Police deaths

“We’ve also seen increasing threats against our police, and a substantial rise in the number of officers killed in the line of duty. Very big rise.” – 11 July, Virginia Beach

Trump’s claim is only one slice of a much larger story that does not support his argument. His campaign cited data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), which does show a 56% increase in officers killed by guns between 1 January and 16 July 2016 (28) compared with the same span in 2015 (18). But according to the not-for-profit group, officer deaths overall, including from traffic accidents and job-related illnesses, are roughly on par with figures from this point in 2015: 60 deaths this year to 61 the year before.

The NLEOMF data also shows that police fatalities overall have declined in the last 15 years: the last seven years of Barack Obama’s presidency saw an average of 135 police deaths, a 17% decline on the final seven years of George W Bush’s administration, which saw an average of 162 a year. Gun deaths have declined, though only slightly, between the administrations. Police fatalities have in general declined in the last 40 years: from 1991 to 2000, an average of 162 officers were killed each year; from 1981 to 1990, an average of 186; from 1971 to 1980, an average of 230.

The deadliest era for police in the US was prohibition. In the 14 years between its enactment and repeal, from 1920 to 1933, an average of 250 officers were killed each year. Gun-related deaths were highest in 1973, according to the NLEOMF figures, when 156 officers were killed.

The FBI also reports police deaths with information submitted to it from various law enforcement agencies, though its most recent figures date to 2014. According to such data, that year 96 law enforcement officers were killed, 51 by “felonious acts” and 45 in accidents, and 48,315 officers were assaulted while on duty. Forty-six of the officers were killed by guns; 28 in accidental deaths died in car accidents. Almost 80% of assaults were by people using their hands and feet. The last four years of Bush’s presidency and the first four of Obama’s saw about the same number of gun-related police deaths, according to this data, with about 46 a year.

Violent crime

“Violent crime has increased in cities across America. The New York Times described ‘a startling rise in murders’ in our major cities.” – 11 July, Virginia Beach

Though cities have reported increased shootings and murder rates in 2015 and 2016, as Trump noted, these months do not constitute enough evidence to find an actual trend. In two decades, crime and murder rates have fallen almost by half, according to data from the FBI and the Congressional Research Service.

Veterans affairs

“President Obama has allowed our veterans affairs, healthcare, all systems, really denied them the help, the support, and really has to do it.” – 11 July, Virginia Beach

Trump’s claim that Barack Obama has denied the veterans affairs support does not stand up to scrutiny: the president has tried repeatedly to improve the department, though he has failed in several respects – most notably to deal with hundreds of thousands of pending claims. He has also struggled to upgrade the VA’s record keeping systems and to create a jobs corps for veterans.

Earlier this year, Obama called for $75bn in funds for VA programs, a nearly 5% increase from 2016. Congress has stalled on budget work for months. He has, however, managed to increase mental health services, expand voucher programs for homeless veterans, and sign into law the Suicide Prevention for Veterans Act.

Clinton’s emails

“Just look at what the FBI director said about [Hillary Clinton]: her misconduct is a disgrace and embarrassment to our country.” – 11 July, Virginia Beach

Though FBI director James Comey harshly criticized Hillary Clinton for “extremely careless” and “negligent” email practices that could have put classified information at risk to hackers, he never called the former secretary of state a “disgrace” or “embarrassment” during his 5 July press conference or his subsequent hearing before Congress.

Comey only used the word “misconduct” twice – to say that the FBI investigation found “no intentional misconduct” in how Clinton sorted through emails, nor any evidence “to support an inference of intentional misconduct”.

Trump’s claim twists Comey’s criticism into a more damning value judgment than the director actually made. The businessman also said Clinton had acted in a way that was “willful, intentional, and unlawful”, although Comey said agents did not find “clearly intentional or willful mishandling” and that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case”.



