Billionaire businessman Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican presidential candidacy Thursday night at the Republican Party national convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
He painted a picture of U.S. doom and gloom that he says the country has endured under President Barack Obama's administration.
Fact checkers from several journalistic publications say Trump played a little fast and loose with some of the "facts" in parts of his acceptance speech, sometimes bending the truth to fit his purposes.
Trump: "Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years."
Facts: This is misleading because homicides have been steadily decreasing in large U.S. cities since the early 1990s. However, there was a 17 percent increase last year, according to a study The Washington Post published in January.
Criminal experts are perplexed by the jump in killings. Some think it my be an anomaly, while others consider the increased killings may point to a more disturbing trend.
What Trump failed to tell his supporters was the statistical jump was so large because the homicide rate is so low. In the 50 cities in The Washington Post analysis, half as many people were killed last year as in 1991.
Trump: "Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when President Obama took his oath of office..."
Facts: Trump has called Mexican immigrants "criminals" and "rapists." There were some supporters holding Latinos for Trump signs at the convention. Many other Latinos have made it their mission to see that Trump is not elected president. The truth is the Latino population has risen, while their poverty level has fallen. The Pew Research Center said after the analysis of a 2013 Census Bureau statistics that Latinos are "the only major racial or ethnic group to see a statistically significant decline in its poverty rate."
Trump: "58 percent of African American youth are unemployed."
Facts: This is misleading. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 58 percent of African American youth between the ages of 16 and 24 were not working in June, but that figure included students and other people who are not looking for a job. The unemployment rate for African American youth in June was 22.4 percent; still, very high.
Trump: "America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world."
Facts: Trump has said this repeatedly. However, according the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. collected 26 percent of its total economy in 2014 in taxes, one of the lowest rates among industrialized nations. The U.S. tax rate is far below Sweden, Britain and Germany; countries with more generous social welfare benefits for their citizens than the U.S.
Details from various sources, including The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time.com, Politico.com, Factcheck.org, Politifact.org.
