--- title: Fact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His 2026 Interview With TIME description: U.S. President Donald Trump sat for an exclusive interview ahead of the midterm elections. Here’s a check of the claims he made. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/donald-trump-2026-interview-fact-check/ author: Leslie Dickstein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-10-01T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T11:00:05.033Z article:section: Politics og:title: Fact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His Latest Interview With TIME og:description: U.S. President Donald Trump sat for an exclusive interview ahead of the midterm elections. Here’s a check of the claims he made. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/donald-trump-2026-interview-fact-check/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7797dd684c5e2d2d/6abd8dc89e734469400771bb/Winters_Time_Trump_16_v1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1800 og:image:height: 1013 og:image:alt: Winters_Time_Trump_16_v1.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His Latest Interview With TIME twitter:description: U.S. President Donald Trump sat for an exclusive interview ahead of the midterm elections. Here’s a check of the claims he made. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7797dd684c5e2d2d/6abd8dc89e734469400771bb/Winters_Time_Trump_16_v1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # Fact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His Latest Interview With TIME > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5a854c7f-c7d0-4029-80b0-7293b8d8c368&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) Oct 1, 2026 11:00 AM UTC  President Donald Trump photographed at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 28, 2026. President Donald Trump photographed at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 28, 2026. Dan Winters for TIME by [Leslie Dickstein](https://time.com/author/leslie-dickstein/), [Simmone Shah](https://time.com/author/simmone-shah/) and [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/) Oct 1, 2026 11:00 AM UTC On Sept. 28, about five weeks before Election Day, President Donald Trump sat down for an[ interview with TIME ](https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/donald-trump-2026-interview/)in the White House. TIME has published the [transcript](https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/donald-trump-2026-interview-transcript/) of that conversation. Below is a review of some of Trump’s statements from the interview. **What Trump Said: “**I won all seven swing states. They said if you won three swing states, I won all seven. I won the counties. It's very important, 86% popular vote.” **The Facts:** Trump did win the popular vote in the 2024 presidential election, and he did win all seven swing states, but he’s conflating two figures. He won the popular vote by receiving 49.8% of the vote to Kamala Harris' 48.3%. He won the electoral college by 86 votes, 312 to Harris’s 226\. He did not win all of the counties in the seven swing states, but he surprised many pundits by winning counties in the Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia metro areas. **What Trump Said: “**Their economy is gone. Their inflation is at 300% or something like that.” **The Facts:** At the end of August, Iran’s Central Bank reported inflation at 84%, [according to The New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/world/middleeast/iran-war-six-months-israel-us.html). The price of [food](https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iranians-are-running-out-of-gas-as-economic-squeeze-takes-hold-67e38a7b?st=bnZ8su&reflink=desktopwebshare%5Fpermalink) in the country has [skyrocketed](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/world/middleeast/iran-war-six-months-israel-us.html), and Iran’s currency hit a record low, tumbling to [2.5 million rials](https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-currency-hormuz-trump-91de6619aca2e1a9a32757166eae98d0) to the U.S. dollar. At the end of 2025, the exchange rate was 1.2 million rials to the dollar. **What Trump Said: “**I think the press fed it to them.” **The Facts**: Trump was responding to being asked why many thought the war in Iran would be over in four to six weeks. [Operation Epic Fury ](https://www.britannica.com/question/What-is-Operation-Epic-Fury)launched Feb. 28\. In [early](https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/politics/trump-interview-iran-jake-tapper) [March](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/us/politics/trump-iran-war-interview.html) [interviews](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/when-will-the-iran-war-end-what-trump-has-said/), the President said the action would last four to five weeks. **What Trump Said:** “We had more barrels of oil come through last night than at any time in the history of the Strait.” **The Facts:** Various reports show about 20 million barrels of oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz daily before the war. On Sept. 26, Energy [Secretary Chris Wright](https://www.google.com/search?q=fox+news+transcript+sept+27+2026+sec+wright+oil&rlz=1C5GCCM%5Fen&oq=fox+news+transcript+sept+27+2026+sec+wright+oil+&gs%5Flcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRirAjIHCAIQIRirAjIHCAMQIRirAtIBCTEwMTAyajBqOagCBrACAfEFCz2UVGxlBcQ&sourceid=chrome&source=chrome.ob&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b35bc18f,vid:D2rSUf4xPI8,st:0) said on Fox News that there was a day last week “where over 20 million barrels of oil, more than pre-conflict levels, flowed out of the straits. The running average today is almost 13 million barrels a day.” According to [Oil & Gas Mideast](https://www.oilandgasmiddleeast.com/news/strait-of-hormuz-oil-flows), oil is flowing at about 13 million barrels per day, about 77% of pre-war levels. **What Trump Said:** “They killed 75,000 people in the last number of months. Protesters…” **The Facts:** Trump is referring to the killing of civilians by the Iranian regime during protests that began at the end of December 2025 and lasted until mid-January. The protests began in Tehran after the country’s currency collapsed, and morphed into a widespread anti-regime movement that expanded across the country—until reaching its deadliest peak on Jan 8th and 9th. Iranian authorities responded to the protests by cutting off the internet and embarking on what is now considered the [deadliest](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/01/iran-after-unprecedented-violence-priority-must-be-gathering-evidence-hold) government crackdown by the Government of Iran since the 1979 Revolution. The death toll was likely lower than Trump alleges—and the crackdown is believed to have reached its deadliest point earlier this year. Iran’s state run media has put the death toll at [3,117,](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/02/iran-un-experts-demand-transparency-and-accountability-following-nationwide) while