CBS News is fact checking some of the statements made by speakers during the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On Thursday, the fourth and final night of the RNC, GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump is addressing the convention. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, Hulk Hogan and Trump’s son, Eric Trump, were among the other speakers.
CBS News is covering the RNC live.
Former President Donald Trump claims “the biggest tax cuts ever” were enacted during his administration: False
Details: The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act does not rank as the largest tax cut in U.S. history when measured by two commonly used metrics. By percentage of GDP, the 2017 tax cuts rank as the eighth largest since 1918, according to a 2017 report by the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the cuts were the fourth-largest since 1940, according to the same report.
By Laura Doan
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claims U.S. destroyed ISIS and caliphate: Misleading
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “We destroyed ISIS and its caliphate.”
Details: The rate at which coalition forces recaptured land from the Islamic State group increased under Trump and by spring of 2019, U.S.-backed forces declared the end of the group’s territorial “caliphate.” But the territorial losses do not mean a full defeat.
In August 2019, the Defense Department inspector general warned in a report that the group had “solidified its insurgent capabilities in Iraq and was resurging in Syria.” The U.S. has around 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of a mission to defeat the group, CBS News reported this year. More than 3,500 American forces are also in Jordan to support the mission, according to a White House statement.
Affiliates of the Islamic State group continue to operate in Afghanistan, Libya and Africa, a May 2024 report from the Congressional Research Service said.
By Laura Doan and James LaPorta
Pompeo claims “not a single Chinese spy balloon” flew across U.S. during Trump administration: False
Pompeo: “Not a single Chinese spy balloon flew across the United States of America. Four years.”
Details: Chinese surveillance balloons were flown over the U.S. at least three times during former President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a senior Biden administration official, as reported by CBS News.
Trump also previously told Fox News Chinese spy balloons “never happened under the Trump administration.”
By Emma Li
