Bartholomew D Sullivan

USA TODAY

President Trump’s call Sunday for an investigation of alleged illegal wiretaps by President Barack Obama was just the latest case of Trump making claims without citing evidence. They include:

Birtherism

In March 2011, Trump began promoting the idea that Obama wasn’t born in the United States, a claim previously confined to fringe right-wing conspiracy theorists. It was a suspicion presented without evidence, and Obama ridiculed Trump for it during the 2011 White House Correspondents Association dinner. Last September, without explaining why, Trump abandoned the claim with a statement: “Mr. Trump believes President Obama was born in the United States.”

Voter fraud that made him lose the popular vote

On Nov. 27, Trump tweeted: “In addition to winning the Electoral College, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” He cited no evidence. Voting officials across the country found little evidence of vote fraud and certainly nothing as massive as Trump claims. He also tweeted that voters from Massachusetts illegally voted in New Hampshire, which caused Trump to lose that state last November. No evidence was found to support that claim either. Trump said he could sign an executive order calling for an investigation into the alleged fraud. So far, no order has been signed and no investigation has started.

His Electoral College win the biggest since 1984

During his Feb. 16 news conference, Trump claimed that his Electoral College win was the biggest since President Ronald Reagan's in 1984, when he carried every state except Minnesota and the District of Columbia. However, election records showed that Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton (two times) and Obama (twice) won higher percentages of the electoral vote than Trump — in five of the seven elections since Reagan won his last.

Immigrant ban needed to stop dangerous people

Trump claimed he needed to sign his Jan. 27 ban on immigrants from seven mostly Muslim nations because the influx of dangerous people in the United States demanded it. The title of a newly leaked Department of Homeland Security report tends to debunk the idea: “Most foreign-born U.S.-based violent extremists radicalized after entering Homeland.”

Wide-open borders require a travel ban

Trump has said the United States has left “our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross.”

The Border Patrol budget and number of agents have both doubled since 2001. In 2016, more than 416,000 in the country illegally were apprehended.

The media have a lower approval rating than Congress

Most polls show this is not true.

Read more:

Trump, without evidence, accuses Obama of wiretapping him; 'Simply false,' Obama spokesman says

Majority of Americans trust the media more than Trump: poll

Trump: Approval rating polls are rigged, too

His proposed $54 billion boost to defense spending is a “historic increase”

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington academic institution and think tank, put Trump’s proposed 9.4% increase in a historical context and found that 10 previous defense budgets since 1977 were larger year-over-year increases.

There was major terrorist attack on Feb. 17 in Sweden

“Look at what happened last night in Sweden,” Trump told a crowd in Melbourne, Fla., on Feb. 18.

But no major incident had “happened” in Sweden. Trump had seen a Fox News show making claims about immigrants and crime in Sweden. In response, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt took to Twitter: “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking?”

Read more:

Fact check: Trump exaggerates Swedish crime