The Trump administration is known for lies, slander and generally misrepresenting the facts of easily verifiable situations at a scale unprecedented in American history. A small selection of such factually incorrect claims by the administration is compiled here.
“Beautiful, Clean Coal.”
The Trump administration claims that coal energy is a clean, cheap fuel that will help with American energy independence and electricity costs. However, coal fuel is very much not clean and not cheap.
Coal has been the largest source of CO2 emissions for as long as scientists have been keeping track, and even amongst fossil fuels, it is remarkably inefficient at generating electricity. It only reaches 32-33% energy efficiency compared to natural gas power plants that can reach 60+% efficiency.
Coal ash also contributes to significant radioactive emissions in the atmosphere: coal emissions account for more emissions of radioactive materials than nuclear power plants.
“The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”
The Center for Disease Control, under the guidance of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., retracted a claim that vaccines do not cause autism. However, it is well documented and studied that there is no correlation between vaccines and autism.
The conspiracy theory was initially created by disgraced former senior surgeon Andrew Wakefield, who wrote a fraudulent study in 1998 linking the MMR vaccine to gut inflammation and autism using data collected via child abuse and falsification. Wakefield was paid by an anti-vaccine activist group to discredit the MMR vaccine, while also promoting his own alternative measles vaccine, and had his medical license taken away.
Despite this, RFK Jr. has repeatedly promoted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and hired promoters of such conspiracy theories.
There is a “very suggestive” link between the use of Tylenol during pregnancy and autism.
RFK Jr. has also promoted a link between the use of Tylenol during pregnancy and autism in the resulting baby, although he would later partially walk back on this claim, stating that the causative association “is not sufficient, […] but it is very suggestive.” The cited studies purporting these claims do not support this conclusion, with one of the cited studies being unable to link Tylenol use to autism, stating “we were unable to address the paracetamol hypothesis directly.”
“No American citizens have been arrested or detained” during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns.
Despite Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claiming on Oct. 30, 2025, that “no American citizens have been arrested or detained” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ProPublica found 170 US citizens who have been detained by ICE as early as Oct. 16, 2025, two full weeks before Noem made that statement.
Even after that statement, American citizens and legal immigrants continue to be detained by ICE, with no plans by the agency to make it a less common occurrence.
“Right now we’re focused on Minneapolis because that’s where we have the highest concentration of people who have violated our immigration laws.”
Vice President JD Vance stated that the administration focused Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis as “that’s where we have the highest concentration of people who have violated our immigration laws.” However, according to data collected by the Pew Research Center, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have a comparatively low number of unauthorized immigrants than other cities.
Renée Good and Alex Pretti were “domestic terrorists.”
On Jan. 7, Renée Nicole Macklin Good was killed by ICE agent Johnathan Ross in a confrontation in Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security has claimed that Ross was seriously injured by the encounter, suffering internal bleeding after Good rammed her car into him, and Noem has called the ramming “an act of domestic terrorism.”
However, according to cellphone camera footage by Ross and witness testimonies, Ross was not seriously injured by the incident, and the vehicle appears not to have deliberately rammed Ross, turning away from Ross and towards the road. The New York Times reported that the vehicle merely bumped into Ross in the process of turning away.
On Jan. 24, Alex Pretti was detained, pepper-sprayed and then killed by Border Patrol agents also in Minneapolis. DHS claimed that Pretti was restrained because he was brandishing a firearm and threatening agents, but Pretti was holding a cellphone in one hand and nothing in the other in the confrontation. While restrained, a Border Patrol officer removed Pretti’s concealed carry pistol from his body, meaning that Pretti was entirely unarmed when he was killed.
Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller also called Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” calling the event part of “flaming the flames of insurrection.”
The USA PATRIOT Act defines domestic terrorism as “activities that (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the U.S. or of any state; (B) appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.” Even if the claim that Ross was deliberately hit and was seriously injured or the claim that Pretti were threatening agents with a firearm were true, it would not be considered “domestic terrorism” under the law, and would rather be considered assault on a law enforcement officer.
