American President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump faced each other during a televised debate, on the night of Thursday to Friday, with a view to the 2024 presidential election. A face-to-face during which the former president of United States has increased false information.
An evening marked by deceptions. On the night of June 27-28, the former American president found himself opposed to Joe Biden, currently in place in the White House.
During this first duel, which comes a few months before the presidential election, Donald Trump was particularly noted for his outrageous actions towards the Democrat, but also for his lies.
An end to widespread abortion acclaimed by the population
Trump repeatedly said during the debate that “everybody” wants the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which guaranteed women access to abortion, to be overturned and for abortion regulations to be at the state level.
But according to several polls conducted by CNN last April, 65% of adults surveyed indicated they opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal ruling that guaranteed access to abortion across the country.
The biggest tax cuts in the country’s history
Validated by the Senate under his presidency in 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would have allowed “the largest tax reduction in the history of the United States”, according to Donald Trump.
Yet financial analyses have shown that this is not the case: according to a report from the US Congressional Budget Office, two bills have allowed for larger tax cuts in the past. These were those of 1981, by Ronald Reagan, as well as those of 2001 and 2003, signed by George W. Bush, before being extended by Barack Obama in 2010 and 2012.
American aid to Ukraine greater than that of the European Union
Questioned at length on international issues, particularly on the situation in Ukraine and Russia, the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States assured that “the European countries have spent, together, 100 billion dollars, or perhaps more, but less than us”, in favour of Ukraine.
But according to the Kiel Institute for World Economy, the European Union’s contribution to Ukraine in military, humanitarian and financial terms totalled $423 billion, compared to “only” nearly $304 billion from the US side.
The United States, the only financial player within NATO
Asked again about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Donald Trump declared, during a heated exchange about the best president on the subject, that “about 100% of NATO funding comes from the United States.”
Although the United States is a major player in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, official figures contradict the former president’s statement: in 2023, 65% of defense spending came from the United States. At the organizational level, the country represented 16% of NATO contributions, a similar level of involvement to Germany.
The absence of a terrorist attack on American soil during his mandate
Referring to the October 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas and the general situation in the Middle East, former President Donald Trump said there had been “no terrorist attack” on American soil during his time in the White House.
A distorted statement, since in the past, Donald Trump himself declared, during his State of the Union speech in 2018, that New York had been hit by “two terrorist attacks”. One of them occurred in Manhattan on October 31, 2017, and was committed by a man from Uzbekistan, before being claimed by Daesh.
Record trade deficit with China under Joe Biden
Donald Trump didn’t stop there. The latter also affirmed during this debate that the United States’ trade deficit with China was the largest in the country’s history. An untruth according to data from the US Census Bureau: in 2023, the deficit with China was only $279 billion, the lowest since 2010.
On the other hand, this same trade deficit with Beijing was more significant under the Trump administration, since it reached the sum of 418 billion dollars in 2018.
