Former President Donald Trump's return to the Oval Office was marked by a string of falsehoods, fact-checked live by CNN. Claims about NATO contributions, tariffs, and election fraud were debunked, raising questions about his continued reliance on misleading narratives.
Daniel Dale of CNN quickly followed up President Trump's misleading comments during a signing ceremony on his first day back in the Oval Office with a scathing fact check, claiming that Trump's exchanges with reporters were filled with falsehoods.
On Monday night, during the network's prolonged coverage of Trump's inauguration, senior correspondent Dale claimed that there were many major lies in it.
Starting with Trump's false assertion that birthright citizenship is solely offered in the United States, he moved on to other claims.
Dale said it's in at least a dozen nations, including the United States's neighbors to the north and south, Mexico and Canada.
His next target was Trump, who has maintained time and time again that tariffs imposed by Trump during his first term brought in hundreds of billions of dollars for the United States from China. U.S. importers pay the duties and frequently pass the price on to U.S. consumers, so in reality, the money comes from Americans, as Dale pointed out.
While signing executive orders on live TV in the White House's Oval Office, the in-house fact checker of CNN went on to accuse Trump of making a number of other false claims, including that he pardoned over 1,500 rioters on January 6.
"He spoke again about how NATO, European members of NATO, have contributed $200 billion less to Ukraine than the U.S. has," Dale revealed. "In fact, data shows that the European members have provided tens of billions more aid than the U.S. has. So he has that reversed again. He repeated his assertion that China controls the Panama Canal. China has influence in the area and China-linked companies operate two ports on the canal, but that canal is operated by the Panamanian Canal Authority, staffed by Panamanian board members, Panamanian employees."
I think that's a "exaggeration at least," Dale said. The claims made by Trump concerning the 2020 election were the last target of his fact-checking mission, The Raw Story shares.
Lastly, Dale brought attention to the fact that Trump has reiterated his unfounded assertion regarding the alleged rejection of his offer of 10,000 National Guard troops by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 6. He made it clear that he did not make an offer to her and that the authority to send or withhold the District of Columbia National Guard did not lie with the House Speaker, but with him.
