On Day 1, Republicans made numerous false and misleading claims on tax cuts, the economy, immigration and COVID-19, among other topics.
Speakers in the first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention engaged in political spin, particularly in making claims about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s policy positions:
- Several speakers at the convention misleadingly portrayed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which President Donald Trump signed, as exclusively benefiting the middle class, while criticizing Biden’s tax plan as hurting “working families.” The Republican law largely benefited the wealthy, while the Biden proposed tax increases would fall mainly on the top 1% of taxpayers.
- Trump claimed Democrats want to get rid of postal workers, when Democrats have repeatedly tried over Trump’s objections to get $25 billion in emergency funding for the U.S. Postal Service.
- Trump wrongly claimed, “It used to take 17 years, 18 years, 20 years, 21 years … to get approval to build a highway,” but that under his administration, “we have it down to two years.” The latest statistics show the same or a bit longer median time in fiscal 2019 for projects to complete the environmental impact process than it took during the last five years of the Obama administration.
- Donald Trump Jr. said his father “built the greatest economy our country has ever seen.” Not true. Economic growth and job growth have been faster under previous presidents.