{"id":136204,"date":"2025-05-04T22:21:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/fact-checking-donald-trumps-may-interview-with-meet-the-press-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T22:21:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T22:21:00","slug":"fact-checking-donald-trumps-may-interview-with-meet-the-press-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/fact-checking-donald-trumps-may-interview-with-meet-the-press-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact-checking Donald Trump's May interview with 'Meet the Press' – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump\u2019s wide-ranging interview with NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker tackled virtually every major policy issue the White House has touched in the more than three months since he took office again.
The pair discussed a broad variety of economic issues, including inflation, Trump\u2019s tariffs and cryptocurrency \u2014 as well as the question of whether Trump was profiting off the presidency. They also delved into immigration issues during the hour-plus conversation, looking at border crossings, deportations and questions about due process, as well as budget issues, including how much money Trump\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency has saved and whether Medicaid will see cuts.
The sit-down comes just after Trump marked his first 100 days in office, with the president discussing what he sees as his accomplishments during that time as well as what he expects from the next 100 days and beyond. But Trump at times bent the facts on various issues, either making outright false or misleading claims or, at other times, mischaracterizing data or other information.
Here are some of the more notable instances arranged by topic.
Trump said, \u201cI was able to get down the costs. But even that, it takes awhile to get them down. But we got them down good.\u201d
Later in the interview he said, \u201coil is down, gasoline is down, groceries are down, eggs.\u201d And at another point, Trump said that \u201ceven mortgage rates are going down.\u201d
This is partly true.
It is true that consumer price growth \u2014 a key inflation measure \u2014 has cooled during the first few months of Trump\u2019s term, continuing a steady decline that traces back to the Biden administration. But some of the individual items that Trump referenced have not.
The latest figures, for March, showed that the consumer price index slowed to an annual rate of 2.4%<\/a>, less than expected and below the 2.8% that came in the month before<\/a>, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In addition, a 12-month measure of price growth that excludes volatile food and energy prices climbed 2.8%, the smallest annual increase for that so-called core reading since March 2021, according to BLS data. Inflation rose just 0.1% between February and March \u2014 below the 0.2% monthly reading seen in February.
However, economists have expressed broad concerns<\/a> that Trump\u2019s tariff agenda could bring renewed price increases or inflation. Several major companies, including Stanley Black & Decker and Procter & Gamble, have said they will raise prices or have already started to raise prices.
Meanwhile, government and economic data also shows that the price of crude oil<\/a> has declined consistently in the months since Trump took office \u2014 in part on concerns about slowing economic growth. However, on average across the nation, the prices of gasoline<\/a> have not consistently gone down since Trump took office, according<\/a> to economic and government data.<\/a>
Trump added specific details to his claims on lower gasoline prices, saying, \u201cDid you see gasoline is now below, in many cases, in many states, below $2 a gallon? $1.98, $1.99, $1.97?\u201d
Wholesale gasoline<\/a> did hit $1.98 in the past week, but that\u2019s not the number that reflects what U.S. consumers are paying at the pump. AAA\u2019s fuel prices data<\/a> on Friday showed that no state had an average gasoline price below $2.66 a gallon, which was the average price listed in Mississippi. The organization\u2019s national gasoline price average as of Friday was $3.18 a gallon.
Prices of groceries<\/a> also have not declined. And the retail price of eggs also remains stubbornly high, according to the most recent government data<\/a>, but it has come down off the peak in many places. It is also true that the wholesale price of eggs has declined, though that has not yet affected the retail prices that consumers pay at the grocery store.
Mortgage rates have fluctuated over the last year, but only by small margins, and have also remained elevated compared to their historic lows during the Covid-19 pandemic. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.76% for the week ending May 1 \u2014 roughly the same level it was during November and December, slightly lower than January and slightly higher than March, according to Freddie Mac.<\/a>
At another point, Trump said, \u201cWhat about the car business? They\u2019re going to make a fortune because of the tariffs.\u201d
This is too early to know.
Even after Trump carved out a break for<\/a> U.S. automakers on some of his most sweeping tariffs, many car companies continue to say they\u2019re likely to take a massive financial hit because of the policy. General Motors CEO Mary Barra, for example, said in a letter to investors on Thursday that Trump\u2019s tariffs could subtract as much as $5 billion<\/a> from the company\u2019s profits this year.
Other major U.S. car manufacturers have praised Trump for revising his tariffs on automakers in recent days, even as their financial outlook remains cloudy<\/a>. Auto industry analysts have told NBC News<\/a> that car prices could increase this summer as tariffs begin to take effect.
