In a recent interview on Fox Business, former President Donald Trump made a series of claims that, upon closer inspection, paint a dramatically different picture from reality. It’s almost like listening to a grand storyteller, weaving tales that, while captivating, tend to stray quite far from the facts. His remarks touched on everything from global alliances and international conflicts to domestic spending, border security, and even space exploration, leaving many scratching their heads and fact-checkers scrambling to set the record straight. Unfortunately, the interviewer, Maria Bartiromo, largely let these statements go unchallenged, creating an echo chamber where fiction could easily masquerade as fact.
Let’s start with NATO, a consistent target of Trump’s criticism. He dramatically declared that the US was “paying trillions of dollars to NATO” and questioned why we were “spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO” if they wouldn’t support the US in the Iran war. Imagine the average American hearing this, picturing their hard-earned tax dollars funneling endlessly into some opaque international organization. The truth, however, is far less sensational. Trump seems to conflate the US’s own massive military spending, which is indeed substantial, with its direct contributions to NATO. While the US certainly spends hundreds of billions annually on defense – approaching a trillion dollars in fiscal year 2026 – only a minuscule fraction of that actually goes to NATO itself. Under an agreed formula, the US contributes about 15% of NATO’s direct funding, which for 2026 is projected to be under $1 billion. So, the idea of “trillions” or even “hundreds of billions” annually being paid directly to NATO is simply not true. It’s like saying your entire household budget is spent on your neighborhood homeowner’s association fees; while you spend a lot on your home, only a small portion goes to the association.
Moving to foreign policy, Trump made some bold claims about Iran and his own track record on ending wars. He asserted that Gulf countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE were “shocked” and “not expected to be hit” by Iran, despite many regional experts publicly anticipating such strikes if Iran felt provoked. This narrative downplays the complex geopolitical landscape and the foresight of intelligence communities. Then there’s his oft-repeated claim of having “ended eight wars.” While he did play a role in de-escalating some conflicts, the “eight” figure is a significant overstatement. His list notoriously included situations that weren’t even wars, like a diplomatic dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia or a “mystery situation” between Serbia and Kosovo. He even counted a conflict that clearly didn’t end, involving Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s like boasting you’ve “solved” eight arguments when three were just minor disagreements, one isn’t actually over, and another two were just people politely disagreeing. He also went on to say that “Nobody’s ever ended one war. Who’s ended one? Nobody.” This, too, is easily disproven. US presidents have won wars like World War I, World War II, and the Gulf War, and have brokered numerous peace agreements globally, with presidents like Theodore Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton all receiving recognition for their roles in ending conflicts. It’s a remarkable dismissal of historical accomplishments, almost as if he’s the first person to ever turn off a light switch.
When the conversation shifted to immigration, Trump painted a vivid, yet inaccurate, picture of the Biden administration’s border policies. He claimed “25 million people coming across” during Biden’s tenure. This figure is not just an exaggeration; it’s wildly inaccurate, even eclipsing his previous, equally false “21 million” claim. Official data shows that through December 2024, there were under 11 million “encounters” with migrants, a term that includes millions who were rapidly expelled. Even if you factor in the estimated “gotaways”—those who evade detection, roughly 2.2 million by House Republican estimates—the total doesn’t come close to Trump’s numbers. It’s like saying your small party had 25 million guests when the actual headcount was closer to twelve. Ironically, Trump also stated that “in the last nine months, not one person came across the border illegally” under his own administration. While Customs and Border Protection had a narrower claim about not releasing apprehended migrants, the idea that no one crossed illegally during that period is unrealistic. Border Patrol sources themselves indicated that some migrants still evaded detection, even if the numbers were lower than in the Biden era. His boasting about building “over 1,000 miles of wall” also crumbled under scrutiny. A federal report from 2021 indicated only 458 miles of wall construction during his first term, with additional construction bringing the total closer to 500 miles, nowhere near the “over 1,000” he claimed. It’s like saying you’ve built a skyscraper when you’ve only completed the first five floors.
Switching gears to domestic issues, Trump made some questionable assertions about taxes and the Federal Reserve. He claimed that if Democrats regained power, they would eliminate a Republican policy of “no tax on Social Security for our seniors.” The problem? Such a policy doesn’t exist. While a temporary tax deduction was introduced for some seniors, millions still pay taxes on their Social Security benefits, and this deduction doesn’t even apply to all Social Security recipients aged 65 and older, let alone those younger. It creates a false impression of a benefit that was never universally applied. Then, there was his attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, specifically regarding the cost of the Fed’s headquarters renovation. Trump estimated the project would cost “maybe $4 billion,” whereas the Fed’s website clearly states a budget of $2.46 billion. While the cost could still fluctuate, presenting an almost double figure as a “maybe” is a significant distortion. He also confidently stated that Senator Thom Tillis was “no longer a senator,” implying he had resigned. In reality, Tillis chose not to seek re-election in 2026 but remains a senator until January 2027. It’s a classic case of misinterpreting or misrepresenting someone’s current status, like saying an athlete has retired when they’ve merely announced their last season.
Finally, a dramatic narrative about NASA capped off Trump’s interview. He asserted that before his presidency and the launch of the Artemis program, “NASA was closed. It was totally closed.” This statement is utterly false. NASA has been in continuous operation since 1958, a beacon of scientific and exploratory pursuit. Major initiatives, including the development of the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft used in the recent Artemis missions, were already underway during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Experts have consistently debunked this notion, highlighting that NASA was far from “dead” or “closed” before Trump took office. It’s like claiming you invented sunlight when the sun has been shining for billions of years. He also misremembered the timeline of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s judicial replacement, claiming she died “about two minutes after the election” of 2020. In actuality, Justice Ginsburg passed away in September 2020, more than six weeks before the election, allowing Trump to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before his electoral defeat. It’s a chronological blunder that, while seemingly minor, further illustrates a pattern of factual inaccuracies in his narrative.