NBC’s Peter Alexander gives Trump in-person fact check

President Donald Trump, after lambasting the media as “dishonest people,” received an in-person fact check from NBC’s Peter Alexander at a White House news conference Thursday on a false statement the president had made moments earlier, leaving Trump blaming staff for giving him the wrong information.

Trump had claimed in his opening remarks that he had won the biggest Electoral College victory since Ronald Reagan, which is demonstrably false.


“You said today that you had the biggest electoral margin since Ronald Reagan,” Alexander said, sitting feet from the president. He then began to list recent electoral victories bigger than Trump’s, which include both of Barack Obama’s victories, both of Bill Clinton’s victories and George H.W. Bush’s 1988 victory, all since Reagan.

“Well, I was talking about Republicans,” Trump said. George H.W. Bush, who was also a Republican, received 426 electoral votes, well above Trump’s 304.

“Why should Americans trust you?” Alexander asked.

Trump said he had just been given the information, seeming to imply he had been given incorrect information.

“It was a substantial victory, you do agree with that?” Trump asked.

“You’re the president,” Alexander responded.

Trump moved on to the next question.