Debunked claim: John Deere denies that President Trump's account of preserving American jobs through tariff intimidation is factually accurate.
He stated that as retaliation for his threat to levy substantial taxes on John Deere if they proceeded with their intention to transfer some production from the U.S. to Mexico, the company had announced it was likely abandoning that relocation plan.
Trump said: "Alright, John Deere, fantastic company. They announced around a year ago they'd construct significant facilities outside the U.S. Right? They'll build them in Mexico... I said, 'If John Deere constructs those plants, they won't sell anything in the U.S.' They announced yesterday they might not construct the plants, alright? I kept the jobs here."
However, a search through news articles and corporate press releases revealed no such John Deere announcement the day prior. In response to Trump's story, a John Deere representative told The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News that they hadn't altered their plans or made any such announcements.
The Trump campaign didn't respond to CNN's request for evidence supporting Trump's story.
Trump has spun numerous fabricated yarns within the past few weeks. Apart from the John Deere story, the Republican presidential candidate made at least 19 false statements during the public interview at the Economic Club of Chicago, moderated by John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News.
Trump, attacking Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration, again misrepresented a set of recently released data about immigrants in the U.S. with homicide convictions, claiming these figures represented individuals who entered the country during the Biden-Harris administration.
In actuality, these figures encompass people who entered the country over a span of decades, including during Trump's tenure, not just under Biden and Harris. Moreover, these figures include individuals currently incarcerated in federal, state, and local prisons and jails.
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Trump, discussing rioters at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, reiterated his false assertion that "not one of those people had a gun." Court proceedings have established that multiple rioters possessed guns – in addition to stun guns, knives, chemical sprays, and numerous other weapons.
Trump incorrectly stated that the peaceful rally he addressed prior to the Capitol riot attracted "five, six, seven hundred people." He dramatically overestimated the number of participants. The Justice Department reported earlier this month that around 1,532 defendants had been implicated in charges related to the Capitol attack. The FBI stated in 2021 that approximately 2,000 individuals were believed to have been involved with the siege, and the actual number might be substantially higher.
Trump erroneously claimed that there was "no inflation" during his four-year presidency. Inflation during Trump's term was approximately 8%.
Trump also erroneously claimed, "Biden went two years with no inflation, because he inherited it from me. And then they started spending money like crazy sailors." Cumulative inflation during Biden's first two years as president was approximately 14%, and inflation escalated sharply in Biden's initial months as president in 2021. In fact, the peak for year-over-year inflation, about 9.1%, happened within Biden's first two years as president.
Trump correctly stated that he appointed three Supreme Court justices, but he falsely asserted, "Most presidents don't even get to put a Supreme Court judge in." Only four presidents never got to appoint a Supreme Court justice, with three of these presidents serving less than a full term.
Trump repeated his false claim that American importers paid "hundreds of billions of dollars just from China alone" due to tariffs. However, firms are the ones making the actual tariff payments, not China, and research shows that Americans absorbed the vast majority of the cost of Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods.
Trump repeated his false claim that no prior president imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, saying, "Not one president charged China anything." The U.S. was generating billions annually in revenue from tariffs on Chinese goods even before Trump took office, and the U.S. has levied tariffs on Chinese items since 1789. Moreover, Trump specifically accused President Barack Obama of not "charging" China tariffs, while Obama actually imposed additional tariffs on Chinese goods.
Engaging with the EU: Trump vividly asserted towards the EU: "Farm products – you comprehend, they don't desire our produce – they don't want anything from us." The United States shipped over $639 billion worth of combined goods and services to the EU in 2024. The administration declares that the EU served as the fifth-largest 2023 export market for American agricultural and related products, trailing behind China, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
The trade discrepancy with the EU: Trump erroneously proclaimed the U.S. holds a "trade deficit of $300 billion with the EU"; he then augmented the figure to " $350 billion." The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with the EU amounted to approximately $125 billion in 2024. Even considering goods trade independently and excluding services, the 2024 deficit was around $201 billion.
Venezuela and migration: Trump reiterated his unfounded claim that Venezuela intentionally empties its jails to dispatch criminals as migrants to the U.S., subsequently introducing an additional false allegation that "Venezuelan authorities load up the buses and they drive them into the United States, and they're dropping their prisoners into our country."
