Fact-checking Trump’s Pennsylvania speech and his Politico interview

United States President Donald Trump spoke to US news outlet Politico in an interview at the White House on Monday, during which he made several strong claims about the state of the economy, the threat he claims is posed by drug gangs in Venezuela, and his popularity among Black Americans.

Then, a day later, Trump spoke about immigration and affordability at a rally-style speech, which lasted for 90 minutes in Pennsylvania, during which he launched a scathing attack on Ilhan Omar, the US’s first Muslim congresswoman, who he claims is in the country illegally.

We fact-check some of the claims Trump made during the interview and the speech.

During the Pennsylvania rally, Trump claimed that he had inherited the “worst inflation in the history of our country” from former president, Democrat Joe Biden.

In the Politico interview, Trump said: “I inherited a mess. I inherited a total mess. Prices were at an all-time high when I came in.”

He also told Politico: “If you think of gasoline a gallon, they had it at $4.50, almost $5.00. You go to some of the states, you had it at $6.00. We hit, uh, three states two days ago, $1.99 a gallon.”

Philadelphia-based nonprofit Factcheck.org wrote in January this year that while inflation did rise under Biden, Trump did not, in fact, inherit the “worst inflation” in history.

The annualised inflation rate was below 3 percent during the six months before Trump took office in his second term.

The organisation explained the rise in inflation under Biden was partly down to the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.