Donald Trump: What he invented – and what he didn’t – at his inauguration

In his inauguration speech, Donald Trump presented many of the topics of his upcoming presidency and backed them up with supposed facts. Not all of them stand up to scrutiny.

“More money is spent on this than in any other country in the world.”

True. The US healthcare system cost $12,555 (12,053 euros) per capita in 2022, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This put the USA in first place. That was about twice as much as the OECD average. Germany ranks third in the statistics with $8,010 per capita.

“[Die Regierung] but provides refuge and protection to dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions, who have come to our country illegally from around the world.”

There is no evidence of this. Trump has already made the claim several times during the election campaign. In May, for example, he spoke of Democratic President Joe Biden “allowing millions of people from prisons, from insane asylums, from psychiatric institutions and drug traffickers into the country.” When asked at the time, Trump’s campaign team did not provide any evidence for his thesis, according to CNN. Other US media also found no evidence.

In the fiscal years 2021 to 2024 (October to September in each case), the US Border Patrol arrested around 60,000 non-US citizens who were delinquent. This emerges from data from the authority. Not everyone set foot on American soil. During the same period, more than 7.5 million people were apprehended for illegally crossing the border. These included people who were caught in several attempts.

“We are not aware of any country or other jurisdiction attempting to empty its mental health facilities or its prisons and detention centers in order to send people with mental health problems or criminals to the United States,” said Michelle Mittelstadt, a spokeswoman for the nonpartisan group Research organization Migration Policy Institute, the “New York Times” in December 2023.

“We won a clear victory in all seven swing states and won the most votes nationwide.”

True. In fact, Trump received more than 77.3 million votes in the November election – more than his competitor Kamala Harris (around 75 million). Trump also won all of the so-called “swing states”, i.e. the states that were considered particularly hotly contested between Democrats and Republicans before the election and therefore important for the election.

“Los Angeles, where the fires of weeks ago are still burning tragically, without even a hint of resistance.”

That is not correct. Biden declared the affected region around Los Angeles a disaster area at the beginning of January. This allows communities and survivors to immediately apply for federal funding for reconstruction. He had also announced emergency aid of $770 each for those affected.

Almost 17,000 helpers were deployed on site in California to fight the fires, including firefighters from Mexico and Canada.

“American ships are being charged grossly inflated fees and are not treated fairly in any way, […] and most importantly, China operates the Panama Canal and we did not hand it over to China.”

Incorrect. The waterway is operated by the Panamanian Canal Administration – not China. The state authority is committed to neutrality and must grant passage to ships from all countries under the same conditions. “China has no influence whatsoever on our operations,” agency chief Ricaurte Vásquez Morales recently told the Wall Street Journal.

The Panama Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world. In South America it connects the Atlantic and the Pacific. The approximately 80 kilometer long canal begins in Colón in the north and ends near Panama City in the south. The United States controlled the Canal Zone until the end of 1999. Washington then handed over administration to Panama.

Today around 14,000 ships pass the sea route every year. The fees for this are calculated according to the type, size and load of the ships. The prices are considered to be normal; larger cargo ships pay several hundred thousand US dollars for passage. In 2023, the canal company collected around 3.3 billion dollars (3.2 billion euros) in passage fees.

The Hong Kong private company Hutchison Ports PPC has operated large container terminals on both sides of the canal for decades. There are fears that the Chinese government could also use private companies to expand its influence on ports and shipping routes.