--- title: President Obama Fact-Check's Donald Trump, GOP Convention description: President Obama on Friday assumed the role of fact-checker-in-chief following Donald Trump's doom-and-gloom Republican convention speech canonical: https://time.com/4419346/barack-obama-donald-trump-republican-convention/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-22T17:06:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:28:47.901Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Says Trump's View of America Doesn't 'Jibe' With the Facts og:description: "The fears that were expressed throughout the week just don't jibe with the facts" og:url: https://time.com/4419346/barack-obama-donald-trump-republican-convention/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee00c65460b9cb4a/69889edde20a87673ea91b85/gettyimages-578778262.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Obama Holds News Conference With Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Says Trump's View of America Doesn't 'Jibe' With the Facts twitter:description: "The fears that were expressed throughout the week just don't jibe with the facts" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee00c65460b9cb4a/69889edde20a87673ea91b85/gettyimages-578778262.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Says Donald Trump's View of America Doesn't 'Jibe' With the Facts > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 22, 2016 5:06 PM UTC  U.S. President Barak Obama (L) and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto arrive to speak to the media during a news conference in the East Room at the White House July 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images U.S. President Barak Obama (L) and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto arrive to speak to the media during a news conference in the East Room at the White House July 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 22, 2016 5:06 PM UTC President Obama on Friday assumed the role of fact-checker-in-chief following [Donald Trump’s doom-and-gloom Republican convention speech](http://time.com/4418398/donald-trump-convention-speech/), saying [the picture painted by the GOP](http://time.com/4418423/donald-trump-republican-convention-hillary-clinton/) doesn’t line up with reality. “This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse. This vision of violence and chaos everywhere doesn’t really jibe with the experience of most people,” Obama said during a joint news conference with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. “I think it is important just to be absolutely clear here that some of the fears that were expressed throughout the week just don’t jibe with the facts.” From crime to immigration, Obama said, Trump and various other speakers at the Republican convention [embellished the facts](http://time.com/4418357/republican-convention-donald-trump-fact-check/) in their depictions of widespread death and a flood of migrants coming across American borders. Violent crime rates, Obama said, have been lower during his presidency than at any point during the past four decades, despite an uptick in murders in some major cities. Obama noted the recent violent tragedies Americans have lived through — from Orlando and Minnesota to Dallas and Baton Rouge — but said that as a whole, America is far less violent than it was a few decades ago. “There are going to be different visions about where we should be going as a country; how we can provide jobs … how we make sure our tax system is fair,” Obama said of Democrats and Republicans. “But we’re not going to make good decisions based on fears that don’t have a basis in fact. That is something I hope that all Americans pay attention to.” Peña Nieto on Friday was also asked to address the Mexican government’s perception of the presidential race, given Trump’s promise to build a wall between U.S. and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. Peña Nieto said he would not weigh in on the American democratic process and that Mexico will always be a partner to the U.S. “We are going to respect the decision of the American people,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4419346/barack-obama-donald-trump-republican-convention/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4419346/barack-obama-donald-trump-republican-convention/"},"headline":"President Obama Says Donald Trump's View of America Doesn't 'Jibe' With the Facts","datePublished":"2016-07-22T17:06:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:28:47.901Z","description":"\"The fears that were expressed throughout the week just don't jibe with the facts\"","url":"https://time.com/4419346/barack-obama-donald-trump-republican-convention/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","Obama","Enrique Pena Nieto","Mexico","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee00c65460b9cb4a/69889edde20a87673ea91b85/gettyimages-578778262.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee00c65460b9cb4a/69889edde20a87673ea91b85/gettyimages-578778262.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Holds News Conference With Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto","caption":"President Obama Holds News Conference With Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4419346/barack-obama-donald-trump-republican-convention/","name":"President Obama Says Donald Trump's View of America Doesn't 'Jibe' With the Facts"}}]}] ```