We are just as fed up with the antics of the Trump administration as you are! Clearly, they have no plan or goals, and Trump is simply trying to find new ways to derail the government, persecute political rivals, and consolidate power for himself. 

Here at the LACDP, we are going to be holding the Republicans accountable, starting at the very top.

This is why we are so excited to be writing the first in our #TrumpCheck series. 

• Trump has claimed that there are “large numbers of terrorists coming in like we’ve never seen... We have thousands of terrorists coming into our country.” – in an interview with ABC 13.

FACT: There is no evidence that high numbers of immigrants are terrorists or that there are "thousands" who are terrorists entering the United States. 

• VIDEO: In his first White House interview, Donald Trump has described that, when it comes to immigrants entering the United States, “Some of whom, I won’t get into it, but you can look at them and you can say, ‘Could be trouble, could be trouble,’” 

He seems to believe that he has an intuition about the quality of one's character based on the color of one's skin and the way that one looks. He is mistaken; the only word to describe this is racism. 

• Trump tried to eliminate birthright citizenship with an Executive Order. 

FACT: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and no Executive Order can EVER override the Constitution.

Correcting misinformation distributed by the United States government is a job for us all. We will keep it up here, and on our social media accounts, linked below.

Welcome back to the second installment of our #TrumpCheck series, where we hold Donald Trump and his minions accountable for their role in derailing our democracy.

• Trump claimed that fire hydrants were running dry in Los Angeles due to a lack of water, and that that FEMA had no money available due to actions by President Biden. 

FACT: Fire hydrant issues were caused by low water pressure, not due to a lack of water. The FEMA Disaster Relief Fund had a balance of $27 billion as of January 8th, when the claims about the balance were made. 

• The Trump administration opened up two dams in Central California, and Trump claimed that if he had been allowed to create the same water flow six years ago, the "fires never would have happened."

FACT: "There is absolutely no connection between this water and the water needed for firefighting in L.A.," said a climate and hydrology expert Peter Gleick. "There's no physical connection. There's no way to move the water from where it is to the Los Angeles basin." The water released was in the reservoir as a backup for farmers during the summer months. It now will likely go to complete waste. 

• On Inauguration Day, Donald Trump claimed that the fires in California were burning "without a token of defense."

FACT: There has been an overwhelming response of support from around the planet for Los Angeles. Firefighting crews from Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington joined the fight, as well as crews from Canada, Mexico, and Ukraine. Local community support was at an all-time high, as individuals in areas that were untouched by flames showed up to care for their neighbors. 

Correcting misinformation distributed by the United States government is a job for us all. We will keep it up here, and on our social media accounts, linked below.

Today is the third installment of our #TrumpCheck series, where we correct dangerous lies and misinformation that President Mus- I mean, President Trump is spreading. 

• Trump has claimed, for months, that tariffs are taxes placed on foreign countries. He says his new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum from other countries will protect American jobs and boost the American economy.  

FACT:  Tariffs are not taxes on other countries. Tariffs are import fees, paid by the importer, that are almost always directly passed on to the consumer. The steel and aluminum tariffs, while they have the potential to be beneficial for steel and aluminum workers in the United States, will increase costs on hundreds of goods, including cars, homes, and beer. Dozens of industries and companies will not be able to keep up with the increased cost at all, and job losses in construction work are expected. 

• Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have all defended the decision to eliminate U.S.A.I.D., the office that executes foreign aid. In a press conference, Marco Rubio claimed that  “In some cases with U.S.A.I.D., 10, 12, 13 percent, maybe less, of the money was actually reaching the recipient, and the rest was going into the overhead and the bureaucracy.”

FACT: A 2024 Congressional Research Service report shows that only 7.7% of the budget of U.S.A.I.D. was spent on administrative costs (page 6).  The United States is the single largest donor in the world to humanitarian efforts.

• Donald Trump wants to claim ownership of the Gaza strip, and send roughly two million Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan. 

FACT: Neither Jordan nor Egypt have the capacity to take on two million refugees, and will not be going along with this plan. They have asserted that fact clearly, as Trump continues to deny their assertions and repeat his idea. 