In the interview, Trump denied that he was profiting from the presidency.
Welker asked him specifically about his cryptocurrency token, called $TRUMP. In a two-day span last month, Trump and his allies made nearly $900,000 in trading fees from that token, <\/a>according to blockchain data company Chainalysis.
The spike followed an announcement on the coin\u2019s official website that the top 220 holders of the token were promised dinner with the president<\/a>.
Welker, referring to that situation, asked Trump to respond to the notion that he is \u201cprofiting from the presidency.\u201d
Trump replied, \u201cI\u2019m not profiting from anything.\u201d
Welker pressed Trump again, asking him, \u201cSo you\u2019re not profiting off of the cryptocurrency at all?\u201d
\u201cI haven\u2019t even looked,\u201d Trump replied, adding that \u201cif I own stock in something, and I do a good job, and the stock market goes up, I guess I\u2019m profiting.\u201d
The $TRUMP coin jumped more than 50% on the dinner news<\/a>. About 80% of the $TRUMP token supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliates, according to the project\u2019s website.
Campaign finance and government accountability experts told NBC News last week that the coin and dinner scenario marked an ethics breach \u2014 though it was unlikely there was anything illegal about it. But some Republican lawmakers who are Trump allies have expressed concern<\/a>, while prominent critics, including Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have urged the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to investigate.
Trump and members of his family have faced<\/a> repeated accusations<\/a> dating back<\/a> to Trump\u2019s first term that they profited<\/a> from his presidency. Republicans have typically defended them as unremarkable continuations of Trump\u2019s long business career.
At another point, Trump said that \u201cin just a short period of time \u2014 a matter of a couple of months \u2014 we have the largest number ever in history invested in the United States and committed.\u201d
\u201cWe have between, guaranteed, spoken for and people that are going to make a decision and announce it pretty soon, close to $9 trillion.\u201d
It\u2019s not entirely clear where the $9 trillion figure comes from, although the White House announced on April 29 that it had<\/a> secured more than $5 trillion in new investments in the U.S. so far in Trump\u2019s second term.
Those include the announcement of a $500 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing by Apple<\/a>, which Trump referred to in his interview, as well as $500 billion investment plans announced by NVIDIA and by a coalition of companies including SoftBank and Oracle.
These investments, however, effectively amount to promises, and some announcements have included previously disclosed plans. And they can change with economic conditions and other economic factors.
Trump claimed that the trade deficit under Biden meant that \u201cwe lost 5 to 6 billion dollars a day.\u201d
This is a mischaracterization of the data: The annual trade deficit for the U.S. in 2024 was about $918 billion<\/a>, according to government figures. Sliced up in an average daily rate, that would be about $2.5 billion a day \u2014 less than Trump\u2019s claims.
More importantly, however, trade experts take issue with Trump\u2019s characterization of a trade deficit as \u201closing\u201d money. A trade deficit refers to when a country is buying more goods and services from another nation than it is selling back to that nation. While it is integrally related to manufacturing, it has nothing to do with the concept of a nation making or losing money, and economic experts have explained that a trade deficit doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the U.S. is losing money.<\/a>
On multiple occasions Trump referred to violent criminals who were in the country illegally \u2014 explaining that he was elected to kick them out of the country.
\u201cOne of the primary reasons I was elected was to get people out of our country that were allowed. We have prisoners. We have murderers. We have terrorists in our country. We have people from mental institutions that are seriously insane. They all came in through Biden\u2019s open border policy. And I was elected to get them out and to seal the border,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cThese are really some really bad, criminal people, and they\u2019re here illegally.\u201d
He added later that there were \u201c11,888 murderers\u201d in the U.S. illegally and that \u201cmany people have been killed, maimed, badly hurt by illegal immigrants that came over.\u201d
Instances of crimes committed by people who entered the country illegally have garnered significant attention in recent years, in part from Trump. One of the few pieces of legislation he has signed this year was the Laken Riley Act, named after a nursing student who was killed by a Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally. The act requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants who have been arrested, charged with or convicted of certain criminal offenses. However, there is no evidence of a broad, migrant-driven crime wave in the U.S.
