See fact checks of issues and news topics during President Donald Trump's administration.

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One of the most consistent features of President Donald Trump's public statements is his drive to take credit and assign blame. It's a tendency that consistently lands him in trouble with history, either recent or long ago, and has been on display as he approaches his 100th day in office. 
Over the past week, the president claimed unprecedented achievement as he tried to shape perceptions of his 100-day legacy. He then pooh-poohed that benchmark as time ran short for him to get big things done. He disparaged the record of his predecessor, specifically on fighting the violent MS-13 gang, and Trump addressed his abandonment of a central campaign promise on China by denying he'd changed his mind. 
A look at some of his statements: 
TRUMP: "No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, &amp; it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!" — Tweet on Friday, singling out his successful Supreme Court nomination. 
THE FACTS: The president may consider the 100-day standard "ridiculous" now, but he completely bought into it during his presidential campaign. 
In an appearance at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 22, he issued a "contract&nbsp;" with voters that he called a "100-day action plan." In it, he promised 18 steps within 100 days to overhaul the government, protect workers and improve national security, and 10 legislative initiatives. 
"On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities and honesty to our government," the "contract" says, with his signature. "This is my pledge to you." His performance on them is&nbsp;mixed&nbsp;. 
___ 
TRUMP: "No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days." — Tuesday at the Kenosha, Wisconsin, headquarters of Snap-on tools. 
THE FACTS: Trump's legislative victories are minor, surpassed by those of a variety of high achievers in the White House. The concept of a president's first 100 days (a benchmark Trump reaches in a week) started with President Franklin Roosevelt, because he got so much done. 
Taking office in the Great Depression, Roosevelt quickly declared a banking holiday to quiet panic, called a special session of Congress and won passage of emergency legislation to stabilize the banking system. He came forward with a flurry of consequential legislation that set the pillars of the New Deal in place within his first 100 days, "the most concentrated period of U.S. reform in U.S. history," say Alan Brinkley and Davis Dyer in "The Reader's Companion to the American Presidency." No fewer than 14 historic laws were enacted in that time. 
Trump's big agenda items, like his promised tax overhaul and infrastructure plan, have yet to reach Congress. His attempt to secure the borders from people from terrorism-prone regions is so far blocked by courts. His first attempt to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care law failed in Congress. 
Trump needn't look as far back as FDR to see a president who got off to a fast start. Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus package into law in his first month, while also achieving laws expanding health care for children and advancing equal pay for women in that time. 
Like Roosevelt, Obama came to office in an economic crisis, the worst since the Depression. Lawmakers from both parties were inclined to act quickly and did, even as they fought over the details of the big stimulus package that defined Obama's early days. 
President Ronald Reagan's 100 days were considered the hardest-driving since FDR's time, even though Reagan was shot March 30, 1981. He presented Congress with the most consequential tax, spending and government-overhaul plan it had seen in decades, a comprehensive package that exceeds in scope anything Trump has brought forward, including his first run at health care. Congressional approval came later. 
___ 
TRUMP:&nbsp; "The weak illegal immigration policies of the Obama Admin. allowed bad MS 13 gangs to form in cities across U.S. We are removing them fast!" 
THE FACTS: Obama can't be blamed for allowing MS-13 to form as a nationwide gang because that happened long before he became president. 
A&nbsp;fact sheet&nbsp;from Trump's own Justice Department states that the gang, which originated in the 1980s in the Central American community in Los Angeles, "quickly spread to states across the country." 
The department indirectly credits the Obama administration, in its early years, with helping to rein in the group: "Through the combined efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement, great progress was made diminishing or severely (disrupting) the gang within certain targeted areas of the U.S. by 2009 and 2010." 
The U.S. carried out record deportations during the Obama administration and, on MS-13 specifically, took the unprecedented action of labelling the street gang a transnational criminal organization and announcing a freeze on its U.S. assets. 
Such actions were not enough to bring down the group and the Trump administration says it will do more. 
According to an&nbsp;FBI assessment&nbsp;from January 2008, before Obama took office, the gang was operating in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia, roughly the same number of states estimated now. The assessment said the group was made up of Salvadoran nationals and first-generation Salvadoran-Americans. The FBI at the time did not provide a breakdown of how many of the gang's members were immigrants or U.S. citizens. 
___ 
TRUMP: "I didn't soften my stance" on China. "Nobody's ever seen such a positive response on our behalf from China, and then the fake media goes 'Donald Trump has changed his stance on China.' I haven't changed my stance. China's trying to help us." — Fox interview. 
THE FACTS: It's hard to imagine a clearer switch in positions than the president's abandonment of his campaign pledge to declare China a currency manipulator, a move that would have set the stage for trade penalties. China had once devalued its currency to make its exports artificially cheaper, crowding out other countries' products, but in recent years has let market forces do more to shape currency exchange rates. Even as Trump railed against Chinese currency manipulation in the presidential campaign, there already were signs that China was taking steps to keep the value of the yuan from sinking further against the dollar. 
Trump didn't let go of his accusation easily. As recently as April 2 he told The Financial Times that the Chinese are "world champions" of currency manipulation. 
___ 
TRUMP, speaking about fellow NATO members, says he wants to "make sure these countries start paying their bills a little bit more. You know, they're way, way behind." — Remarks in Kenosha. 
THE FACTS: That's an oversimplification of NATO financial obligations, and one Trump has made repeatedly. NATO members are not in arrears on payments. They committed in 2014 to ensuring that by 2024, they would be spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their military budgets. Most NATO countries are spending less than that now, and Washington is putting pressure on them to do more. 
In any event, the commitment is for these nations to spend more on their own military capabilities, which would strengthen the alliance, not to hand over money. 
___ 
Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell, Josh Boak and Robert Burns contributed to this report.

