Shepard Smith Fact-Checks Trump’s Claims on The Wall and Puerto Rico: ‘Decidedly Not True’

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith quickly shot down a number of President Donald Trump’s claims about Puerto Rico and his campaign to build a wall at the southern border.

Smith first checked Trump’s claims about Puerto Rico as a potentially destructive hurricane bears down on the island.

“President Trump is calling the island one of the most corrupt places on Earth. He added, by the way, he’s the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico. Those clearly are opinions as opposed to facts,” Smith said on Shepard Smith Reporting Wednesday afternoon.

Smith then put up a tweet from Trump that claimed Congress approved $92 billion for Puerto Rico.

“That is decidedly not true,” Smith said. “We checked with sources including the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA. The latest numbers show that as of the end of June, the federal government has allocated $42.7 billion for Puerto Rico. … About $21 billion is binding. In other words, Congress has to pay it. Of that, Puerto Rico has received less than $14 billion. So $14 billion or less. Not $92 billion.”

After speaking with Fox correspondent John Roberts, Smith moved on to Trump’s boast about new miles of his border wall project being completed.

“The president made border security a mainstay of his message dating back to the campaign with ‘build that wall and Mexico will pay for it,’ though that last promise is long gone,” Smith said. “Despite the president’s claims to the contrary, there’s no new wall. Existing barriers have been replaced. Same span. The total of repaired barrier is about 60 miles along that 2,000 mile border.”

“The president also said in the tweet that the wall is going up rapidly. It is not. As we just reported, there’s no new wall. Only replacement for walls which were in need of repair or upgrade. Those are the facts,” Smith said.
Watch above, via Fox News.