Fact Check on Donald Trump’s Rally in Bozeman, Montana

In his first campaign rally since Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her 2024 vice presidential running mate, former President Donald Trump attacked Walz and rallied support for a key Senate seat in Montana.

“If Comrade Walz and Comrade Harris win in November, the pink-haired Marxists, the looters, the perverts, and the flag burners will be cheering,” Trump said, invoking a common but misleading line of attack that seeks to portray Democratic policies as socialist.

Trump appeared on stage later than expected at his Friday night rally in Bozeman, Montana, after a mechanical failure forced his plane to reroute 140 miles east to Billings. The plane landed without incident. Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, did not appear.

In his speech, Trump focused on Democratic state Sen. Jon Tester, criticizing Tester’s votes in support of major bills passed under President Joe Biden’s administration, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. Tim Sheehy, a Republican running to remove Tester from office, spoke alongside Trump.

Trump also criticized Harris and Biden on issues including immigration and the economy. We fact-checked five of his claims.

Trump: I gave Biden a ‘growing economy without inflation.’

That’s not true. Trump has made that claim before.

Although inflation has been lower under Trump than under Biden, the 12-month change in the consumer price index has never been zero percent.

It fell close to zero in April and May 2020, shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lowest inflation rate was 0.1% in May 2020.

That’s because the U.S. economy took a beating as demand for goods and services plummeted during the initial pandemic lockdowns. Trump, while taking credit for low inflation at the time, ignores the fact that the rate fell because of an economic crisis, not success.

For most of Trump’s presidency until the pandemic, inflation hovered between 1.5% and 3%. When Biden took office in January 2021, inflation was 1.4%.

Trump: ‘Millions and millions (of immigrants) are coming from prisons, they’re coming from jails.’

Pants on fire!

Trump’s claim that migrants are coming across the border from prisons and mental hospitals is not supported by evidence, and data and expert analysis show that his description that they are arriving by “millions and millions” is so implausible as to be laughable.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that officials have arrested just over 110,000 noncitizens with criminal convictions, both in the U.S. and abroad. Not all have been allowed into the country. The data reflects the numbers known to the federal government but is not comprehensive.

There have been about 8 million encounters at the border since Biden took office. But the encounter data shows events, not individuals. For example, if one person tries to cross the border three times and is stopped each time, that counts as three encounters.

Trump: Harris ‘wants to get rid of ICE’

FALSEHOOD.

Harris has been a critic of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the agency responsible for detaining and deporting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally — during Trump’s presidency. She has criticized many of his border policies, including one that led to the separation of families at the border, but has stopped short of calling for the agency to be abolished.

In a 2018 interview with MSNBC, she said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should exist but called for a reexamination of its role and scope. During a separate 2018 interview, she said the United States should “reexamine ICE and its role” and mission, and even “think about starting from scratch.” Harris has not pushed in 2024 to end the agency; her campaign has not released a written policy platform for her 2024 campaign. However, her immigration platform for the 2019 presidential primaries did not call for restructuring the agency, rather than abolishing it.

Trump: “They’re destroying Social Security and Medicare by letting all these people join the plan.”

FALSEHOOD.

Most immigrants in the country illegally are ineligible for Social Security. Some who are granted compassionate parole for more than a year may qualify for Social Security for up to seven years, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally are generally ineligible to enroll in federally funded health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Some states offer Medicaid coverage through state-funded programs regardless of immigration status, and immigrants are eligible for emergency Medicaid regardless of status.

Immigration also doesn’t threaten the stability of Social Security. The program has its flaws because the ranks of retirees outnumber the workers who pay taxes into the system. Immigrants who meet the legal requirements to receive retirement benefits can access Social Security only after working and paying into Social Security for at least 10 years.

Trump: Harris ‘wants to have all your guns taken away’

Mostly false.

While a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris said she supported a “mandatory gun buyback program” for assault weapons.

The proposed program did not apply to all types of firearms. Handguns, which would not be affected by the program, make up the majority of firearms sold in the U.S.

Since Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate, her campaign has said she does not support a mandatory buyback program. The campaign has said she supports a ban on assault weapons but does not require people to sell them to the federal government.