(CNN) Fact check: Trump's WSJ op-ed was littered with false and misleading claims [View all]

Source: CNN

Fact check: Trump’s WSJ op-ed was littered with false and misleading claims

6 hr ago
PUBLISHED Feb 3, 2026, 2:51 PM ET
By Daniel Dale, Alicia Wallace, Tami Luhby

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed on Friday under the name of President Donald Trump. Trump criticized experts who warned that his tariff policies would cause economic destruction, writing that “the spectacular economic numbers coming out every single day” are proof that he was right and they were wrong.

But Trump’s rosy case was based in part on figures that are plain false or highly misleading, using cherry-picked beginning and ending points for various calculations to serve the president’s argument. And some of his qualitative claims were also inaccurate.

Here is a fact check.

Investment in the US

Trump repeated his regular false claim that in less than one year back in office, “we have secured commitments for more than $18 trillion” in new investment in the US, “a number that is unfathomable to many.” The number is not only unfathomable but factually incorrect. As of Tuesday, four days after the op-ed came out, the White House’s own website said the figure for “major investment announcements” during this Trump term was $9.6 trillion, and even that is a major exaggeration; a detailed CNN review in October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the US, and vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges.

-snip-

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/03/politics/fact-check-trump-wsj-op-ed