Fact check: When Trump takes credit and assigns blame

Trump 100 days

In a news conference and a pair of interviews, President Donald Trump gave skewed accounts of U.S. relations over time with Russia, auto jobs and health care under his watch. 
He also flatly contradicted himself on how long he's known his right-hand strategist, Steve Bannon. 
A look at some of his statements: 
___ 
TRUMP: "We may be at an all-time low in terms of relationship with Russia." — Press conference Wednesday with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg 
THE FACTS: Arguably true in the post-Soviet era. Not so during the decades of the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear annihilation hung over Russians, Americans, their allies and the world. 
The U.S. and the Soviet Union were on the verge of a nuclear conflict in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the failed U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had arranged with Cuban premier Fidel Castro to position nuclear missiles in Cuba. 
When U.S. intelligence saw evidence of a Soviet arms buildup there, President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of the island to prevent offensive weapons deliveries and went on national television with a stern warning. As a standoff persisted, U.S. forces were placed on high alert. After back-channel and direct secret negotiations, Khrushchev announced the missiles would be removed. 
There have been other low points, too, including more than a decade-and-a-half when the two nations didn't even have diplomatic relations after the 1917 Russian Revolution. In the Korean War, Soviet pilots covertly backed North Korea against U.S.-led forces. Tensions also were high after a U.S. U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia and its pilot, Gary Powers, was imprisoned and tried for espionage. And the U.S. helped militants fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. 
___ 
TRUMP: "I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late. I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn't know Steve. I'm my own strategist, and it wasn't like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary." — Interview Tuesday with the New York Post. 
THE FACTS: Bannon was far from a stranger when he came on board near the start of the general election campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton. 
Trump and Bannon had known each other for five years when the Republican candidate, a month after accepting the nomination, hired the Breitbart executive as his campaign CEO. 
David Bossie, who was deputy campaign manager, told AP after Trump took office that he introduced them in 2011 at Trump Tower and they grew to know each other well, as Trump appeared multiple times on Bannon's Breitbart radio show. Bannon interviewed Trump at least nine times in 2015 and 2016 and members of his family and campaign on many other occasions. "They believe in each other's agendas, which is why they have grown so close," Bossie said. 
On Aug. 17, the Trump campaign announced the hiring of Bannon and the appointment of Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager. The statement quoted Trump as saying: "''I have known Steve and Kellyanne both for many years." 
Trump's latest comments came as another indication that the president may be edging away from the conservative-populist ideologue as an inner-circle rift plays out in the White House. Friction has surfaced among Trump advisers, particularly between Bannon and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Addressing that rift, Trump told the Post: "Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will." 
___ 
TRUMP: "I think we're doing very well on health care. It's been very much misreported that we failed with health care." — Interview with Fox Business Network, broadcast Wednesday 
THE FACTS: That may well be the president's opinion, but there's little evidence objectively to back it up. 
