Trump Goes for Broke on Claim Military Received No Money Before His Watch. (He’s Still Wrong.)

“Last year, we secured a historic $700 billion to rebuild our military. And now the National Defense Authorization Act paves the way for 1,700 — listen to this now. So we’ve been trying to get money. They never gave us money for the military for years and years. And it was depleted. We got $700 billion. And next year, already approved, we have $716 billion to give you the finest planes and ships and tanks and missiles anywhere on earth.”

False.

Trump’s claim is wrong on two fronts: that the approved funding levels are “historic” and that the military “never” had money “for years and years.” It’s also not clear what he was referring to when he said the act “paves the way for 1,700.”

The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019, which Trump signed on Monday, provides $716 billion for the Pentagon’s basic operations and war spending, as well as the Department of Energy’s national security programs.

That’s not the largest military budget in recent history, let alone all of U.S. history. Even if inflation is not taken into account, President Barack Obama signed a $726 billion National Defense Authorization Act for the 2011 fiscal year.

Adjusted for inflation, Congress authorized more money for the Pentagon every fiscal year between 2007 and 2012, during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trump may have been referring to the sequester, in which Congress placed limits on military spending in 2011; they were effectively lifted in February. But his statement — that the Pentagon “never” received money during that time — is patently wrong. As The New York Times has previously reported:

From 2012 to 2017, the Pentagon’s annual budget had decreased as a percent of the economy. But it still hovered around $600 billion — a far cry from “no money” at all.

The United States’ military spending has consistently outstripped the rest of the world’s. In fact, it has been higher than the next seven to 11 countries combined since 2012, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

After the signing of the bill, Trump made several more inaccurate claims at a fundraiser in Utica, New York.

— He falsely claimed “Democrats want open borders.” (Most Democrats support border security measures.)

— He misleadingly claimed Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., “wants people to be violent. She wants people to attack if they happen to be on our side.” (Waters encouraged protesting top Trump administration officials but has denied calling for harm.)

— He misleadingly claimed “nobody would have believed” the number of jobs added to the economy in the 20 months since his election. (More were added in the 20 months prior.)

— He hyperbolically claimed the unemployment rate for women was at its lowest in 65 years. (The rate for July, which has risen from a few months ago, is otherwise the lowest in 18 years.)

— He falsely claimed the unemployment rate for Asian-Americans is the lowest ever recorded. (The rate for July is higher than a few months ago and also higher than it was in December 2016.)

— He falsely claimed his tax cuts were the largest in history. (Several rank higher by various metrics.)

— He exaggerated the amount of untaxed corporate earnings held abroad that businesses would repatriate as $4 trillion. (Estimates range from $2.3 trillion to $2.8 trillion.)

— He falsely claimed United States Steel “is opening up eight plants.” (It has not announced a single new plant.)

— He misleadingly claimed to have begun building his proposed border wall. (Construction has not begun.)