Verify the accuracy of Trump’s RNC speech

Former President Donald Trump spoke at the RNC Convention, just days after he was wounded in an assassination attempt. During the speech he made a variety of claims. We looked into a few of them.

“In El Salvador, murders are down 70 percent. Why are they down? Now, he would have you convinced that because he’s trained murderers to be wonderful people, no. They’re down because they’re sending their murderers to the United States of America.”

El Salvador’s National Police recorded a 70% decrease in homicides from 2022 to 2023.  El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has cracked down on gang violence using a state of emergency (which suspends a wide arrange of rights), and has jailed tens of thousands of El Salvadorians suspected of being gang members, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

“The implementation of the regime has allowed El Salvador to record 542 days without homicides, and together with the Territorial Control Plan they add 656 days without violent deaths since the administration of President Nayib Bukele,” a July 10 statement from El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly reads in part. “In addition, thanks to the measure, more than 80,000 people linked to criminal structures, including gang leaders, have been captured.”

El Salvador had the highest incarceration rate in the world as of July 2023, per the WSJ. In 2020, the jail capacity in El Salvador was 27,000 prisoners, according to Insight Crime. In 2023, the jail population has expanded to 105,000, per Insight Crime.

Migration from El Salvador to the United States has fallen under Bukele, as it has become one of Latin America’s safer countries, according to the Washington Post. Data analysis from the Washington Post article suggests migration between the two countries has stagnated, with most migrants being “extra-continentals,” or from different continents outside of the Americas. Check Your Fact could not find any evidence that El Salvador was deliberately sending murderers to the United States.

Bukele responded to Trump’s claim, simply tweeting,”Taking the high road.” (RELATED: Fact-Checking Trump’s Claim That Biden ‘Doesn’t Need Congress’ To Close The Border)

Taking the high road.

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 19, 2024

“We defeated 100 percent of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, something that was said to take ‘five years, sir, it’ll take five years, sir.’ We did it in a matter of a couple months.”

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was not defeated in a “matter of a couple months.” Trump came into office in January 2017. Trump did not declare victory over ISIS until November 2018 in Syria, while the State Department said all the territory conquered by ISIS in Syria was retaken by March 2019.

Check Your Fact fact-checked a version of Trump’s claim in March 2024.

“Trump would later declare in February 2019 that US-backed forces retook 100% of the territory ISIS held in Syria, according to CNN. The last stretch of ISIS territory was taken in Syria by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and other allied troops in March 2019, NBC News reported,” Check Your Fact previously found.

Trump declared in multiple October 2019 tweets that his administration defeated “100% of the ISIS Caliphate.” He then backed off that claim an October 2019 speech and said 70% of ISIS was defeated, according to Roll Call.

A May 2024 report from the Congressional Research Service suggested that, while area under the ISIS caliphate in Iraq and Syria had been liberated, it “remained a threat,” with U.S. Central Command General Michael E. Kurilla stating a “premature coalition departure” would potentially result in a re-emergence in the group. In addition, there has been some activity from the group reported in Africa, notably Libya, Somalia, Mozambique and the Congo.

“We were keeping that, and now China is likewise circling Taiwan, and Russian warships and nuclear submarines are operating 60 miles off the coast in Cuba. Do you know that? The press refuses to write about it.”

A Russian nuclear submarine and other warships made a port call to Havana, Cuba in Jun for military drills, according to BBC News. They later departed on June 17, CBS News reported.

The press widely covered the Russian warship visit. The outlets that covered the visit include CNN, Washington Post, Fox News, the Associated Press, among others.

Russian warships have often visit Cuba, including every year between 2013 and 2020, according to CNN. For example, a Russian warship and its escorts visited in 2019, per the Washington Free Beacon. (RELATED: Viral Photo Of ‘Mark Violets’ Is Not Trump Rally Shooter)

“Given Russia’s long history of Cuban port calls, these are considered routine naval visits, especially in the context of increased US support to Ukraine and NATO exercises,”  Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Charlie Dietz said in June, according to CNN.

“I don’t have wars. I had no wars, other than ISIS, which I defeated, but that was a war that was started. We had no wars.” 

The U.S. did not start any new wars when Trump was in office, according to USA Today. But the U.S. was still in Afghanistan (though was withdrawing by the time Trump’s presidency ended) and fighting multiple terrorist organizations in Africa and Yemen through drone strikes and troop deployments.

New America found that “the Trump administration vastly escalated the counterterrorism war in Yemen,” which was started under former President Barack Obama. It also fund that “[i]n 2017, the United States conducted more individually identifiable strikes than in any other year except 2012.”

Trump also authorized the assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps general Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and struck Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad’s forces, according to NBC News. Under the former president as well, U.S. forces killed ISIS founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a 2019 raid in Syria.