A mountain of Trumpian lies and bs in one rally

According to our analysis, the truth took a beating in Montana. From a grand total of 98 factual statements we identified, 76 percent were false, misleading or unsupported by evidence.

Here’s a breakdown: 45 false or mostly false statements, 25 misleading statements and four unsupported claims. We also counted 24 accurate or mostly accurate statements. False or mostly false statements alone accounted for 46 percent of all claims.

I’m going to tell NATO, “You got to start paying your bills. The United States is not going to take care of everything.”

Misleading. NATO’s guideline is that defense expenditures should amount to 2 percent of each country’s gross domestic product by 2024. In 2017, the United States and three other countries met that standard, and Poland spent virtually 2 percent. NATO allies have been steadily boosting defense spending since 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea. In any case, these funds would not be going to the United States or even necessarily to NATO; this is money that countries would spend to bolster their own military.

We’re paying for anywhere from 70 to 90 percent to protect Europe, and that’s fine.

Misleading. The United States is the largest contributor to NATO’s organizational expenses, which includes its headquarters in Brussels and subordinate military commands, but it funds only 22 percent of these programs. Separately, the U.S. defense expenditure represents 72 percent of defense spending across NATO. But this reflects what the United States spends on all military programs, not just those related to Europe.

Of course, they kill us on trade. … They make it impossible to do business in Europe, and yet they come in and they sell their Mercedes and their BMWs to us. So we have $151 billion in trade deficits with the E.U., and on top of that, they kill us with NATO.

False. The European Union is the largest goods trade partner for the United States. Trump has a habit of using trade numbers that factor in only goods, not services. The combined trade deficit with the E.U. was $92 billion in 2016. Although the E.U. imposes a 10 percent tariff on U.S. cars, while the U.S. tariff is 2.5 percent for European cars, tariff rates vary by product and in some cases U.S. tariffs are higher.

So we pay 4 percent of a huge GDP, which got a lot bigger since I became your president.

Misleading. The United States spends close to 4 percent of gross domestic product on defense, but GDP growth under Trump has been par for the course. GDP grew 2.3 percent in 2017, Trump’s first year in office. It grew at a faster rate in three of the years Barack Obama was in office and for much of the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

Germany, which is the biggest country of the E.U., European Union, Germany pays 1 percent.

Mostly accurate. Germany increased its defense spending by 5 percent in 2017, but because the country saw healthy economic growth, defense spending was 1.2 percent of its GDP. German leaders say they plan to reach 1.5 percent by 2024.

And then they go out and make a gas deal, oil and gas, from Russia, where they pay billions and billions of dollars to Russia. Okay, so they want to protect against Russia, and yet they pay billions of dollars to Russia, and we are the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing.

False. Germany in March approved an $11 billion pipeline, Nord Stream 2, to be built by Russian energy giant Gazprom. But the United States is not “paying for the whole thing,” not even by some logic that factors in U.S. spending on NATO. Germany is the second-highest contributor to NATO’s common programs. The United States pays 22 percent of these costs; Germany pays 15 percent.

Since I came, which is a year and a half, almost $33 billion more is projected to be paid by those NATO nations, but it’s not enough.

Misleading. NATO member nations pledged to end defense cuts and began to ramp up spending in 2014, years before Trump took office.