By Daniel Dale, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump made false claims about the war with Iran, the economy and other subjects during public comments at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Many of them have been debunked before. Here’s a quick fact check of the false claims and some others that were misleading or lacked critical context.
This is not intended as a comprehensive list; CNN is still looking into some of the president’s remarks at the meeting.
The war with Iran
Iran’s military capabilities: Trump, speaking of Iran’s military capabilities, said, “Their navy is gone, their air force is gone, everything’s gone.” Though there’s no doubt the US and Israel have significantly degraded Iran’s military capabilities during the war that began in late February, it’s not true that “everything” is gone — as Trump implicitly acknowledged last week when he said, “They have a little ability. Their missiles are 82% gone, we estimate. … Same thing with drones, they’re largely gone but they still have a little capacity.” CNN reported in April that, according to three sources familiar with US intelligence findings, roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers were still intact and thousands of one-way attack drones remained in Iran’s arsenal; CNN reported last week that four sources said US intelligence indicates Iran’s military is reconstituting much faster than initially estimated and that “Iran also still maintains ballistic-missile, drone-attack and anti-air capability despite the serious damage inflicted by US-Israeli strikes, according to recent US intelligence assessments, meaning the quick rebuilding of military production capacity isn’t starting from scratch.”
How Trump describes the war with Iran: Mixing up Iran with Venezuela, Trump spoke about how Americans’ 401(k) balances are high “despite the conflict — I don’t call it a war, I call it a conflict — despite the conflict with Venezuela.” (His subsequent comments made clear he was referring to Iran.) Though Trump has indeed sometimes called the war with Iran a “conflict,” or used other words like “excursion” or “skirmish,” it’s not true that he doesn’t call it a “war.” He has repeatedly called it a war in recent weeks even as he has intermittently insisted he doesn’t use that term; in fact, he called it a war later in this very same Cabinet meeting, noting that the US lost 13 servicemembers “between two wars, two big wars, Venezuela and Iran.”
Prices and the economy
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