Violent crime has declined<\/a>, according to the latest available data. Violent crime was down about 3% from 2022 to 2023, and property crime took a similar drop of 2.4%, the FBI reported in September.<\/a> The most serious crimes, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, dropped an estimated 11.6% \u2014 marking the largest single-year decline in two decades. Several years of national data<\/a> show that crime has consistently been falling in cities and towns across the U.S.<\/a>
There is little hard data about levels of crime committed by migrants once they\u2019re inside the U.S. But criminologists have consistently found that immigrants<\/a> commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans.
As far as the 11,888 figure, Trump appears to be describing the existing data inaccurately. According to ICE data provided to Congress in September,<\/a> more than 13,000 noncitizens who were convicted of homicide here or abroad were living outside of ICE detention centers.<\/a> However, it\u2019s not truthful to cast all of their entries into the U.S. as recent or due to Biden policies.
It\u2019s not clear when many of these migrants crossed into the U.S. But they would have entered the country over the last four decades, or even earlier, according to the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>. The number includes noncitizens incarcerated in state and federal prisons, but it\u2019s not clear how many are.
Trump blamed \u201cactivist judges\u201d for ruling that \u201cyou don\u2019t have the right to take out murderers and \u2014 and people that you don\u2019t even want to talk about.\u201d
\u201cThese are really some really bad, criminal people. And they\u2019re here illegally. So, you know they talk about \u2014 your next question will be due process. But they talk about due process, but do you get due process when you\u2019re here illegally?\u201d Trump continued.
During another point in the interview, Welker asked Trump specifically about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a prison in El Salvador in March. A federal judge, an appeals court and the Supreme Court have all ordered the administration <\/a>to \u201cfacilitate\u201d Abrego Garcia\u2019s return. Lawyers for the Justice Department have acknowledged in court filings that the deportation was a mistake because an immigration judge had ruled that while Abrego Garcia could be deported, he could not be sent back to his native El Salvador. But administration officials have also said that because Abrego Garcia is in custody in El Salvador, the United States does not have the legal authority to bring him back.
\u201cThis is the point, sir, about due process,\u201d Welker said. \u201cThe Constitution says every person, citizens and noncitizens, deserve due process. Why not push to have him come back, present all of that evidence in court, let a judge decide,\u201d Welker asked.
Trump replied, \u201cI\u2019ll leave that to the lawyers, and I\u2019ll leave that to the attorney general of the United States.\u201d
This topic requires a lot of context.
But ultimately, legal scholars \u2014 as well as Trump\u2019s secretary of state, Marco Rubio \u2014 widely agree<\/a> that the Fifth Amendment\u2019s \u201cdue process\u201d clause applies to all people in the U.S.
In its efforts to deport some immigrants it claims are in the country illegally, the Trump administration has made novel legal arguments or cited laws that have not previously been used for peacetime immigration enforcement to try to implement immediate deportations without hearings. In several recent orders, however, the Supreme Court has ruled that these immigrants are entitled to what can be interpreted as due process rights.
For example, the Trump administration has pressed the courts<\/a> to allow the immediate deportations of immigrants it accuses <\/a>of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang under the Alien Enemies Act, without giving them a chance to plead their case before a judge.
In that case, the Supreme Court asked the administration to pause the deportations<\/a> of some of those Venezuelan men after attorneys for the men asked for them not to be deported \u201cbefore the American judicial system can afford them due process.\u201d The Supreme Court also ruled earlier in April to allow the Trump administration<\/a> to move forward with some deportations under the AEA as long as detainees \u201creceive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act.\u201d
There have been other examples, however, of the Trump administration moving forward on deportations and visa revocations without due process. For example, the administration has revoked more than 300 student visas<\/a>. In some of those cases, students have been apprehended and held in detention centers with little warning and few details about why they were being held.
Rubio has defended the administration\u2019s deportation efforts, but told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d last week, \u201cYes, of course,\u201d after he was asked whether citizens and noncitizens in the U.S. are entitled to due process.
In Welker\u2019s interview with Trump, she pointed out Rubio\u2019s comments, saying that \u201cyour secretary of state says everyone who\u2019s here, citizens and noncitizens, deserve due process.\u201d
\u201cDo you agree?\u201d she asked.
Trump replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not \u2014 I\u2019m not a lawyer.\u201d
Referring to the Fifth Amendment, he added, \u201cit seems \u2014 it might say that, but if you\u2019re talking about that, then we\u2019d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials. We have thousands of people that are, some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth.\u201d
\u201cAnd I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,\u201d Trump said.
Trump also said, \u201cWe have the best border in the history of our country.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s really secure,\u201d Trump added at another point.
