FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims during the Republican midterm convention

President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other Republican officials came together for a two-day convention this week to rally voters in advance of midterm elections in November. But in celebrating their accomplishments, they made several false and misleading claims, many of which have been stated repeatedly during Trump’s second term.

They covered topics including the economy, immigration, healthcare and the 2020 election. Trump spoke both nights and Vance gave the keynote on Thursday.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

Exaggerations about the economy

TRUMP, discussing investment in the U.S.: “We have more money being spent from outside countries and companies — over $20 trillion.”

THE FACTS: Trump has cited increasingly higher number of investments in the U.S. throughout his second term, claiming on Wednesday that the number could go up to $25 trillion. But he has presented no evidence that he has secured this amount of funds from either foreign or domestic sources.

Based on statements from various companies, foreign countries and the White House’s own website, that figure appears to be highly speculative and far higher than the actual sum.

The White House website offers a far lower number, $11.2 trillion, and that figure appears to include some investment commitments made during the Biden administration.

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SCOTT BESSENT, treasury secretary speaking Wednesday: “Under this president, more Americans are working than ever before.”

THE FACTS: This is true, but missing context. The economy adds jobs most months, so U.S. payrolls are constantly hitting new highs. Jobs have increased in the United States 65 of the past 80 years.

In Trump’s second term, however, job growth has slowed considerably. Last year, companies, government agencies and nonprofits added just 9,700 jobs a month — the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. So far this year, they’ve been creating 92,000 jobs a month, considerably better but unimpressive by historical standards.

During President Joe Biden’s four years in office, employers added an average of nearly 329,000 jobs a month. Those totals were inflated by a record-breaking hiring surge in 2021 and 2022 that followed the end of COVID-19 lockdowns. But even in Biden’s last two years — 2023 and 2024 — job growth averaged 166,000 a month.

High interest rates, Trump’s own immigration crackdown and the retirement of Baby Boomers are contributing to lower job growth.

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MIKE JOHNSON, House speaker on Thursday: “At the end of the first Trump administration, the inflation rate was 1.4%. Yeah. But Joe Biden came in and he reversed the policies and brought us to a 40-year high of 9.1% inflation.”

THE FACTS: This is missing context. Inflation was at 1.4% in 2021 as Biden assumed the presidency, having risen from a low of 0.1% in May 2020, two months into the COVID-19 pandemic. It continued to increase steadily in the first 17 months of Biden’s presidency, reaching a peak of 9.1% in June 2022.

However, it had dropped to 2.9% in December 2024 as Biden prepared to leave office. During Trump’s second term so far, inflation rose to a high of 4.2% in May. As of August, it was at 3.4%.

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TRUMP: “The stock market has set 80 all-time record highs.”

THE FACTS: It’s unclear what exact stock market measure Trump is referring to. But the S&P 500 — an index for the biggest public companies in the U.S. — has hit a new record 66 times since the start of Trump’s second term in January 2025, including 27 new highs since the start of this year, per a count from investment research firm CFRA. It’s hit 76 records since the 2024 presidential election. U.S. stocks soared to their last record on Aug. 13, as part of a broader rally driven by a surge in company profits and then-easing oil prices. But renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran, as well as an escalation in supply chain disruptions elsewhere, has led to more market volatility since. This week, for example, the international benchmark for crude oil soared past the $100 mark for the first time in months.

Beyond the war, some of the biggest market swings this year have resulted from the frenzy ( and skepticism ) around the value of artificial-intelligence technology.

The reality of healthcare costs

VANCE: “We actually took on big pharma and lowered drug costs for all of our citizens.”

THE FACTS: Federal data shows that U.S. prescription drug prices fell 0.9% in July and are down 3.1% from a year ago, the steepest year-over-year drop since 1963. The White House said these plunging prices resulted from Trump’s “most favored nation” drug deal with pharmaceutical firms and the TrumpRx website, which it said are “delivering real relief to American families and putting patients first.”

But drug pricing experts say the real picture is more complicated, noting that other factors, including a law from Biden’s time in office that allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, are potentially more significant contributors to the latest consumer price index figures. Also at play are generic and biosimilar products that have come onto the market, offering competition that drives down the prices of expensive brand-name and biologic drugs.

Plus, consumers may not see this price drop in what they pay for medication, as it reflects what pharmacies get paid for the drugs, both by insurers and consumers.

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TRUMP: “I’m giving you the largest prescription drug price cuts in history, with differences of 400, 500 and even 600%.”

THE FACTS: It is mathematically impossible for drug prices to drop by more than 100%. This would theoretically mean that people are being paid to take medications.

Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center, called a similar statement from Trump last year “total fiction” made up by the Republican president. He agreed that it would amount to drug companies paying customers, rather than the other way around.

Immigration under the Biden administration

TRUMP: “The Dumocrats gave us the worst and most dangerous border in American history, with 25 million illegal aliens pouring in.”

THE FACTS: This number, which Trump cites frequently in reference to the Biden administration, is highly inflated. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports more than 10.8 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico from January 2021 through December 2024.

That’s arrests, not people. Under pandemic-era asylum restrictions, many people crossed more than once until they succeeded because there were no legal consequences for getting turned back to Mexico. So the number of people is lower than the number of arrests.

In his second term, Trump has taken to pejoratively referring to Democrats as “Dumocrats.”

2020 election redux

TRUMP: “When I’m on the ticket, Republicans always do very well. We won the presidency three times.”

THE FACTS: Trump won the presidency in 2016 and 2024, but he did not prevail in the 2020 race, despite his repeated claims otherwise.

Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, achieving victory by prevailing in key states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia. The Democratic candidate also earned over 7 million more popular votes than Trump.

Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud have been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and members of his first administration who were in office during the 2020 election.

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Associated Press writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips in Chicago contributed to this report. ___

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.