FACT CHECKS: Climate Power’s Guide for Eleven More Days of Trump and Vance’s Lies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With less than two weeks left before election day, Donald Trump and JD Vance are rapidly increasing their already impressively high rate of lies and distortions per minute. Below are summaries of some (but not all) of their favorite conspiracy theories and falsehoods with links to more extensive fact checks on each issue. 

LIE: Trump will lower energy costs as President

FACT: A non-partisan study from Energy Innovation found Trump’s Project 2025 will cost American households $240 more in annual energy costs, $32 billion more in total energy costs, destroy 1.7 million jobs by 2030, and cause $320 billion a year in damage to the U.S. economy. More facts can be found here, and a state-by-state breakdown can be found here.

LIE: Gas was $1.87 per gallon under me, then it went up under Biden-Harris.

FACT:  When gas hit $1.87 per gallon under Trump, he cut a deal with Putin and OPEC to intentionally inflate prices so he could bail out his Big Oil donors. Trump’s deal lasted two years, increasing inflation and energy costs well into the Biden-Harris administration.  More facts can be found here, including video of Trump bragging about it.

LIE: Literally anything that Trump or Vance say about American manufacturing and the U.S. auto industry.

FACT: The Washington Post on Trump’s latest lies about EVs: “Virtually nothing is correct in this ad. Harris does not want to end gas-powered cars, there is no electric-vehicle mandate, and there aren’t massive layoffs in the Michigan auto industry — which now employs more people than at any point in Trump’s presidency.” More facts can be found here.

LIE: Trump had the cleanest air and water; he will get chemicals out of our food.

FACT: Trump staffed his administration with corporate polluter lobbyists and industry stooges,  gutted more than 125 environmental protections against noxious chemicals in the air we breathe and water we drink, including rolling back protections against chemicals “that have been found to cause miscarriages; reduced male fertility; and damage to the liver, kidneys, and immune and nervous systems.”  More facts can be found here.

LIE: Whatever wild distortions and lies Trump and Vance are currently telling about Hurricanes Helene and Milton

FACT: Trump repeatedly withheld disaster relief from states hurt by extreme weather, and diverted Georgia State Troopers from disaster response efforts with his shameless photo op in Valdosta, GA. 

FACT: Trump refused to give timely aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, put more people in danger with his botched disaster relief, then threw paper towels at a crowd of survivors instead. Trump even once suggested nuking a hurricane.  More facts can be found here.

LIE: [Trump’s rotating climate change denial rant de jour]

FACT: Trump made 1,065 false or misleading claims about the environment while in office, had climate science scrubbed from government websites, and has called climate change a “hoax,” a “total con job,”  “not our problem,” something that will create “more beachfront property,” “bullshit,” a concept “created by and for the Chinese,” and [incoherent mumbling].