\u201cIsn\u2019t it a beautiful thing when you say, \u2018It\u2019s the most secure it\u2019s ever been in the history of our country,\u2019\u201d Trump said.
Using the metric of border crossings and the available data, this statement is true.
The number of border crossers has plummeted, according to ICE data NBC News obtained in March.<\/a> Encounters along the border were the lowest they have been since tracking began 25 years ago, that data showed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said last month that March marked<\/a> the \u201clowest southwest border crossings in history.\u201d
In the interview, Welker acknowledged that \u201cborder crossings are at their lowest level ever recorded.\u201d
Other data also showed that ICE agents deported fewer immigrants in February than they did under the Biden administration during the same month a year ago.
Trump said his Department of Government Efficiency, the division led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that was tasked with cutting federal spending and staffing<\/a>, \u201cfound $160 billion worth of fraud, waste and abuse.\u201d
That number is all but impossible to fact-check, largely because DOGE\u2019s own, evolving accounting of<\/a> its work has been laden with errors<\/a> and misleading claims, NBC News previously reported. Musk has acknowledged that his team has made mistakes and will make more, but he said they will strive to correct them.
The group\u2019s purported savings figure also doesn\u2019t take into account<\/a> the expenses related to its work.
In addition, multiple news outlets, including The New York Times<\/a> and CBS News<\/a>, have cited an analysis from the the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service stating that \u201cfirings, re-hirings, lost productivity and paid leave of thousands of workers\u201d brought on by DOGE\u2019s actions will actually cost at least $135 billion in the current fiscal year \u2014 which would approximately offset the alleged savings in that period, pushing any potential benefit down the road. A White House spokesperson responded to the analysis by telling The New York Times, \u201cIt\u2019s important to realize that doing nothing has a cost.\u201d
Separately, in a conversation about Trump\u2019s sweeping tax bill that Republicans are currently drafting, he said he would veto it if it had cuts to Medicaid.
\u201cWhat happens if it comes to your desk, has the tax cuts, but also cuts to Medicaid? Would you veto that?\u201d Welker asked.
Trump initially said, \u201cWell, we\u2019re not doing that,\u201d before adding, \u201cI would if they were cutting it, but they\u2019re not cutting it.\u201d
\u201cWe\u2019re not cutting Medicaid, we\u2019re not cutting Medicare, and we\u2019re not cutting Social Security,\u201d Trump added.
It\u2019s too early to know exactly where this will go, as the specifics of Republicans\u2019 big tax and spending bill have not yet been released.
Republicans, however, have clashed over whether and how to cut Medicaid \u2014 and the program appears to be the one major slice of the U.S. budget that GOP lawmakers have put on the table for cuts<\/a>. Some House Republicans, for example, are suggesting slashing federal funding for Medicaid and advocating for states to jump in to cover more of it. That policy is known as reducing the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP.
Referring to the 2020 race that he lost to Joe Biden, Trump said that \u201cthe election was rigged \u2014 the facts are in and it\u2019s still being litigated.\u201d
This is false.
Trump lost the 2020 election, and allegations made by him and many of his political allies claiming widespread voter fraud during that race have been repeatedly debunked, disproven and rejected, including in courts across the U.S.
Welker pointed that out in the interview, noting to Trump, \u201cYou did take your case to court more than 60 times and didn\u2019t win those cases.\u201d
Trump also said the Teamsters union endorsed his 2024 presidential bid, which isn\u2019t true.
\u201cThe Teamsters did,\u201d he said, during a discussion about other union heads who didn\u2019t endorse him, as well as supportive comments<\/a> about his tariffs from the head of the United Auto Workers (who also did not endorse Trump).
The Teamsters declined to endorse a candidate for president<\/a> in 2024 \u2014 though that itself broke precedent.
It was the first time in decades that the union, which at 1.3 million members is one of the largest in the world, hasn\u2019t backed a candidate in the presidential election. The Teamsters, which represents truck drivers, freight workers and others, had for decades endorsed Democratic presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton<\/a> in 2016, Joe Biden<\/a> in 2020, Barack Obama<\/a> in both of his presidential runs<\/a>, John Kerry in 2004<\/a> and Al Gore in 2000.<\/a> The union released data indicating support for Trump among its membership when it announced it would not be endorsing in the 2024 race.
Teamsters President Sean O\u2019Brien also spoke last year at the Republican convention, where he challenged the GOP on union support<\/a>.
Adam Edelman is a politics reporter for NBC News.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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