And a bonus #TrumpCheck fact to get you through the week...

• Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post last week that"BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN" within USAID. 

FACT: Stollen is a type of German fruit bread, traditionally served at Christmas. 

It is irresponsible and dangerous for high-level government employees and deputies to be distributing such blatantly untrue information. The hostile rhetoric from the Trump administration is not new, but shocking nonetheless. 

Correcting misinformation distributed by the United States government is a job for us all. We will keep it up here, and on our social media accounts, linked below.

Welcome back to our #TrumpCheck series, the LACDP's weekly newsletter holding the Trump administration accountable for their lies and self-serving actions.

• Elon Musk has claimed that there is widespread fraud in the Social Security Administration, and that there are millions of individuals taking advantage and making money off of the federal government. He claims that "there are FAR more 'eligible' social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA" and that "this might be the biggest fraud in history."

FACT: There is not evidence of widespread fraud within the Social Security Administration (SSA). About 44,000 Americans over the age of 100 are collecting SSA  benefits, which is on track with census data that tracks the number of Americans over the age of 100 years old. 

• At a conference last week, Elon Musk said that his goal is to help what he described as "America, Inc." complete a "corporate turnaround" that will include deleting "entire agencies." This does seem to imply the SSA, based on earlier comments. This is similar to his acquisition of Twitter in 2022, when he eliminated over 80% of their staff. 

FACT: Elon Musk makes $8 million PER DAY in government contracts. In comparison, the average American on Social Security benefits makes $65.00 per day off of the US government. Donald Trump, who campaigned on creating "explosive economic growth" is actively going against that promise as he empowers Elon Musk to eliminate jobs, and hoard taxpayer dollars for himself. 

• Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post on Thursday that Politico was  "paid Millions of Dollars for NOTHING" and implies that the government employees of USAID "ARE BUYING THE PRESS!"

FACT: Between 2023 and 2024, across the entire agency, USAID employees paid $44,000 in Politico subscriptions. That's it. They had subscriptions. 

The Trump administration will continue to try to deceive the American public with their lies and storytelling. 

Correcting misinformation distributed by the United States government is a job for us all. We will keep it up here, and on our social media accounts, linked below.

Happy Wednesday, and congratulations on surviving another week in the Trump era. Welcome back to our #TrumpCheck series, the LACDP's weekly newsletter that holds the Trump administration accountable for its lies and self-serving actions.

• Our new Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. has made his opinion on vaccines crystal clear: "There's no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective."

FACT: All FDA-approved vaccines in the United States have undergone large clinical studies that have found that the health benefits far exceed any potential risks. Measles, which had been considered eradicated in the United States 25 years ago due to the effectiveness of the measles vaccine, killed an unvaccinated child in Texas this morning, the first US death from the disease in 10 years. 

• Donald Trump halted 60 billion in foreign aid dollars on his very first day as President in 2025, under the logic that "we're giving billions and billions of dollars to countries who hate us." This put the President’s Emergency Response Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program into jeopardy.

FACT: The PEPFAR program has been supported by every president since President Bush implemented it... including Donald Trump, when he signed the PEPFAR Extension Act of 2018. In the 2018 announcement, the Trump White House said, "PEPFAR has saved over 17 million lives, prevented millions of HIV infections, and transformed the global AIDS response from death and despair to life and hope." Lack of HIV healthcare globally for over 20 million people will cause HIV to spread and increase the chances of a drug-resistant strain developing. 

• In a press conference this morning with the new cabinet, President Trump promised that federal budget cuts would not affect Medicaid: "We're not going to touch it."

FACT: There is no path to meeting the newly passed Republican budget resolution that does not cut Medicaid funding. Even if every other item in the budget was reduced to $0, a $600 billion cut would still be required from the federal healthcare budget. 

The Trump administration is playing fast and loose with our health, safety, and, consequently, the world's health. This has life and death consequences, as we have unfortunately already witnessed.  

Correcting misinformation distributed by the United States government is the first step in the fight and a job for us all. We will keep it up here, and on our social media accounts, linked below.