Do you remember Donald Trump’s first presidential announcement speech, made 10 years ago today?
He entered the room via a Trump Tower escalator ride with wife Melania. He insulted Mexicans as rapists bringing drugs and crime, belatedly noting “some, I assume, are good people.” He described the U.S. as the loser laughingstock of the world, and said he would use his deal-making prowess to land better trade deals, fix immigration, repeal Obamacare and stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Ten years and three campaigns later, Trump’s off-the-cuff style, his ease with insults or his propensity for lying remain trademarks. His introductory speech may feel like typical fare now, but it defined a new era where false claims are more frequent and more brazen.
Trump entered a Republican field known for policy depth, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. (The man Trump derided as “little Marco” is now his secretary of state.) Voters preferred Trump’s brash approach and vague but provocative ideas on the economy and foreign policy.
As I reread the speechI’m struck by Trump’s consistency. On immigration and trade, his 2015 policy vision has evolved into breakneck 2025 implementation.
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Trump didn’t keep his promise that day to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. But in this presidency, he’s taking more action and affecting more people to further his mass deportations campaign promise. This broad approach affects people in the country illegally — not just criminals, but people who were apprehended at check-ins and appointments toward making their immigration legal.
Trump has ended legal pathways to the U.S., suspending refugee admissions and revoking Temporary Protected Status for people from Afghanistan and humanitarian parole from nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
Trump famously and falsely accused the Mexican government of not “sending their best” people. He’s been saying the same in recent years about Venezuela. His accusation that the Venezuelan government colluded with criminal gangs against the U.S. is the basis of the “invasion” he declared in March, allowing him to launch swift deportations of migrants to other countries, including a megaprison in El Salvador, without due process.
Uproar against the administration’s immigration crackdown was front-and-center in the “no kings” protests across the country this weekend, held the same day as Trump’s military parade to honor the Army’s 250th anniversary.
Trump 10 years ago opened his speech with points about trade with China, Mexico and Japan.
“When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal?” he said. “They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time.”
Cut to Trump’s second-term trade war of second-term tariffs on China that reached 145% (Trump said the U.S. rate will be lowered to 55%) and baseline rates of 10% imposed on U.S. imports from virtually every country.
Another regular feature of Trump’s rhetoric: telling people not to believe government statistics, because federal officials in liberal administrations are cooking the books. “Our real unemployment is anywhere from 18 to 20 percent. Don’t believe the 5.6,” Trump falsely said of the Obama economy.
Trump revived this approach in his 2024 campaign, miscasting a regular annual effort by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to fine-tune its jobs data as evidence that the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration tried to cover up more than 800,000 lost jobs.
We’re closing in on having published 1,100 rated claims from Trump, including 203 Pants on Fires for ridiculously false statements like that one, since the Trump Tower campaign launch.
The debut wasn’t just talk. It was the cornerstone of policymaking for the MAGA era.
When policies aren’t based on accuracy, fact-checking organizations like ours step in with context and corrections. With more than three years to go in his second term, the most fact-checked leader in the U.S. won’t be relinquishing the title anytime soon.
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