Throughout the election cycle, fact-checkers shined the statements of Donald Trump up to the light for all to see, and found many of his bombastic comments to be -- outside of incendiary in nature -- false. On Friday, he addressed the nation for the first time as the 45th president of the country. So did anything he say during his inaugural address ring true?
Ringing true about education and war spending
While using some of his trademark hyperbole, Trump made a comment about how much spending is put into the education system of the country and how much comes out of that.
The country spends around $11,700 for each student at the elementary and secondary education levels, which would rank third in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Test scores rank the country towards the low-end of this organization, though, speaking to a true claim about education spending not proving to be beneficial in its current structure.
Trump also claimed the country has "spent trillions of dollars overseas," a reference to war spending. Estimates for the spending in Iraq and Afghanistan right now are all over the place, but almost every analysis pegs it somewhere in the trillions -- another true statement from the Donald.
American workers and American attendees don't add up
One of the lighter moments of the address came when Trump cited a number in the eight digits of the people who came to support his movement. While he may have been referring to the popular vote (which he lost) rather than the size of the inaugration crowd, the popularly circulated photos show sparse crowds compared to the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama, which barely exceeded a million people.
On a technicality, let's call this statement false.
Additionally, he made a comment about bringing in more jobs and buying more American goods. Trump has no history of doing so with his own businesses. People will point to his meeting with Carrier that supposedly saved outsourced jobs, but the incentive going to the company will pay for automation, according to the CEO -- people are losing their jobs anyhow. So far, this rings false.
From this point forward, it will be up to the American people to hold Donald Trump accountable when he makes his statements -- regardless of if they prove true or false.
