BUDGET/MILITARY/NONTRUTHS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump held a rally at Pittsburgh’s airport on Saturday [3-11-18] evening to try to shore up support for Rick Saccone, the Republican on the ballot in a special election on Tuesday to fill a House seat representing a conservative western Pennsylvania district.
But he spent most of his 75-minute speech veering into other topics, including foreign policy, trade and the economy. In doing so, he made a number of false or misleading claims, including some The New York Times has previously checked.
‘We spent $7 trillion in the Middle East over a 17-year period, $7 trillion as of three months ago.’
False.
Mr. Trump has cited the $7 trillion figure several times before, and it appears to refer to an estimate of war spending that is regularly updated by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
The $7 trillion figure closely resembles a Watson Institute estimate of future debt from war spending by 2053: $7.9 trillion. This would be in addition to increased veterans’ care, terrorism-prevention spending and other ‘macroeconomic costs to the U.S. economy.’ “
-Justin Bank, “Six Claims Trump Made at His Weekend Rally That Were False or Lacked Context,” The New York Times online, Mar. 12, 2018