Fact check at Trump’s Fox News town hall in Iowa

CNN
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Former President Donald TrumpThe front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination took part in a Fox News town hall in Iowa on Tuesday, less than six weeks away from the state’s GOP caucuses.

The event, held in front of a crowd in Davenport, was pre-recorded for an hour-long interview hosted by Fox’s Sean Hannity. The former president made several demands over the course of an hour, on topics ranging from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan to his criminal charges.

CNN has previously fact-checked similar claims by Trump. Here are some of the statements the former president repeated at Tuesday’s town hall:

In criticizing President Joe BidenHandling of Withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan In 2021, Trump said, “As I rebuilt the military, they also left behind $85 billion worth of military equipment. They left behind $85 billion, not millions, billions of dollars worth of military equipment at one of the most critical moments in our nation’s history.

First the facts: Trump’s $85 billion account is wrong. While a significant amount of US-supplied military equipment to Afghan forces was effectively abandoned by the Taliban upon their return to the US, the Department of Defense assessed A portion of the $18.6 billion worth of equipment delivered to Afghan forces between 2005 and 2021 is valued at $7.1 billion.

As other fact-checkers have done before explained, “$85 billion” refers to the total amount of money Congress appropriated during the war (which is close to $83 billion) to support the Afghan security forces. A minority of these funds were allocated for equipment.

Trump made the allegations He has four criminal cases against him Although he was “made up” and accused four times, The Famous gangster Al Capone Charged only once.

“I often say Al Capone, if you like criminals, he’s the greatest of all time. He was a mob boss — Scarface, they call him — and he was indicted once. I was indicted four times,” Trump said.

Facts first: Trump’s claim that Capone was indicted only once is false. Capone was indicted at least six times A. Brad Schwartzco-author of a book about Capone told CNN.

That doesn’t include various criminal charges against Capone that don’t involve indictment, such as some misdemeanors or obscure Capone cases, which CNN couldn’t immediately determine if there was an indictment, which you can read more about. Here.

Capone was indicted Three times in 1931 alone, the year he was famously convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. Schwartz, co-author of the book “Scarface and the Untouchables: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle of Chicago,” the three indictments were explained as follows: “a secret indictment for tax evasion filed in March 1931 (prior to the statute of limitations on indictments from 1924)”; a grand indictment in June 1931 with more than 20 counts of tax evasion during the period 1925 to 1929; “and A bootlegging conspiracy charge, based on employment Eliot Ness and his untouchablesLater that month.”

Before the landmark 1931 conviction, there was Capone Arrested, charged and sentenced in 1929 for carrying concealed weapons in Philadelphia. Schwartz noted two lesser-known charges against Capone that did not result in a conviction: a A federal indictment for conspiracy to violate the 1926 prohibition laws and A 1933 District Indictment for forgery.

Trump faces A total of 91 in number On his two federal indictments and two local indictments in Georgia and New York. Schwartz said: “It’s not a race, of course, but it’s worth noting that Capone also leads in individual counts (the 1931 prohibition charge alone added up to five thousand conspiracy charges).”

Trump said he gave Iowa farmers $28 billion from China: “That’s why I say I’m going to win Iowa,” the former president said, “I gave farmers $28 billion and I got it from China. Who else can do that?”

Facts first: Trump’s claims are false in two ways. First and foremost, this money is not from China. Even though the Trump administration paid for it Because farmers were hurt by the trade war with ChinaAid money comes from American taxpayers: study After studyIncluding One is this year the federal government’s bipartisan U.S. International Trade Commissionhas detected Americans have borne the full cost of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods. (And it’s American importers, not Chinese exporters, who pay the government the real price.) Second, The Washington Post As noted in the latest fact-checkPayments to farmers under Trump’s plan total $23 billion, not “$28 billion.” According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.