Trump’s First Post-Election Interview Riddled With False Claims

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

Donald Trump’s first post-election network interview with NBC News’ Kristin Welker was widely trashed for his numerous false claims and Welker’s apparent lack of pushback on his answers.

The first network interview for President-elect Donald Trump, which was recorded to be aired on NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday (December 8), was derided by observers who tuned in, noting that he repeated many of the false claims that were a hallmark of his campaign with re-election. Trump was interviewed by the news program’s host, Kristin Welker, being combative with her as he has been in the past, reacting to her questioning of his proposed policies in his return to the White House. “You have such potential. If you could be just non-biased… you hurt yourself so badly,” he remarked as Welker’s frustration could be seen.

Trump maintains his composure as “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker grows frustrated.

“You have such potential. If you could be just non-biased… you hurt yourself so badly.” pic.twitter.com/YYQmniPH4h

— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) December 8, 2024

Trump made false claims again about migrants in the United States, misusing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistic to say 13,000 immigrants who had committed murder were “released into our country over the last three years.” When asked about his proposal to remove so many undocumented immigrants, he replied: “Well, I think you have to do it, and it’s a hard – it’s a very tough thing to do,” Trump said. “But you have to have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally. You know the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been on line for ten years to come into the country. And we’re going to make it very easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test.” He also lied about the United States being the only nation granting birthright citizenship – 30 other nations also do so.

Trump also claimed that he “was able to get hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO just by a tough attitude.” The false claim refers to NATO countries agreeing to put more money into boosting their military forces but The New York Times noted that the agreement was in place since 2014. Trump also falsely claimed that “just prior to Covid coming in, I had polls that were the highest.” In truth, at that point in 2020 he had a 48% approval rating, placing him lower than all but three presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman.