Here are the 5 biggest lies from Donald Trump's bizarre press conference
President Donald Trump held an impromptu press conference Thursday afternoon in the White House's East Room — a doozy in which he complained about the news coverage of his first month in office, attacked his political rivals and uttered a slew of falsehoods.
Here's a running list of the biggest lies Trump told during his news conference.
Trump said his Electoral College win was the biggest since Reagan
Trump said Thursday that he had "the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan."
That's false.
Trump won 306 Electoral College votes, which went down to 304 thanks to faithless electors.
That's fewer than George H.W. Bush, who got 426 Electoral College votes in the 1988 election; both of President Bill Clinton's wins, in which he received 370 and 379 Electoral College votes; and both of President Barack Obama's victories. Obama received 365 and 332 Electoral College votes in 2008 and 2012, respectively.
NBC's Peter Alexander sought to fact check that in real time, pointing out that Trump's claim was false and asking, "Why should Americans trust you?"
"I was given that information, I don't know," Trump said.
He accused Hillary Clinton of shipping a fifth of the U.S.'s uranium to Russia
"I didn't do anything for Russia, I've done nothing for Russia," Trump said. "Hillary Clinton gave them 20% of our uranium."
This is oldie but baddie. Clinton played a limited role early in the Obama administration in which Russia bought a controlling stake in a company was responsible for 20% of U.S. uranium capacity. As PolitiFact points out, "The 20% is capacity, not uranium that has been produced" and Clinton alone "didn't have the power to approve or reject the deal."
The falsehood is a mainstay of conspiracy sites like InfoWars — which, by the way, Trump enjoys.
Trump said drugs are cheaper than candy
Trump also said Thursday that "drugs are becoming cheaper than candy bars."
That is false, according to a Mic fact-check. Here's the math:
According to a Jan. 31 Forbes article, the price of a pound of pot declined from $2,500 to $1,000 in 2016 (although some outlets offer lower prices). Since there are about 454 grams in a pound, a pound of pot at $1,000 would cost about $2.20 per gram.
Full-sized Snickers bars weighing about 53 grams go for $4.27 for a pack of six at Walmart, which would make the price of a single bar about 71 cents.
So this common drug, whose price has plummeted, is still more expensive than candy bars.
Trump said he's gotten the most done so far as president
"I don't think there's ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we've done," Trump said Thursday. But one doesn't actually need to go back that far to find a more productive presidency. At this point in his presidency, Obama had signed four bills into law — Trump has signed three. What's more, the bills Obama signed included important and impactful pieces of legislation, while Trump's have included small bureaucratic items like clearing his defense secretary for eligibility to serve.
There's also the matter of executive orders. Trump has issued one fewer executive order than Obama did in his first 12 days. Obama hit 19 orders, while Trump has made 18 decrees — and, of course, one of Trump's executive orders has been put on hold.
He declared the rollout of the travel ban was "perfect"
Trump claimed the rollout of his travel ban was "perfect." In fact, the executive order, temporarily limiting entry to the United States from seven majority-Muslim nations, led to not only widespread protests from critics and panic among travelers, but came without advance notification to homeland security workers, leading to chaos.
On Feb. 9, a panel of federal judges upheld a stay of Trump's executive order until its legality could be determined.
That doesn't sound like a perfect rollout.
