollars."

First the facts: it was not money from the United States government in the first place, and the figure of "150 billion dollars" is an exaggeration. Although the nuclear agreement with Iran allowed the country to access tens of billions in its own assets that had been frozen in foreign financial institutions due to sanctions, experts say the total was significantly less than 150 billion.

In 2015, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew put the number at 56,000 million. You can read a more complete fact check on this statement here.

The expiration of the agreement with Iran

Trump said the nuclear deal is "almost expiring, if you think about it."

First, the facts: While some central provisions were drafted to expire in the next 10 to 15 years, the agreement as a whole, including a general ban on the development of nuclear weapons by Iran, was written to continue in perpetuity.

The trade deficit with the European Union

Trump said: "The EU is another: we have been losing 180 billion dollars a year for many years."

First the facts: the trade deficit with the European Union was 114,000 million dollars in 2018, 101,000 million dollars in 2017, 93,000 million dollars in 2016.

The trade deficit with China

Trump said China had "taken" 500 billion US dollars for "many, many years" and "every year."

First the facts: the trade deficit with China has never been 500,000 million dollars. There were 381,000 million dollars in 2018 when counting goods and services, 420,000 million dollars only when counting goods.

We will ignore Trump's description of the trade deficit as China "takes out" money from the United States, which is rejected by most economists.

Tariff revenue in China

Trump said of China: "We have thousands and billions coming in." He also said: "The United States, which has never raised 10 cents from China, in a fairly short period of time will exceed $ 100,000 million in tariffs."

First the facts: Americans pay real tariffs, not people in China, and economic studies have concluded that the overwhelming majority of costs are being covered by Americans. (Some Chinese exporters are also paying some of the costs, but it is certainly not true that they are doing it alone.) Nor is it true that the United States has never before generated revenue from tariffs on Chinese products: the government had tariffs on China for more than two centuries.

In addition, while tariffs on China could generate more than $ 100 billion at some point, that will not happen immediately; The figure was $ 21 billion in July, The New York Times reported.

Asian-American unemployment

Trump said again that unemployment for Asian Americans is at the lower rate than "ever."

First the facts: While the unemployment rate for Asian Americans reached a minimum earlier in Trump's term, the rate in July, 2.8%, was higher than in the last full month of Obama's term, 2.6 %.

Energy production

“I feel that the United States has tremendous wealth. Wealth is under your feet. I have made that wealth come alive. Soon we will be one of the, soon we will export, in fact, we are actually doing it now. Exporting But now we are the number one energy producer in the world and will soon be, with a couple of pipes that have not been approved for many, many years, ”Trump said.

First the facts: Contrary to Trump's suggestion here, the United States has not only “now” become the world's leading energy producer: it ranked first in 2012 under Obama, according to the US Government Energy Information Administration . The United States became the leading producer of crude oil in particular during Trump's term.

“The United States has been the world's leading producer of natural gas since 2009, when US natural gas production. surpassed that of Russia, and has been the world's leading producer of petroleum hydrocarbons since 2013, when its production exceeded that of Saudi Arabia, ”says the Energy Information Administration.

Deceptive, questionable or contextless claims

Environmental impact statements

“I am an environmentalist. Many people do not understand that. I have probably made more environmental impact statements than anyone who, I suppose, can definitely say it, because I have made many, many, many of them. More than anyone who has been president or vice president or anything close to the president, ”Trump said.

First the facts: the Trump administration has made a systematic effort to eliminate or weaken environmental regulations. Making environmental impact statements is not evidence of environmentalism; Such declarations are required by governments for large development projects.

Trump is the first president or vice president to be a major commercial real estate developer, so he is likely to have been involved in more environmental impact statements than others. But this certainly does not make him the main environmentalist of the group.

Ireland and the United Kingdom

When asked about trade relations with the United Kingdom, Trump said: “I love the United Kingdom. I have a great property in the United Kingdom. I love the United Kingdom. I have no idea how my property is working because I don't care. But I own Turnberry and Aberdeen and Ireland, as you know, Doonbeg. ”

First the facts: Ireland, where Trump's Doonbeg golf club is located, is not part of the United Kingdom.

We will not call the statement false because it is possible that Trump was trying to distinguish his golf property in Ireland from the others. But this would not be the first time Trump suggested that he thought Ireland was part of the United Kingdom; so did last year.

Your wealth

Asked about concerns that he benefits from the presidency, given his intention to hold a G7 summit at his Doral resort in Florida next year, Trump said: “I have spent, and I think I will, in a combination of loss and opportunity, it will probably cost me between 3,000 and 5,000 million to be president. ”

First the facts: We cannot verify what could have happened in an alternative scenario in which Trump did not become president, but we must bear in mind that Trump has not presented evidence to support this claim. Forbes magazine, which estimates the net worth of the super rich, says the claim is "absurd" and that "Trump is not losing $ 3 billion to $ 5 billion."

The magazine estimates that its fortune has fallen from 4.5 billion dollars in 2015 to 3.1 billion dollars.

Russia, Crimea and Obama

Trump repeated his claim that Russia was suspended from the G8 due to Barack Obama's personal shame for being "cheated" by the annexation of Crimea by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He took it from President Obama. He didn't take it from President Trump, he took it from President Obama. President Obama was not happy that this happened because it was embarrassing for him, right? It was very embarrassing for him. And he wanted Russia to be out of what was called the G8. And that was his determination. Putin overcame it. It was smarter, ”Trump said.

First the facts: Russia took Crimea from Ukraine. While we cannot definitively verify a claim about Obama's personal feelings about the Putin movement, Russia's suspension of the G8 was a joint G8 decision.

The expulsion from Russia was supported not only by Obama, but also by the leaders of Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.

Trade deals with China

Trump said about his relationship with China: “We have had many calls. Secretary Mnuchin is here, and he has had many calls in the last 24 hours, but certainly in the last 48 hours I have had many calls, not just one. These are high level calls. ”

First the facts: A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China said earlier that he "was not aware" of new phone calls between the two countries. (Reuters noted that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is the entity that generally provides statements about business calls, but had not done so until 5 pm ET on Monday).

Mnuchin, Trump's secretary of the Treasury, said that there had indeed been "communications" and "discussions," but he did not confirm that there were real phone calls. We will update this article if additional information arises.

G7 Summit