Examining the controversial claims Trump is making at his midterm rallies

As the midterm campaign heats up, President Donald Trump has been making assertions at battleground rallies that PBS NewsHour correspondent Liz Landers checked against the record. On immigration, Trump claimed Somali immigrants raise taxes and the cost of health care, insurance and childcare. Landers reports that the Congressional Budget Office projects the surge that began in 2024 will add $1.2 trillion in federal revenue over ten years, with annual gains reaching $164 billion by 2034. Undocumented immigrants cannot receive Medicaid, and KFF found immigrants are no likelier than U.S.-born citizens to report using government aid.

In Arizona, Trump said leakers should be shot. Landers notes that leaks are usually prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917, carrying five to ten years at most. Treason is the main federal offense that can bring execution, and the last death sentence for it came in 1948.

Trump also claimed machines were deliberately broken in Republican areas in the 2022 Arizona governor's race. Landers, who was in Maricopa County, calls that false: printer ink was too light for tabulators at some vote centers, causing long lines, but no one was blocked from voting, and Kari Lake's court challenges were dismissed.

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour →