31 Ways of Looking Like a Jerk

1

He said a supportive crowd chanted, “Let him speak!” when a black pastor in Flint, Mich., asked Mr. Trump not to give a political speech in the church.

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 15.

There were no such chants.

2

“I was against going into the war in Iraq.”

SPEECH IN FLORIDA, SEPT. 19.

This is not getting any truer with repetition. He never publicly expressed opposition to the war before it began, and he made supportive remarks to Howard Stern.

3

He said any supportive comments he made about the Iraq war came “long before” the war began.

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 18.

He expressed support for the war in September 2002, when Congress was debating whether to authorize military action.

4

He said he had publicly opposed the Iraq war in an Esquire interview “pretty quickly after the war started.”

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 18.

The Esquire interview appeared in the August 2004 edition, 17 months after the war began.

5

Before the Iraq invasion, he said, he had told the Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto something “pretty close” to: “Don’t go in, and don’t make the mistake of going in.”

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 18.

Not remotely close. He told Mr. Cavuto that President George W. Bush had to take decisive action.

6

He said that when Howard Stern asked him about Iraq in 2002, it was “the first time the word Iraq was ever mentioned to me.”

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 18.

Mr. Trump expressed alarm about Saddam Hussein and the situation in Iraq in 2000 in his own book.

7

“You see what’s happening with my poll numbers with African-Americans. They’re going, like, high.”

SPEECH IN NORTH CAROLINA, SEPT. 20; MADE SAME CLAIM IN OHIO, SEPT. 21.

Polls show him winning virtually no support from African-Americans.

8

“Almost, it seems, everybody agrees” with his position on immigration.

REMARKS IN TEXAS, SEPT. 17.

Most Americans oppose his signature positions on immigration.

9

He has made “a lot of progress” with Hispanic and black voters, and “you see that in the polls.”

FRED DICKER RADIO SHOW, SEPT. 15.

No major poll has shown him making up significant ground with black or Hispanic voters.

10

He was “never a fan” of Colin Powell.

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 18.

In his book “The America We Deserve,” he named Mr. Powell as among the “best and brightest”in American society.

11

Mr. Trump said that after The Times published an article scrutinizing his relationships with women, “All the women came out and said they think Donald Trump is terrific.”

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 18.

Only one woman who was quoted in the article came to his defense after its publication.

12

“Unlike other people” who only raise money for themselves during presidential campaigns, he also raises money for the Republican Party.

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 15.

Every presidential nominee forms a joint fund-raising agreement to share money with his or her national party.

13

In the primaries, Mr. Kasich “won one and, by the way, didn’t win it by much — that was Ohio.”

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 19.

Mr. Kasich crushed him in Ohio, winning by 11 percentage points.

14

Lester Holt, the NBC anchor and debate moderator, “is a Democrat.”

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 19.

Mr. Holt is a registered Republican, New York City records show.

15

The presidential debate moderators “are all Democrats.” “It’s a very unfair system.”

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW, SEPT. 19.

Only one, Chris Wallace of Fox News, is a registered Democrat.

16

He said it “hasn’t been reported” that Mrs. Clinton called some Trump supporters “deplorable.”

SPEECH IN NORTH CAROLINA, SEPT. 20.

It would be difficult to find a news organization that didn’t report her remark.

17

“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it.”

REMARKS IN WASHINGTON, SEPT. 16.

Mrs. Clinton and her campaign never publicly questioned President Obama’s birthplace; Mr. Trump made it his signature cause for five years.

18

Mrs. Clinton had “the power and the duty” to stop the release of unauthorized immigrants whose home countries would not accept their deportation after they were released from prison.

NUMEROUS SPEECHES, INCLUDING IN COLORADO, SEPT. 17, AND FLORIDA, SEPT. 19.

The secretary of state does not have the power to detain convicted criminals after they have served their sentences, and has little power to make foreign countries accept deportees.

19

Mrs. Clinton has not criticized jihadists and foreign governments that oppress and kill women, gay people and non-Muslims. “Has Hillary Clinton ever called people who support these practices deplorable and irredeemable? No.”

SPEECH IN FLORIDA, SEPT. 19.

She has denounced jihadists and foreign countries on the same grounds, if not necessarily using the same words.

20

“Do people notice Hillary is copying my airplane rallies — she puts the plane behind her like I have been doing from the beginning.” 

TWITTER, SEPT. 20.

He did not invent the tarmac rally or the campaign-plane backdrop.

21

Mrs. Clinton destroyed 13 smartphones with a hammer while she was secretary of state.

SPEECHES IN FLORIDA, SEPT. 15 AND SEPT. 19.

An aide told the F.B.I. of only two occasions in which phones were destroyed with a hammer.

22

He said Mrs. Clinton is calling for “total amnesty in the first 100 days,” including “a virtual end to immigration enforcement” and for unauthorized immigrants to receive Social Security and Medicare.

SPEECH IN COLORADO, SEPT. 17.

She has not proposed this.

23

Mrs. Clinton is “effectively proposing to abolish the borders around the country.”

NUMEROUS SPEECHES, INCLUDING IN TEXAS, SEPT. 17.

She is not even proposing to cut funding for the Border Patrol.

24

“Hillary Clinton’s plan would bring in 620,000 refugees in her first term alone,” and would cost $400 billion.

NUMEROUS SPEECHES, INCLUDING IN NORTH CAROLINA, SEPT. 20.

She endorsed admitting 65,000 Syrian refugees this year, on top of other admissions. Mr. Trump is falsely claiming that she wants to do this every year and is estimating the cost accordingly.

25

“Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they’ve ever been in before — ever, ever, ever.”

SPEECH IN NORTH CAROLINA, SEPT. 20.

No measurement supports this characterization of black America.

26

Fifty-eight percent of black youth are not working.

NUMEROUS SPEECHES, INCLUDING IN FLORIDA, SEPT. 16, AND COLORADO, SEPT. 17.

This misleading statistic counts high school students as out of work. Black youth unemployment actually was 20.6 percent in July.

27

Many dangerous refugees are being welcomed by the Obama administration. “Hundreds of thousands of people are being approved to pour into the country. We have no idea who they are.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE SPEECH, SEPT. 15.

The Obama administration has admitted more than 10,000 Syrian refugees, using an extensive screening process.

28

“We have cities that are far more dangerous than Afghanistan.”

NUMEROUS SPEECHES, INCLUDING IN FLORIDA, SEPT. 16; COLORADO, SEPT. 17; NORTH CAROLINA, SEPT. 20; OHIO, SEPT. 21; AND A FOX NEWS INTERVIEW ON SEPT. 21.

No American city resembles a war zone, though crime has risen lately in some, like Chicago. Urban violence has fallen precipitously over the past 25 years.

29

Ford plans to cut American jobs by relocating small-car production to Mexico, and may move all production outside the United States.

FOX NEWS INTERVIEW AND NEW HAMPSHIRE SPEECH, SEPT. 15.

Mark Fields, Ford’s chief executive, said it was not cutting American jobs.

30

“We have a trade deficit this year with China of approximately $500 billion.”

NORTH CAROLINA SPEECH, SEPT. 20.

He has made this claim repeatedly, but the trade deficit with China is significantly smaller.

31

Senator Bernie Sanders fell victim to “a rigged system with the superdelegates.”

SPEECHES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, SEPT. 15, AND NORTH CAROLINA, SEPT. 20.

Mr. Sanders did not lose the Democratic nomination because of superdelegates. Mrs. Clinton beat him in pledged delegates, too.

[Fact check of Donald Trump's public statements, from Sept. 15-21 only]