human rights organizations estimate it to be in the [tens of thousands.](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/02/iran-un-experts-demand-transparency-and-accountability-following-nationwide) At the end of January, two senior officials from Iran’s Ministry of Health told [TIME](https://time.com/7357635/more-than-30000-killed-in-iran-say-senior-officials/) that as many as 30,000 protesters could have been killed on Jan. 8th and 9th alone. **What Trump Said:** “We're popular \[in Israel\], like 99%” **The Facts:** A poll showing a 99% approval rating for Trump among Israelis does not exist, but he has polled well in Israel in the past. A 2026 Pew Research Center [survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/06/23/how-do-views-of-trump-compare-with-other-global-leaders/) found “66% have confidence in Trump, while only a third or fewer have confidence in the other leaders.” A 2026 [survey](https://jppi.org.il/en/jppi-israeli-society-index-exceptionally-high-public-trust-in-trump-regarding-israels-interests/) by the Jewish People Policy Institute found 73% of Israelis think of Trump as a better-than-average U.S. president for Israel’s interests, and 49% described him as one of the best U.S. presidents for Israel. However, the poll was sharply divided on party lines, with 92% of the Israeli right calling Trump an above-average president, but only 34% of the Israeli left had a positive view of Trump. **What Trump Said: “**He \[Biden\] allowed 25 million people that shouldn't have been here.” **The Facts:** There is no U.S. Customs and Border Protection data to back up this 25 million number, and there is a lack of definitive data on unauthorized immigrant numbers. The agency tracks encounters at ports of entry, instances of people being detained for trying to enter illegally or who were seeking legal entry but deemed ineligible. Between the start of the 2021 fiscal year through late 2024, the agency reported 10.8 million of these encounters. Pew Research Center has been [publishing](https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/08/21/u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-population-reached-a-record-14-million-in-2023/) its own estimates of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. for the last two decades and reported in 2025 that there were 14 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2023—an all-time high. **What Trump said:** “Look at the poverty numbers. The lowest we've had in…ever.” **The Facts:** This is correct. According to the Census Bureau’s annual poverty report, the official poverty rate fell to 10.2%—the lowest on [record](https://www.reuters.com/world/us-poverty-rate-102-2025-census-bureau-says-2026-09-15/) since the agency began tracking in 1959\. However, the bureau also publishes a supplementary poverty measure (SPM), created in 2009, which accounts for government benefits, like food stamps and housing subsidies, and has a more expansive view of poverty that considers whether a household has the resources for basic needs—like food, housing, clothes, and utilities. The SPM was at 13.1% in 2025, several percentage points above its all-time low of 7.7% in 2021.The Census Bureau’s report also relies on data from a survey conducted in March 2025—just three months into Trump’s presidency. **What Trump Said:** “When I took over, I inherited the greatest inflation in history.” **The Facts:** The Federal Reserve’s official inflation target for the U.S. economy is [2%](https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/economy%5F14400.htm). Towards the end of Trump’s first term, in Jan. 2020, the[ inflation rate was 2.5](https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-by-category-line-chart.htm)%. By the time his term ended that Dec., it was at[ 1.4%](https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-by-category-line-chart.htm). Under Joe Biden, inflation reached a peak of[ 8%](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA) in 2022, the highest inflation the country had seen since 1980, when it hit[ 13.5%.](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA) However, by the end of Biden’s term,[ inflation dropped to](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA) 2.9%. **What Trump Said:** “Look, we're building more automobile plants in the United States, and bigger ones, than we've ever built before.” **The Facts:** Instead of building new factories, automakers appear to be largely adapting current ones. General Motors has also announced plans to convert a number of internal combustion engine plants—located in Michigan, Tennessee, Ohio, and Kansas— to EV production as it moves to[ end the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035](https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/gm-still-planning-end-gas-powered-vehicle-sales-by-2035-ceo-2023-12-13/). Hyundai announced that it will invest $5.8 billion in a steel plant in Louisiana to produce steel that will be used by Hyundai’s two existing U.S. auto plants. Nissan has a target to reduce imports from Japan, aiming to produce 80% of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. domestically by 2030\. However, the company has no plans to open a new plant. **What Trump Said:** “We did a convention that had 107 million views, and it stupidly was put opposite the NFL opening, and we got more views, they got 25 million, we got 107 \[million\].” **The Facts:** The ratings tell a different story. [Nielsen](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/president-trumps-republican-convention-speech-draws-25-million-viewers-fox-news-2026-09-11/) data showed that Trump’s approximately two-hour speech at the GOP midterm convention on Sep. 9 in Dallas averaged 2.5 million viewers on Fox News, the only major cable ​network to carry the speech in full. NBC said the Patriots-Seahawks NFL kickoff game averaged 25.1 million views. **What Trump Said:** “We got more manufacturing jobs coming online than at any time in the history of our country.” Manufacturing employment [peaked in 1979](https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-9/forty-years-of-falling-manufacturing-employment.htm) with 19.6 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While 16,000 manufacturing jobs were added in August, the total number is [12.6 million, ](https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/us-manufacturing-adds-16000-jobs-in-august/829655/) well below the 1979 peak. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/donald-trump-2026-interview-fact-check/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/donald-trump-2026-interview-fact-check/"},"headline":"Fact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His Latest Interview With TIME","datePublished":"2026-10-01T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T11:00:05.033Z","description":"U.S. President Donald Trump sat for an exclusive interview ahead of the midterm elections. 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