Welcome to the seventh installment of our occasional Friday feature looking at what the president got wrong on Twitter in a given week. The president has been less active on Twitter in recent weeks, so it’s been almost a month since our last roundup.
But he was back at it this week. Here’s a look at false or misleading claims that Trump made in 20 tweets in the past week, including one from the @POTUS account.
It is so pathetic that the Dems have still not approved my full Cabinet.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017
The Senate Democrats did hold up Trump’s Cabinet picks at one time. But as of Trump’s tweet, there were two empty slots; the administration had not sent the rest of the paperwork for one and had not sent a nominee to fill the other.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted the prior evening, on March 2:
After the votes taken earlier this afternoon, the U.S. Senate has now confirmed all of the available Cabinet nominations.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 3, 2017
For more, read this analysis by Philip Bump of The Fix.
We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite! pic.twitter.com/Ik3yqjHzsA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017
I hereby demand a second investigation, after Schumer, of Pelosi for her close ties to Russia, and lying about it. https://t.co/qCDljfF3wN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017
Trump makes a misleading comparison between Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Sen. Charles E. Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) meeting Vladimir Putin at a public event in 2003. Sessions, who was a Trump campaign surrogate, misled Congress by not disclosing that he met with Kislyak on at least two occasions during the 2016 presidential campaign, including one private meeting at Sessions’s Senate office.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) 2010 meeting with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is also not directly comparable to Sessions’s communications with Kislyak. Pelosi and other House leaders met with Medvedev, who brought Kislyak and other top Russian officials to the meeting.
Pelosi said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on March 5: “We were meeting with the president of Russia. He brought an entourage in with him. He was the one who was doing the talking. The question is, have you met with him? No, I haven’t met with him. I met with the president of Russia. Who else is in his entourage, who know? Presidents, heads of state come in, they bring their party. They barely even introduce them. So, this is completely, completely different.”
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
There is no evidence that Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump’s calls. Trump seized on reports in the right-leaning media, but even the reports cited by the White House did not make this allegation. We issued Four Pinocchios to Trump’s claims.
Just out: The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
This is a misleading comparison. Sessions appears to have misled the Senate about his meetings, while the meetings at the White House were recorded in a public log that Trump has now eliminated.
Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Schwarzenegger said he was leaving of his own accord, blaming animus toward Trump for the show’s sagging ratings.
Schwarzenegger’s response:
You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker. https://t.co/SvAjuPdHfa
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 4, 2017
Is it true the DNC would not allow the FBI access to check server or other equipment after learning it was hacked? Can that be possible?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2017
The FBI and the Democratic National Committee disagree on whether the FBI requested access to the DNC’s servers. FBI Director James B. Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the bureau made “multiple requests at different levels” to access DNC’s servers, but the DNC said the FBI never requested access.
Thank you for the great rallies all across the country. Tremendous support. Make America Great Again!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2017
The size of crowds holding “March 4 Trump” rallies varied, from about 30 people in Indianapolis to about 400 in St. Paul, Minn. Some rallies drew just as many protesters as supporters.
'President Trump Congratulates Exxon Mobil for Job-Creating Investment Program'https://t.co/adBzWhtq8S
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2017
45,000 construction & manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. $20 billion investment. We are already winning again, America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2017
There is an incredible spirit of optimism sweeping the country right now—we're bringing back the JOBS! pic.twitter.com/BNSLvKiEVj
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2017
Buy American & hire American are the principles at the core of my agenda, which is: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! Thank you @exxonmobil.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017
Thank you to @exxonmobil for your $20 billion investment that is creating more than 45,000 manufacturing & construction jobs in the USA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017
Trump continues to take credit for projects long in the works before he became president. ExxonMobil has been planning this since 2013.
On March 6, the oil giant announced its “Growing the Gulf” investment plan to invest $20 billion over 10 years in projects in Texas and Louisiana. The company said its plan would create 35,000 construction jobs and 12,000 full-time jobs, through 11 chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects. The company acknowledged that its investments began in 2013 and are expected to continue through at least 2022.
ExxonMobil’s spending plan may seem like a lot, but it represents only 10 percent of the company’s current capital spending levels, our colleagues reported: “Those levels would probably increase with higher oil prices. Moreover, ExxonMobil has been a major operator and investor in the Gulf of Mexico region for decades. The gulf accounts for nearly a fifth of U.S. domestic oil production.”
Read our fact-check on Trump’s repeated claims that he brought jobs back to the U.S. since Election Day.
122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017
This is false. Data published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence by the time of Trump’s tweet showed that nine of the 122 former detainees confirmed of re-engaging in terrorist or insurgent activities were released under Obama, and 113 were released under the George W. Bush administration.
An updated report released after Trump’s tweet showed eight of 121 were released under Obama and 113 of 121 under Bush.
Trump first tweeted this at 7:04 a.m. on the @realDonaldTrump account, and it was immediately called out as false on Twitter, including by The Fact Checker.
Totally false! Data from DNI–which you oversee–says only 9 were released under Obama and 113 under Bush. https://t.co/HkdwgHKDFL https://t.co/1qTZxTrEOo
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) March 7, 2017
But then at 8:03 a.m., he repeated the same tweet on the @POTUS account.
122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!
— President Trump (@POTUS) March 7, 2017
LinkedIn Workforce Report: January and February were the strongest consecutive months for hiring since August and September 2015
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2017
Trump failed to read the fine print of the LinkedIn Workforce report. The numbers were affected by seasonal hiring. When adjusted for seasonal hiring variations, hiring was down 1.3 percent from January to February, the first full month of Trump’s term.
Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2017
The press is reporting reactions to the replacement plan from lawmakers and industry groups from all sides of the political spectrum. Conservative and liberal industry groups have opposed the plan, along with Democrats and some Republican lawmakers, both moderate and conservative.
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