President Donald Trump delivers a easy message to voters: he’ll rescue them from Democratic insurance policies which have imperilled their wallets, security and freedom.
Right here’s what he omits: generally he promoted these exact same insurance policies.
Listed here are six instances Trump or his spokesperson referred to as out Democrats for insurance policies that Trump himself supported throughout his first presidency.
Selling hiring variety on the Federal Aviation Administration
Hours after a United States Military helicopter and an American Airways passenger jet collided on January 29 over the Potomac River, killing 67 individuals, Trump blamed his predecessors’ variety hiring insurance policies, together with hiring individuals with disabilities. However throughout Trump’s first time period, the identical programme existed to rent individuals with disabilities.
What Trump mentioned: “I modified the Obama coverage (on hiring air site visitors controllers) … After which Biden got here in and he modified it.” (We rated that False.)
What Obama and Biden did: An Obama-era govt order issued in 2010 directed federal companies to rent extra individuals with disabilities. The FAA integrated the coverage into its variety hiring programme.
In 2014, the Obama administration started a hiring evaluation for air site visitors controllers that weighed biographical data comparable to work and training expertise however not race. In 2018, Trump jettisoned the usage of the biographical evaluation; Biden didn’t reinstate it.
What Trump did: The FAA in 2019 introduced a programme geared toward hiring 20 individuals with disabilities, together with from the identical focused incapacity listing Trump just lately maligned, to be air site visitors controllers. In an April 11, 2019, press launch, the company mentioned a key focus was to “establish particular alternatives for individuals with focused disabilities, empower them and facilitate their entry right into a extra various and inclusive workforce”.
The company regularly highlighted its variety hiring initiatives, together with its goals to rent individuals with disabilities, from 2013 till Trump retook workplace in 2025, together with all through Trump’s first time period.
On January 21, Trump signed an govt order that eradicated variety, fairness and inclusion, or DEI, hiring and directed the transportation secretary and the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to “return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring”.
Banning TikTok
Trump criticised Biden’s stance, which referred to as for banning TikTok, in 2024. However Trump had sought to ban the favored video app throughout his first time period. (We mentioned Trump’s change in place met our definition of a Full Flop.)
What Trump mentioned: “We love TikTok. I’m going to save lots of TikTok. Biden desires to eliminate TikTok.”
What Biden did: Biden signed bipartisan laws in April that may ultimately ban TikTok except it’s offered to a US firm.
What Trump did: On August 6, 2020, Trump signed Government Order 13942, which sought to ban TikTok, writing that “the US should take aggressive motion towards the house owners of TikTok to guard our nationwide safety”. On January 20, 2024, Trump issued an govt order to pause the TikTok ban for 75 days.
Killing chickens
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Biden for prime egg costs that she mentioned stemmed from his administration’s mass killing of chickens.
What Leavitt mentioned: The Biden administration and the US Agriculture Division “directed the mass killing of greater than 100 million chickens, which has led to a scarcity of hen provide on this nation, subsequently a scarcity of egg provide, which is resulting in the scarcity”. (We rated that Half True.)
What Biden did: Chickens are culled to cease hen flu’s unfold and shield close by farms, the poultry trade and public well being. A 2002 federal regulation, the Animal Well being Safety Act, offers the USDA authority to depopulate herds and flocks to cease the illness’s unfold.
USDA information reveals 108 million egg-laying chickens died since 2022, together with 13 million in 2025. It’s unclear what number of have been euthanised or died of the virus.
What Trump did: A USDA hen flu response plan, up to date in Might 2017, integrated coverage steering primarily based on classes from avian influenza outbreaks through the Obama administration. It mentioned, “fast depopulation of contaminated poultry is crucial to halt virus transmission and should be prioritised”. Throughout a March 2017 hen flu outbreak, a USDA report mentioned, “almost 253,000 birds have been depopulated”.
Taking Federal Emergency Administration Company cash for migrants
As he surveyed hurricane injury in Georgia in October 2024, Trump mentioned the Biden-Harris administration diverted cash from FEMA for immigration, leaving the catastrophe company broke.
What Trump mentioned: “$1 billion was stolen from FEMA to make use of it for unlawful migrants. … And FEMA is now busted. They don’t have any cash.” (We rated that False.)
What Biden did: Congress granted cash to FEMA for the Shelter and Providers programme, which gave cash to state and native governments and nonprofit organisations that present migrants with momentary shelter, meals and transportation. Nevertheless, that’s separate from FEMA’s Catastrophe Aid Fund, which is used after hurricanes.
What Trump did: In 2019, the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned it was “reprogramming” some funds Congress had put aside. The division mentioned it will switch $155m from FEMA’s Catastrophe Aid Fund to immigration efforts.
Bureau of Prisons offering transgender care
Trump attacked former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for her statements about transgender take care of individuals in jail. In 2019, Harris mentioned she supported permitting gender-affirming surgical procedure for individuals in federal prisons, and in 2024 mentioned she would “comply with the regulation”. However the same coverage existed throughout Trump’s first time period, consistent with federal regulation.
What Trump mentioned: Harris “helps taxpayer-funded intercourse modifications for prisoners and unlawful aliens”. (We rated that Largely True.)
What Biden and Harris did: The Bureau of Prisons’ coverage through the Biden administration let individuals in jail request gender-affirming surgical procedure. We discovered that as of September 2024, simply two individuals in federal prisons had efficiently obtained these procedures.
What Trump did: Trump’s first administration additionally recognised the federal authorized obligations to supply gender-affirming take care of prisoners. The New York Occasions highlighted a 2018 Justice Division funds memo that famous the “statutory mandate to supply primary medical and psychological well being care” to individuals in jail and famous that “transgender offenders could require … surgical procedure” as a part of medical therapy. The Bureau of Prisons throughout Trump’s first time period issued a Transgender Offender Guide that referred to “hormone or different medical therapy” being supplied however didn’t particularly point out surgical procedure.
FEMA momentary housing for North Carolina hurricane victims
Trump accused Biden of evicting North Carolina hurricane survivors from resorts. However FEMA had related eligibility necessities that affected momentary housing throughout Trump’s first administration.
What Trump mentioned: “The Biden administration kicked 2,000 displaced North Carolinians out of their momentary housing into freezing 20-degree climate,” in January. (We rated that Largely False.)
What Biden did: FEMA below Biden supplied lodge or motel rooms to North Carolinians who wanted momentary housing after Hurricane Helene. FEMA critiques contributors’ eligibility each two weeks. Households are not eligible in the event that they miss inspections, their properties are liveable or they take a look at of the resorts. The weekend of January 18, 740 households have been informed they needed to depart the rooms as a result of they have been not eligible. They got three weeks’ discover to search out shelter.
What Trump did: Trump’s first administration additionally had eligibility standards for remaining in momentary housing. A February 16, 2018, FEMA information launch about Texas hurricane victims mentioned “standards evaluate” would decide who not certified.
“Any sheltering choice is, by design, a short lived, short-term resolution, designed to be a bridge to center and longer-term options,” Brock Lengthy, the then-FEMA administrator, mentioned at a March 2018, Home Homeland Safety Committee listening to.
PolitiFact Workers writers Grace Abels, Jeff Cerone, Caleb McCullough and Maria Ramirez Uribe and PolitiFact North Carolina’s Paul Specht contributed to this text.
