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An update from FactCheck.org
President Trump speaks during an event at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Dec. 20, 2019


** Trump's Final Numbers
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In October 2012, a month before the presidential election, our cofounder and then-director, Brooks Jackson, wrote an article called "Obama's Numbers ([link removed]) ."

Here's how the article started, "For more than a year, we’ve been pointing out on a regular basis how President Obama, his allies and his critics all misuse or even fabricate statistics to give voters a skewed picture of reality. This time we’ll just offer the accurate numbers."

The article proved popular, and we made it a standing feature, providing quarterly reports throughout Obama's second term, ending with "Obama's Final Numbers ([link removed]) ." We continued the series throughout President Donald Trump's four years, and today we published "Trump's Final Numbers ([link removed]) . ([link removed]) "

As with "Obama's Final Numbers," some statistics in today's story run counter to claims or promises the president made.

For instance, Trump promised to reduce the trade deficit and the federal debt — but those measures went up instead, rising even before the 2020 global pandemic began. Some data points appeared to weather the economic impact of COVID-19: After-tax corporate profits and crude oil production rose, and the stock market continued to set records.

As we’ve often said, readers may find these statistics to be good, bad or neutral, and opinions differ on how much credit or blame a president should get for what happens while he is in office. We leave those judgments to others.

In January, we plan to publish our first quarterly report on President Joe Biden. And, if the former president follows through on the speculation ([link removed]) that he wants to run for president again in 2024, who knows maybe we will bring back "Trump's Numbers" in 2025.
HOW WE KNOW
President Joe Biden issued an executive order mandating federal executive branch employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested at least once a week. Why doesn't it apply to employees in Congress or the judicial branch? “The separation of powers — one of the hallmarks of the American political system — is the principle at work here,” Andrew Reeves, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told us. We cite Reeves in our story ([link removed]) debunking a misleading meme on Biden's vaccine requirement.
FEATURED FACT
According to ([link removed]) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since delta became the most common variant, unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated Americans are 4.5 times more likely to become infected, 10 times more likely to require hospitalization, and 11 times more likely to die due to COVID-19 than fully vaccinated Americans. We cite the CDC study -- which reviewed nearly 600,000 COVID-19 cases in 13 states -- in our story "Basketball Star Bradley Beal’s Misleading Comments About COVID-19 ([link removed]) ."
WORTHY OF NOTE
In her new book, "There Is Nothing for You Here: Opportunity in an Age of Decline," Fiona Hill, a Trump White House adviser on Russia, writes ([link removed]) that then-President Donald Trump, took credit for things he didn't deserve.

"The U.S. steel sector was generally holding its own, thanks to technological innovation, when President Trump came into office. Nonetheless, in a speech in August 2019, Trump claimed that the steel industry had been dead. He bragged that he alone had brought it back to life. This was not the case. He further asserted that no new steel mills had been built in the U.S. for thirty years before he came into office, which was not true. Then he claimed that plans for new steel plants in the U.S. were the direct result of his intervention, even when expansion plans had been under way for years."

In the "Notes ([link removed]) " section at the end of her book, Hill cites our article "Trump's Steel Industry Claims ([link removed]) ," as a resource.
REPLY ALL

Reader: Congratulations on continuing to feed into this plandemic. We understand that the CDC didn’t lower their COVID death tolls, that would be suicide! Why don’t you report on what they did do, that was list that approximately 94% of COVID deaths had underlying causes. Why are you not reporting this?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: We did report this! More than a year ago, former President Donald Trump retweeted a false claim that said, “This week the CDC quietly updated the Covid number to admit that only 6% of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from Covid. That’s 9,210 deaths. The other 94% had 2 to 3 other serious illnesses and the overwhelming majority were of very advanced age.”

In our story -- “CDC Did Not ‘Admit Only 6%’ of Recorded Deaths from COVID-19 ([link removed]) ” – we wrote:

"… the CDC explained ([link removed]) that the chart 'shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.'

"That means that 6% of those who died with COVID-19 through Aug. 15 didn’t have any other reported conditions."

All that means is that the other 94% who died from COVID-19 had underlying medical conditions that started the chain of events that resulted in their deaths from COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci explained the numbers in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Again, from our story:

"He noted that the 6% figure includes cases where COVID-19 was listed as the only cause of death. 'That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of Covid didn’t die of Covid-19. They did,' Fauci said ([link removed]) on ABC’s 'Good Morning America.'

"'So the numbers you’ve been hearing — the 180,000-plus deaths — are real deaths from Covid-19. Let [there] not be any confusion about that,' Fauci said."

So, we didn’t lie. You were misled by others about what the CDC actually did.


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "Video: Instagram Posts Spread Texas Lawmaker’s False Claims on Vaccine Testing ([link removed]) ": In this video, we team up with Univision Noticias to debunk false claims, spreading on social media, that were made by a state senator in Texas about vaccine safety.
* "White House and HHS Employees Aren’t ‘Exempt’ from Vaccine Mandate ([link removed]) ": While some specifics of President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandates haven't been determined, misleading claims about who will be "exempt" have circulated online. Employees at the White House and in agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services are subject to Biden's executive order requiring federal employees to be vaccinated.
* "Posts Spread Baseless Claims About Cause of Cargo Ship Backups ([link removed]) .": U.S. ports slowed by pandemic-induced labor and equipment shortages cannot keep up with Americans’ demand for imported goods, resulting in cargo ship backups on both coasts. But social media posts, without citing evidence, falsely claim the Biden administration is purposely “orchestrating” product shortages.

Y lo que publicamos en español (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "Video: Mensajes en Instagram difunden declaraciones falsas de legislador texano sobre pruebas de vacunas ([link removed]) ": En este video, los equipos de FactCheck.org y Univision Noticias se unieron para desmentir declaraciones falsas de un senador estatal de Texas sobre la seguridad de las vacunas que han ganado gran difusión en las redes sociales.
* "COVID-19: Los no vacunados representan un riesgo para los vacunados ([link removed]) ": En nuestro último Pregúntele a SciCheck, contestamos una pregunta de Tucker Carlson: “Si la vacuna funciona… entonces ¿cómo pueden los no vacunados representar una amenaza para los vacunados?”

Have a question about COVID-19 and the vaccines? Visit our SciCheck page ([link removed]) for answers. It's available in Spanish ([link removed]) , too.
Donate to Support Our Work ([link removed])

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