Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Trump's Speech Announcing His Run For President In 2024 Just Got A Brutal Fact-Check From CNN

Donald Trump giving speech; Daniel Dale on CNN
CNN/YouTube

CNN reporter Daniel Dale fact-checked several of Trump's 'wildly incorrect' statements during his speech.

After former Republican President Donald Trump announced he would campaign for the White House in 2024, CNN reporter Daniel Dale fact-checked a number of "wildly incorrect" statements Trump made during his speech.

Dale said Trump's comments were “more accurate” than what he often says at campaign rallies, but only because Trump was using a teleprompter.


Dale told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper Trump's speech “was still less accurate than anything you’ll hear from basically anyone else in politics."

You can watch Dale's analysis below.

'Wildly incorrect': Daniel Dale fact-checks Trump's 2024 announcement youtu.be

Dale noted, among other things, that Trump gave himself credit for the liberation of the Islamic State's (ISIS) “caliphate” in Syria when he claimed that the terrorist group "was decimated by me and our great warriors in less than three weeks.”

But that is incorrect, because the so-called ISIS "caliphate" was liberated two years into his presidency, not three weeks. While it is not entirely clear what Trump meant by "decimated," the United States' fight against ISIS continued well after he took office.

Of course, there were significant lies about his former administration's relationship with China and the state of the pre-pandemic economy.

Dale said Trump's words go deeper than that.

"These claims are not even close to true. Then there was a general narrative about the economy under him. He can say whatever he wants about the pre-pandemic economy but he suggested that the economy was thriving two years ago when he left office."
"Look, he left office with the unemployment rate about double what it is today, so the idea that the Biden administration did not have to do anything and everything would have been hunky dory is just absurd as well."

Dale then pointed to a claim Trump made in which he underestimated the threat of sea level rise while accusing the world of not prioritizing nuclear threats.

He concluded Trump is "incorrect about climate change, both specifically and generally."

"This specific claim, he said the unnamed people say the oceans will rise an eighth of an inch over the next 200 to 300 years. That is totally wrong."
"In reality, the U.S. government's National Ocean Service says this: They say sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to rise on average ten to 12 inches in the next 30 years, which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years."
"But Trump also generally suggested that climate change might only affect us in some general way in 300 years. That also is not true. It's affecting us now, as we know, in a whole variety of serious ways."
"And that's not some radical left-wing view."
"Here's what the Pentagon, the military, said in a report last year. They said increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, more frequent, intense and unpredictable extreme weather conditions caused by climate change are exacerbating existing risks and creating new security challenges for U.S. interests."
"And finally, Anderson, nobody is not paying attention to nuclear issues because they're focused on climate change. That's not a real choice again. That's absurd."

Dale also addressed Trump's claim gas prices are "higher than ever" and his administration “filled up” the Strategic Petroleum Reserve but it has now been “virtually drained” by the Biden administration to "keep gas prices lower just prior to the election."

Dale said it's "not true" Trump "filled it up," adding:

"In fact, if you go to the U.S. Energy Information Administration website and look at the actual data, the Reserve had fewer barrels of oil when Trump left office than when he took office."
"Now, he did propose at one point in his administration that the Reserve be filled up with tens of millions more barrels, but he never secured the funding for it from Congress. It never happened."
"And although [Democratic President Joe] Biden has indeed released a bunch of oil to help keep oil and gas prices down, it is not virtually depleted, it's not empty as he claimed in a rally in November. It is still the world's largest strategic reserve of petroleum."

Dale also published a more comprehensive fact-check of 20 false and misleading claims Trump made during his speech.

Many have praised Dale for his commitment to accuracy and skewered Trump for continuing to lie so brazenly for the cameras.



Since Trump left office, Dale has largely spent time fact-checking his claims about the January 6 insurrection, which took place after a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the nation's seat of government on the false premise the 2020 general election had been stolen.

Dale was praised over the summer after fact-checking a 12-page statement—complete with footnotes—that Trump released questioning the integrity of the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection.

At the time, Dale said Trump was merely issuing the "same lies, now with pointless footnotes."

More from News/2024-election

Doug Bergum; Jared Huffman
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Dem Rep. Hilariously Trolls Trump Official For Having No Idea How Solar Power Works In Viral Clip

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was trolled by California Democratic Representative Jared Huffman after he, testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee, seemed to think solar panels are unreliable because they don't work when the sun goes down.

The sun produces heat and light through solar, or electromagnetic, radiation. Solar energy technologies capture that radiation and convert it into usable power. The two primary forms of solar technology are photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP).

Keep Reading Show less
Catherine O'Hara and Macaulay Culkin at the star ceremony, where he is honored for the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Macaulay Culkin Just Opened Up About The 'Unfinished Business' He Felt He Had With Catherine O'Hara—And We're Sobbing

More than three decades after they first starred together in Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin is opening up about the emotional bond he shared with Catherine O’Hara, and why her passing left him feeling like he “owed” her something more.

The former child star, now 45, discussed O’Hara’s recent passing with Gentleman’s Journal. O’Hara died on January 30 at age 71 from a pulmonary embolism linked to an underlying illness.

Keep Reading Show less
Jason Collins
Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty Images

Tributes Pour In For First Out Pro Basketball Player Jason Collins After His Tragic Death At 47

The sports world lost a legend this week. And not just any legend: one who made history.

Jason Collins was the first openly gay active NBA player and the first openly gay professional athlete in any of the four major American sports leagues when he publicly came out in April 2013.

Keep Reading Show less
Julia Louis-Dreyfus; Stephen Colbert
CBS

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Channeled Her 'Veep' Character To Epically Roast Stephen Colbert In Send-Off For The Ages

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is set to air its final episode next Thursday, May 21.

The controversial cancellation will end Colbert's 11-year tenure at the late night desk, and end the Late Show franchise on CBS, which hit the airwaves in 1993 with host David Letterman—who shared his own message for the network over the cancellation.

Keep Reading Show less
Melania Trump
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Kevin Hart Roast Writer Reveals Melania Joke That Got Cut—And It's Absolutely Savage

In an interview with Variety, writer Madison Sinclair revealed some of the jokes that got cut from Netflix's The Roast of Kevin Hart—including a joke about First Lady Melania Trump and MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe that is as savage as it is nasty.

Hinchcliffe is best known for having called Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage" during a Trump rally at New York City's Madison Square Garden in October 2024, just weeks before the election.

Keep Reading Show less