Former President Donald Trump’s political hurricane touched down in North Philadelphia Saturday night when he became the first Republican presidential candidate to campaign on Temple’s campus.
The rally brought thousands of his supporters into The Liacouras Center for a chance to hear their candidate campaign within the city limits of Philadelphia for the first time of any of his three presidential campaigns.
But everything Trump says at these rallies — to his crowds of loyal supporters — isn’t always accurate.
The Temple News reviewed every statement Trump made during his almost hour-and-a-half long speech Saturday night at Liacouras, and identified 41 false claims made by the former president.
Here are some of the most notable incorrect and inaccurate statements Trump made on Saturday night.
CLAIM: Few communities have suffered more under the Biden regime than Philadelphia
Within the first five minutes of his speech, Trump began attacking the city of Philadelphia, including shots at District Attorney Larry Krasner.
“Under Joe Biden, the City of Brotherly Love is being ravished by bloodshed and crime,” Trump told his supporters Saturday.
In the last year, gun violence in Philadelphia fell dramatically, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week. Shootings from Jan. to May in the city rose from 400 instances in 2015 under former President Barack Obama to 658 shootings in 2020 under Trump. That number peaked at 897 in 2022, but dropped to 422 in 2024 — fewer than any year during Trump’s presidency.
Crime has also dropped each year since 2021, and is down 40% so far in 2024, according to The Philadelphia Police Department’s crime map and stats.
CLAIM: Trump has spent “so much time” campaigning in Philadelphia since his first presidential bid in 2015
Trump had never held a campaign rally within the city limits of Philadelphia prior to Saturday. But he has spent time in the city. He munched on a Geno’s cheesesteak on a 2016 campaign trip, but didn’t publicly speak to voters. Last year, he addressed the social-conservative group Moms for Liberty in Old City. And in this winter, he popped up at SneakerCon near Chinatown to launch a signature shoe.
In his first-ever Philly rally, The Liacouras Center, which holds 10,200 people, was less than half filled. Almost every seat in the lower bowl was taken, and there were seats on the ground as well, but not a single person sat in the second level and lower bowl seats were folded up and not in use.
When Biden and Obama came to The Liacouras Center in 2022 to campaign with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, almost every seat in the second level was filled.
CLAIM: Immigrants are taking jobs from African Americans and Hispanic Americans
Trump’s immigration policies are strict. During Saturday’s rally, the former president conveyed his plans to address illegal immigrants in the country by implementing the largest deportation operation in American history. Trump has argued that immigrants take jobs from African Americans and Hispanic Americans to support his tough border policy.
A greater influx of immigrants doesn’t influence lower wages. In fact, some places with a higher percentage of immigrants experience gains in income per capita, according to a Northwestern University study.
The study reveals that immigrants can also create more jobs and those who recently entered the country aren’t likely to take union jobs because they usually land jobs that are less desirable to U.S. citizens, according to PolitiFact.
“Virtually all of the net jobs created by Joe Biden have gone to migrants,” Trump said.
Even though immigration rates have gone up in recent years, it’s not nearly enough to take all the jobs created by the Biden administration, The New York Times reported.
CLAIM: 107,000 people attended Trump’s rally in New Jersey
Trump was very proud while rehashing some of the rallies he has held around the country. He seemed particularly fond of the May 2024 rally that took place in Wildwood, New Jersey.
“I had 107,000 people in New Jersey, Wildwood. We love Wildwood,” Trump said.
Multiple reports have shown that the crowd was significantly smaller than Trump’s claims. The rally’s venue could only hold up to 40,000 people, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The mixed reports show numbers varying from 80,000 to 100,000 people in the city of Wildwood the day of the rally, but no sources confirm the attendance of 107,000 people at the former president’s event.
CLAIM: The African-American population is being “destroyed” by Joe Biden
Trump has prioritized improving his voting numbers from the Black community, and during Saturday’s speech he encouraged the crowd to remember when Biden called African Americans “super predators.”
Then-first lady Hillary Clinton was the one who used the term “super predators” while discussing the 1994 crime bill. Biden did support the crime bill but he rejected Clinton’s “super predators” theory, according to CNN fact checkers.
The former president claims Biden’s border policies are allowing immigrants to take jobs from the Black community, but the lowest Black or African-American unemployment rate was set in 2023 under the Biden administration, CNN reported.
Sixty-two percent of Black people have a favorable impression of Biden and 74% will either definitely or probably vote for Biden in November’s election, according to an April 2024 survey by The Washington Post Ipsos.
CLAIM: Trump has the best polling numbers among Black and Hispanic voters out of any president in the past 75 years
The former president still lags behind in polling numbers for Black voters. According to a May 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center, 77% of Black voters would vote for Biden instead of Trump.
While a March poll by the New York Times and Siena College revealed Trump has begun to pull ahead of Biden among Hispanic voters, with 46% favoring the former president, his polling figures are far from the best in the past 75 years. In 2020, Biden amassed 59% of Hispanic votes.
This claim’s foundation is shaky at best. Not only does Trump lack the numbers he claims, but Black and Hispanic citizens were denied their right to vote until a mere 59 years ago, making his 75-year record wholly impossible to hold.
“I have the best polling numbers that any president has had — they say in 75 years,” Trump said. “I think it’s longer — with Black and with Hispanic voters.”
Be the first to comment