NONTRUTHS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Tuesday [1-30-18] delivered his first State of the Union address, and CNN’s Reality Check Team was there to vet his claims.
The team of reporters, researchers and editors across CNN listened throughout the speech and analyzed key statements, rating them either true, true but misleading, or false.
Auto industry recovery…
Trump highlighted the strength of the auto industry, saying he ‘halted government mandates that crippled America’s auto workers, so we can get the Motor City revving its engines once again.’
But the auto industry’s recovery began years ago. If anything, the comeback has lasted so long that it’s starting to level off: US car sales fell in 2017 for the first time since 2009, coming in at 17.2 million vehicles. They had set a record in 2016 of 17.6 million cars sold.
Still, the industry is healthy. Car prices are going up, and people are buying more expensive models.
Those trends didn’t begin when Trump took office. The Obama administration bailed out General Motors and Chrysler in 2009. What followed was the industry’s longest period of sustained growth in decades.
Verdict: False.”
-CNN’s Reality Check Team, “CNN’s Reality Check Team vets Trump’s State of the Union,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Jan. 31, 2018 09:46am