Specialists from CNN, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org have confided that they have no evidence corroborating Venezuela's relocation of prisoners for migration motives; Trump has never substantiated his claim, let alone this new claim about Venezuelan authorities transporting criminals into the U.S.
The U.S. and NATO: Trump repeated his untrue claim that prior to his presidency, the U.S. was "spending almost 100% for NATO." Official NATO figures expose that in 2017, the last year prior to Trump's inauguration, the U.S. defense spending represented about 71% of total defense spending from NATO members - a substantial majority, but not "almost 100%." And Trump's claim exhibits even more inaccuracy if he was discussing the direct contributions that cater to NATO's organizational expenses, which are allocated according to each nation's gross domestic product; the U.S. was responsible for approximately 22% of those contributions in 2017.
Trump and Nord Stream 2: Trump maintained that, as president, "The first thing I did was cancelled Nord Stream 2," a Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany.
In truth, Trump didn't cancel the pipeline, nor did he do so immediately upon assuming office. In reality, he signed legislation associated with the pipeline into law approximately three years into his tenure, when the pipeline was already approximately 90% complete. The state-owned Russian company behind the project announced in December 2020, during Trump's presidency, that construction was resuming.
Additionally, Trump blemished his false claim that, prior to his opposition, "Nobody ever heard of Nord Stream 2." Nord Stream 2 was a common topic for media, government, and diplomatic discourse before Trump assumed office. In fact, Joe Biden publicly criticized it as vice president in 2016.
Trump and ISIS: Trump reiterated his unfounded claim that "I annihilated ISIS in a matter of weeks; it was supposed to take four to five years, I accomplished it in a matter of weeks." The ISIS "caliphate" was deemed entirely liberated over two years into Trump's presidency.
South Korea's payments for the U.S. military presence: Trump reiterated his untrue claim that before his presidency, South Korea "paid absolutely nothing" for the U.S. military presence there. He claimed that when he pressed South Korea to contribute, the country responded, "We will not. We haven't paid since the Korean War."
South Korea has been supporting the U.S. military presence for decades. In 2014, over two years before Trump assumed office, South Korea agreed to pay the U.S. around $867 million that year and subsequently, through 2018, to increase the contributions annually based on the rate of inflation. The Congressional Research Service wrote in a 2024 report: "In the past, South Korea usually paid for 40%-50% (over $800 million annually) of the total non-personnel costs of maintaining the U.S. troop presence in South Korea."
U.S. troops in South Korea: Trump falsely claimed, as he has before, that "we have '40,000 troops' in South Korea."
Pentagon statistics corroborate that Trump's figure is an overestimation, whether he was discussing troop levels under Biden or the situation when he took office. As of June 30, 2025, there were 27,076 U.S. military personnel in South Korea, including civilians employed by the Department of Defense, according to those official statistics; as of December 31, 2016, less than a month before Trump assumed office, it was 26,878.
Trump's negotiations with South Korea: Trump falsely claimed that following his demand for South Korea to pay $5 billion annually for the U.S. military presence there, "they agreed to $2 (billion); I obtained $2 billion for nothing." In reality, the one-year agreement that South Korea consented to in 2019 amounted to approximately $925 million, not $2 billion; Trump, who continued to seek exceedingly high sums, was unable to secure a longer-term agreement during his tenure.
Biden's arrangement with South Korea: Trump once more spouted his misleading assertion that under Biden, South Korea is once again shelling out "nothing" for the U.S. military presence, commenting, "Since it went back to Biden, they handed it to them for nothing."
In actuality, South Korea agreed to shell out more for the U.S. military presence under Biden and Harris than they had during the Trump era. Finishing off the negotiations initiated under Trump, South Korea consented to a 13.9% boost in payments for 2021 – resulting in a payment of approximately $1 billion – as well as additional increases from 2022 to 2025 that were linked to South Korea's defense budget increase.
The two nations reached a preliminary understanding this month for another agreement covering the period from 2026 to 2030, which would kick off with a 8.3% increase in comparison to the 2025 payment.
Despite Trump's claim that John Deere announced they might abandon their relocation plan due to his threats, a John Deere representative denied any change in their plans. (from the text)
Trump's involvement in politics often involves making controversial statements and claims that are not factually accurate. (assuming from the context)