It's been nearly three weeks since House Speaker Paul Ryan yanked the Republican bill intended to repeal and replace much of Barack Obama's health care law. The problem: disagreements among GOP hardliners and moderates whose votes are needed to pass legislation that has no Democratic support. Since then, negotiations have led to some tweaks, but no apparent breakthroughs. 
The Republican bill remains deeply unpopular. March polls by Fox News and Quinnipiac University found overall margins of opposition to the legislation approaching or even exceeding those for Obama's law at its lowest point. 
A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that among seven major issues tested, the president got his worst rating on health care. About 6 in 10 disapproved of Trump's handling of the issue. 
___ 
TRUMP: "The car industry is not going to leave us anymore, believe me. The car industry is staying in our country. They were leaving — if I didn't win this election, you would have lost your car industry to Mexico and to other countries. They're not leaving anymore, believe me. There's retribution if they leave. There was no retribution." — Fox Business interview 
THE FACTS: The only "retribution" he has meted out has come on Twitter and in other rhetorical forms. He hasn't signed any laws or instituted rules to punish fleeing industries. In fact, Ford Motor Co. is still planning to move small car production from Michigan to an existing plant in Mexico next year. 
Trump has made keeping auto manufacturing jobs in the U.S. a theme, needling those and other companies that planned to move operations out of the country. 
___ 
TRUMP: "The secretary general and I had a productive discussion about what more NATO can do in the fight against terrorism. I complained about that a long time ago and they made a change, and now they do fight terrorism. I said it was obsolete. It's no longer obsolete." — News conference. 
THE FACTS: NATO has not substantively changed its mission as a result of Trump's campaign-season complaints. 
As evidence that NATO is heeding his call to be more aggressive on terrorism, Trump has cited a NATO decision last year to establish a high-level intelligence coordinator that could make the alliance more nimble in responding to threats. 
But that position was in the works during the Obama administration and came about because of worries about Russia, including its military action in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, as well as from a desire to respond more effectively to the Islamic State group. It did not start with Trump's complaints. 
Moreover, the U.S. is still pressing NATO to do more about terrorism. Trump said Wednesday the alliance should be stepping up assistance to Iraqi forces fighting IS militants. 
___ 
Associated Press writers Jim Drinkard, Robert Burns, Nancy Benac, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Bradley Klapper and Paul Wiseman in Washington and Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.

Fact check: Trump forgets tense time in U.S.-Russia history

Fact check: Trump forgets tension in U.S.-Russia history

Trump Russia

President Donald Trump got ahead of himself Friday when he said he's approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. 
Trump has signed an order asking the TransCanada pipeline company to "resubmit its application" for a permit to build the project, which it has done. And there's no question Trump is in favor of it. But his statement in South Carolina about the "Keystone pipeline I approved recently" was premature. 
There's still a regulatory process to go through and negotiations to be done. Trump has said he'd renegotiate some of the terms and is insisting that the pipeline be built with U.S. steel. TransCanada has said it would need time to review how any buy-American plan from Washington will impact the company. 
Late in his presidency, Barack Obama rejected Keystone XL on environmental grounds. 
Trump's order directs the State Department and other agencies to make a decision within 60 days of the application.

Fact Check: Trump gets ahead of himself on pipeline

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