After only two days, the Associated Press rolls out another fake “fact check,” this time lying about President Donald Trump’s comments regarding NATO. Like the other, it is clear that the AP needs to employ in-house fact checkers to actually verify claims before publication.

1. False Claim: “Countries don’t pay to be in NATO and don’t owe the organization anything other than contributions to a largely administrative fund”

Truth: Most people know that “don’t pay” and “contribute” contradict each other. Currently, the US covers 22.1% of the operating costs of NATO in addition to goods and services lent by US military forces. In total, this represents $685 million (22.1% of a $3.099 billion budget) in direct funding and $6.87 billion in total operation funding (or an additional 221.7%) for NATO’s budget or 75% of all direct and indirect budgetary spending comes from the US.

2. False Claim: “other than contributions to a largely administrative fund that Trump is not talking about”

Truth: The President said, “I went to NATO. And NATO was essentially going out of business ’cause people weren’t paying…” It is clear that he was speaking in general terms, which means all budgetary payments and commitments. This second false claim is used to try to hide the first false claim.

3. False Claim: “Trump’s faulty claim that NATO “collected” $44 billion in 2017 refers to one estimate of how much Washington’s partners in the alliance collectively raised their own military spending by last year.”

Truth: “One estimate” is not false. At no time does the AP provide a different estimate or even attempt to suggest how the number is false. This is an attempt to merely label something as “false” when it clearly is not false.

4. False Claim: “That’s not right. The U.S. military budget comprises about 70 percent of the military spending of NATO countries together, but that’s for worldwide military commitments, not just Europe.”

Truth: It is strange that the AP does not think troops can be moved from one region to another. Did the AP assume that the American troops in Europe came from Europe? Did they not realize that they were moved there to begin with?

Additionally, the US provides for 75% of all direct and indirect NATO spending, which is well within the President’s claim, “We’re shouldering anywhere of 70 to 90 percent of the cost of NATO.”

Much of the AP’s bad claims can be traced to a poorly researched FactCheck.org article that has some additional problems. These include:

1. False Claim: “In reality, the U.S. share of the commonly funded NATO budget is currently just over 22 percent, according to the most recent figures from NATO.”

Truth: As shown above, the US pays for 75% of all direct and indirect spending.

They later try to cover themselves by pointing out, “As we have written before, Trump is conflating NATO’s direct and indirect spending to claim that the U.S. ‘is paying for 90% of NATO.'” However, no one would not add them together in this manner.

2. False Claim: “Still, the U.S. share of total defense spending by all alliance members in 2017 was an estimated 67 percent, according to inflation-adjusted figures from NATO.”

Truth: There is no merit to that claim. Instead, IISS reports: “In overall terms, in 2017, the United States’ total national-defence outlays amounted to US$602.8 billion. This was the equivalent of 70.1% of aggregate spending by all NATO member states.”

Also, “inflation” is not adjusted when entities pay at the same time. This was an added claim to justify providing a false number.

3. False Claim: “NATO says its military budget for 2018 is €1.325 billion (or about $1.55 billion). Its civil budget is €245.8 million (or about $289 million). And the ceiling for the NSIP is €700 million (or about $822 million). That means the U.S. share for all three combined would be around $590 million, at most.”

Truth: The IISS numbers used above are the authoritative numbers because not everything is covered in NATO’s annual budget for direct costs.

4. False Claim: “Trump, however, is referring to so-called indirect spending, which is the amount that the U.S. and other NATO countries willingly spend on their own defense budgets.”

Truth: “Indirect spending” includes goods and services provided at no cost to the NATO budget. Those numbers when it comes to actual NATO use (and not hypothetical defense spending) are included above.