Trump Repeats Debunked Lies on Inflation Immigration Elections
During an NBC interview with anchor Tom Llamas on Wednesday, President Donald Trump repeated debunked falsehoods about inflation, immigration, and elections while Llamas largely declined to challenge the inaccuracies in real time. Trump claimed inflation was “almost no inflation” at 1.2% over three months, but the year-over-year rate in December 2025 was 2.7%—far from negligible—and the monthly figures were 3% in September and 2.7% in November. Trump also falsely claimed he inherited “the worst inflation in the history of our country,” when the year-over-year rate in December 2024 was only 2.9%, compared to historical highs of 23.7% in 1920.
On gas prices, Trump stated the national average reached $1.99 per gallon last week, but AAA data showed the actual national average was approximately $2.89 on Wednesday. GasBuddy found only 18 to 34 stations out of roughly 150,000 tracked nationwide offered gas under $2 during the referenced period—0.018% of all U.S. stations. Trump also claimed “$18 trillion” in foreign investment into the country, a fabrication; the White House’s own website documented “$9.6 trillion” in announced investments, itself an exaggerated figure heavily padded with vague pledges and bilateral trade statements unrelated to direct U.S. investment.
Trump falsely asserted he won the 2020 election, claiming “I won three times” when he won in 2016 and 2024 but lost in 2020. He denied suggesting he wanted to nationalize elections despite stating in a separate Monday interview: “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.” Trump also repeated unsubstantiated claims that elections in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta are “extremely corrupt” without presenting evidence, and falsely alleged cheating occurred in Fulton County, Georgia during 2020—claims debunked years ago by Georgia’s Republican elections chief and Trump’s own first-term Justice Department appointees.
On immigration, Trump claimed Biden “allowed in our country…25 million people,” a fabrication; federal records documented under 11 million “encounters” through December 2024, with estimates of roughly 2.2 million additional “gotaways.” Trump also repeated an unsubstantiated claim about “11,888 murderers” Biden allegedly allowed into the country, mischaracterizing Department of Homeland Security data. Trump stated foreign governments “emptied” jails into America, particularly naming Venezuela and “the Congo,” claims experts from those nations and global prison scholars have told CNN are baseless.
Llamas responded to most false statements with minimal acknowledgment—saying “right,” “yeah,” or offering no pushback—allowing misinformation to circulate unchallenged on air. Trump also denied knowing why Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard attended an FBI raid on Georgia’s election hub, contradicting Gabbard’s own written statement. NBC published a separate fact-check article but failed to correct Trump’s falsehoods during the live interview itself, leaving viewers without immediate corrective information on critical policy matters.
(Source: https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/05/politics/fact-check-trump-nbc-interview)