Fact-checking Donald Trump’s interview with ‘Meet the Press’

In a Dec. 8 interview on NBC’s "Meet the Press," President-elect Donald Trump elaborated on plans for removing people in the country illegally and imposing tariffs on trade partners — and made some false claims to support them.

Trump reiterated his promise to end the granting of birthright citizenship, meaning citizenship bestowed to anyone born on U.S. soil. Although he said he would like to do this on his first day as president, he acknowledged that he might have to go "back to the people" through a constitutional amendment.

On his plans to carry out mass deportations, Trump said he would start with people convicted of crimes and try to find a way to allow "Dreamers" — people brought to the U.S. illegally as minors — to remain. This group is called "Dreamers" because of the DREAM Act, a set of never-passed proposals in Congress.

Trump said members of the House committee that investigated the events preceding the Capitol riot Jan. 6, 2021, "committed a major crime … honestly, they should go to jail." When host Kristen Welker asked Trump whether he would pardon the people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes, he said, "We’re looking at it right now. Most likely, yeah."

Here are some of the things Trump said in his interview, fact-checked.

Tariffs "cost Americans nothing." 

This is False.

The Trump transition team pointed to reports by the Coalition for a Prosperous America, an often pro-tariff group advocating for "strategic trade, tax and growth policies." But the vast majority of credentialed economists dispute the argument that tariffs are a net positive. In surveys in 1990, 2000, 2011 and 2021, about 95% of American Economic Association members agreed that tariffs reduced general economic welfare.’

Most economists say that consumers in the tariff-levying country lose in these deals, paying higher prices directly for foreign goods and indirectly because of higher prices for foreign-sourced raw materials used in domestic goods. Also, if the other country retaliates by raising tariffs on U.S. goods, sales can decline for U.S. producers.

If fully applied, the North American tariffs could raise grocery prices, given that Mexico accounted for 69% of U.S. vegetable imports and 51% of fresh fruit imports in 2022. New tariffs on Canada could also spike gasoline prices, especially in the upper Midwest, which relies on Canadian crude oil imports. Construction prices could rise, too; one-quarter of the lumber used in the U.S. comes from Canada, and both Canada and Mexico supply cement, metals, machinery and other homebuilding necessities.

"Tariffs artificially raise the cost of doing business, which depresses overall economic production in the form of lower gross domestic product, artificially higher prices, and fewer goods sold," Boise State University political scientist Ross Burkhart, who studies trade policy, told PolitiFact. "For the consumer, this means a reduction in purchasing power."

"When I handed it over (to Biden) they didn't have inflation for a year and a half. ... Then they created inflation with energy and with spending too much." 

This is exaggerated on both counts.

Inflation was about 1% late in Trump’s term, mainly because COVID-19 had drastically slowed many types of economic activity.

However, the rise in inflation under President Joe Biden began sooner than Trump said. During the Biden presidency’s first six months, many Americans received COVID-19 vaccines, and the economy began to reemerge, stoking consumer demand as supplies lagged. Year-over-year inflation hit 4.9% by May 2021, four months into Biden’s term, which marked its highest level in about 13 years. From there, inflation kept rising, peaking at about 9% a year and a half into Biden’s term. 

Economists say excessive spending by Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act exacerbated inflation, but the root cause was mostly COVID-19-era supply chain shortages and global energy market disruption from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. let in 13,099 murderers "within the three-year period. It's during the Biden term." 

False.

In a letter released in September, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency, said there are 13,099 noncitizens convicted of homicide who are not in immigration detention. 

However, this data refers to people who entered the country over the past 40 years, including under Trump — which Welker pointed out. There is no evidence that all 13,099 people entered in a single three-year period under Biden. 

Also, many people included in this number are not in immigration detention because they’re serving prison sentences. 

The U.S. is "the only country that has" birthright citizenship.

More than 30 other nations do.

World Population Review lists 33 nations that grant citizenship to anyone born within their borders. The United States is joined by Mexico and many countries in Central and South America including Brazil and Argentina. The United States and Canada are the only two "developed" countries, as defined by the International Monetary Fund, that have unrestricted birthright citizenship laws.

Trump also said, "You know, if somebody sets a foot, just a foot, one foot, you don't need two, on land, congratulations, you are now a citizen of the United States of America." 

This statement is nonsensical. Setting one foot on U.S. soil doesn’t make migrants a citizens; if it did, then there would be no such thing as illegal immigration. 

"Obamacare is lousy health care." 

Most people who use it don’t feel that way.

A 2023 survey by the health care policy research group KFF found strong satisfaction with plans purchased on the marketplaces for the Affordable Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare.

Among respondents who had insurance purchased on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, 20% called their care "excellent" and another 52% called it "good." Another 23% called it "fair" and 5% called it "poor."

This was just a few percentage points behind approval ratings among people who had employer-sponsored insurance. Of that group, 33% said their plan was "excellent" and 47% said their plan was "good."

"Crime is at an all time high." 

This is far off base.

The violent crime rate, as measured by the FBI, is about half as high as it was in the early 1990s.

And the rate of crime victimization, as measured by a different federal survey, is now about one-third its level of the early 1990s.