AP fact check: Trump's shift on a concrete border wall

Politics Jan 28, 2019 10:12 AM EST

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A look at the rhetoric and the facts:

TARIFFS

TRUMP: “We have billions of dollars coming into our treasury — billions — from China. We never had 10 cents coming into our treasury; now we have billions coming in.” — remarks at a meeting with Republican lawmakers Thursday.

THE FACTS: This is wildly off base. The notion that the U.S. suddenly has revenue coming in from tariffs, thanks to his trade war, defies history that goes back to the founding of the republic. President George Washington signed the Tariff Act into law in 1789 — the first major act of Congress — and duties from imports were a leading source of revenue for the government before the advent of the modern tax system early in the 20th Century. Tariffs on goods specifically from China are not remotely new, either. They are simply higher in some cases than they were before.

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ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

TRUMP: “There are at least 25,772,342 illegal aliens, not the 11,000,000 that have been reported for years, in our Country. So ridiculous! DHS.” — tweet Sunday.

THE FACTS: It’s not that high, according to his own Homeland Security secretary as well as independent estimates. The nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center estimates 10.7 million immigrants were living in the U.S. illegally in 2016, the most recent data available. Advocacy groups on both sides of the immigration issue have similar estimates.

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THE WALL

TRUMP: “These barriers are made of steel, have see-through visibility, which is very important. …We do not need 2,000 miles of concrete wall from sea to shining sea. We never did. We never proposed that. We never wanted that, because we have barriers at the border where natural structures are as good as anything that we can build.” — remarks Friday in Rose Garden.

THE FACTS: Actually, he did pledge a wall made of concrete along the southern border. It’s true he did not say there needed to be 2,000 miles of it.

For example, in a Jan. 18, 2016, speech in New Hampshire, Trump said: “No windows, no nothing, precast concrete going very high. Let’s see about concrete going very high.”

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Full article:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-trumps-shift-on-a-concrete-border-wall