During his Republican convention speech Thursday, Donald Trump pointed to a chart that he'd turned to look at during his rally when a would-be assassin nearly shot him. Calling it the "chart that saved my life," he claimed moving towards it meant the bullet missed its target.
But one policy expert claimed Friday that the chart itself is false.
Trump claims that the graph shows that he had solved the immigration crisis by the time he left the White House. A giant arrow points to the lowest point of immigration, with the words "Trump leaves office."
But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the policy director of the Immigration Council and an immigration lawyer, highlighted a problem with that data. The low point pointed at was in the spring of 2020 — and Trump left office in Jan. 2021, when the rate was much higher.
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"OMG. This chart has an arrow at the bottom saying that Trump left office in spring 2020, thus handwashing away the huge spike the rest of the year," he wrote on X.
"Also, April 2020 wasn't the 'lowest illegal immigration in recorded history.' It wasn't even the lowest month of his presidency!"
This is the Trump graphic that he posted on Truth Social and displayed on the screen behind him during his speech.
Trump's false immigration graphicPhoto: Donald Trump/Truth Social
Trump has used the graphic for months, leading the Washington Post to do a fact-check.
When posting the chart on Truth Social, Trump claimed, “BIDEN WORLD RECORD ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, MANY FROM PRISONS AND MENTAL INSTITUTIONS, ALSO TERRORISTS.”
"None of that is defensible," wrote Philip Bump.
"It’s not clear what the 'world record' for 'illegal immigration' would look like, but there have been plenty of periods in which thousands of people emigrated in response to tragedies or war," he also wrote. "Trump (or whoever made this chart) doesn’t have any particular insight here. Again, just rhetoric."
