Fact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His Latest Interview With TIME
U.S. President Donald Trump sat for an exclusive interview ahead of the midterm elections. Here’s a check of the claims he made.
On September 28, just five weeks before the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with TIME at the White House. TIME has released the transcript of this conversation. Below is a breakdown of some of Trump's assertions made during the interview.
"I won all seven swing states," Trump claimed. This statement is accurate; he won all seven, but it's important to note that he did so by winning counties within these states, not all of the counties themselves. He won the popular vote by a margin of 49.8% to 48.3% against Kamala Harris. While he won the popular vote by receiving 49.8% of the vote to Harris's 48.3%, he won the electoral college by a mere 86 votes, with 312 electoral votes to Harris's 226.
Trump also stated, "Their economy is gone. Their inflation is at 300% or something like that." However, recent reports indicate that Iran's inflation rate was 84% by the end of August, and the country's currency has plummeted to a record low, with 1.2 million rials now required to purchase a single U.S. dollar. While the price of food has indeed skyrocketed, and Iran's currency has hit a record low against the U.S. dollar, the claim that inflation is at 300% appears to be an exaggeration.
When asked why many believed the war in Iran would be over in four to six weeks, Trump responded, "I think the press fed it to them." This comment suggests a mistrust of media coverage, but it does not provide any factual basis for the claim. Trump was responding to the timeline of Operation Epic Fury, which began on February 28 and was initially expected to last four to five weeks.
Written by urgent.news from Time's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
