‘Mess’ and ‘destruction’: Truth-checking Trump’s assaults on California and Kamala Harris

Overlooking the Pacific Ocean from his personal golf course in Rancho Palos Verdesformer president Donald Trump praised his California property as one of the vital lovely on the planet.

The remainder of the state, nonetheless, is a hellscape of rampant crime, sweeping homelessness and swarming unauthorized immigrants — and it’s spurring a mass exodus, Trump mentioned at a press convention in the present day.

“The state of California is a mess,” mentioned Trump.

“We cannot allow Comrade Kamala Harris and the communist left to do to America what they did to California,” mentioned the previous president, who had held a fundraiser in Los Angeles on Thursday night time and plans one later in the present day within the Bay Space neighborhood of Woodside to money in on California’s profitable trove of donors.

Attacking California is one thing Trump didn’t even do as soon as in his first — and he says solely — presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday night time in Philadelphia. Political consultants perceived it as a missed alternative: In any case, his allies have for many years decried California as too liberal for the remainder of the nation — partly why there has by no means been a California Democrat elected president.

The jury remains to be out on how a lot Harris’ California ties may harm her probability amongst undecided voters. For many Michigan and Arizona voters who spoke to CalMatters final month, Harris’ document within the White Home mattered extra than her California model.

Trump, who repeatedly mispronounced Harris’s first title, additionally blamed Harris for federal financial and border insurance policies and insisted he outperformed her through the debate.

The Harris marketing campaign’s fast response staff posted about a few of Trump’s statementshowever has circuitously responded to what he mentioned about her document or her house state.

How a lot of the numerous, many issues Trump mentioned about California and Harris’ document is correct? Right here’s our truth test on some notable claims:

State of the state

What Trump mentioned:
“California has the highest inflation, highest taxes, the highest gas prices, the most illegal aliens, the most regulations, the most expensive utilities, and it ranks as the third worst state to start a business.”

Information:

• Inflation: Inflation charges fluctuate month to month. Florida had the best inflation at 4% as of March, whereas California had the seventh highest, at 3.6%, in accordance with an evaluation of the Bureau of Labor Statistics information by Moody’s Analytics. Even in accordance with U.S. Senate Republicans’ personal inflation tracker, as of August, California ranked fifth for elevated month-to-month inflation prices since January 2021 and had a cumulative inflation fee decrease than Florida and different states within the West area.
• Taxes: California does have the best state gross sales tax at 7.25%, however ranks eighth in complete state and native gross sales tax charges this 12 months, in accordance with the Tax Basis. California’s property tax fee is at 0.75%, the thirty fourth highest of all 50 states. The state additionally has a progressive earnings tax fee whereas different states have a flat fee for all.
• Gasoline costs: It’s true. California does have the best gasoline value of all states, at $4.76 a gallon as of in the present day, in accordance with the AAA. The nationwide common is $3.23.
• Unauthorized immigrants: California is estimated to have the biggest inhabitants of undocumented immigrants, at 1.8 millionbased mostly on a Pew Analysis Middle estimate of 2022 Census figures. However California can also be the one state the place that inhabitants decreased from 2019 to 2022, whereas the populations in Republican-led Florida and Texas grew probably the most.
• Utility charges: As of JuneHawaii — not California — had the best electrical energy charges, averaging 42.4 cents per kilowatt hour for residential prospects, in accordance with the U.S. Vitality Data Administration. In California, residential prospects paid a median of 33.0 cents per kilowatt hour. A Forbes evaluation of month-to-month utility payments by state ranked Alaska the most costly, adopted by Hawaii, Connecticut, West Virginia and Georgia.
• Worst state to begin a enterprise: It relies upon which rating you take a look at, however in accordance with ForbesCalifornia is the thirty seventh greatest state to begin a enterprise this 12 months.

Crime in California

What Trump mentioned: Trump blamed the “destruction” of San Francisco on Gov. Gavin Newsom and Harris. He mentioned murders rose “significantly” and automotive thefts “went through the roof” whereas Harris was state legal professional common. He argued that Harris was lenient in prosecuting a number of instances, that she had endorsed defunding the police and that “the police don’t endorse her.”

Information:

• Crime stats: When Harris was California legal professional common between 2011 and 2017, murder charges fluctuated, with a median of 1,819 homicides per 100,000 folks annually, in accordance with the state Division of Justice. Car thefts ebbed and flowed, averaging 164,000 per 100,000 folks. Each charges had been far decrease than through the Nineteen Nineties.
• Leniency: Regardless of claims she’s smooth on crime, Harris has a blended document. As an area prosecutor, Harris didn’t pursue the loss of life penalty in opposition to a cop killer — a case Trump used through the press convention to justify his declare. However years later, Harris prosecuted a girl with psychological sickness for assaulting law enforcement officials. As California’s legal professional common, Harris defended the state’s loss of life penalty regardless that she personally opposed it. Harris remained impartial on numerous poll measures about lowering penalties for low-level offenses and permitting earlier launch for extra offenders.
• Defund the police: It’s true that Harris expressed help for redirecting some cash and “reimagining” public security throughout her 2020 presidential marketing campaign, weeks after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, sparking waves of protests in opposition to regulation enforcement. “This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities,” she mentioned on the time. After President Joe Biden tapped her as his operating mate, nonetheless, she denounced the “defund” motion.
• Police endorsements: Greater than 100 regulation enforcement officers — together with sheriffs, former and present police chiefs and FBI brokers — endorsed Harris final week.

Immigration and the border

What Trump mentioned: He lambasted Harris for supporting “sanctuary cities” for undocumented immigrants whereas she was San Francisco’s district legal professional, claiming she shielded “illegal aliens” who dedicated murders and refused to deport them.

Information:

• Sanctuary metropolis coverage: The San Francisco metropolis ordinance — which prevented officers from handing over unauthorized migrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement even when they dedicated a felony — dates to 1985. It was initially geared toward defending asylum seekers from El Salvador and Guatemala, however was prolonged in 1989 to cowl all immigrants. Harris — who was district legal professional from 2004 to 2011 — supported altering the coverage to report undocumented immigrants arrested on suspicion of a felony in 2008.
• Prosecuting unauthorized immigrants: Trump mentioned Harris supplied sanctuary in 2008 to Edwin Ramos, a Salvadoran migrant who was charged with three counts of homicide and who had prior convictions for assault and tried theft. Equally, Trump talked about the case of Rony Aguilera, a Honduran immigrant who murdered a 14-year-old boy in 2008. It’s true metropolis officers didn’t flip him over to federal brokers on the time — beneath the sanctuary metropolis coverage that Harris helped change that 12 months. Ramos was sentenced to life in jail in 2014and Aguilera was sentenced to 40 years to life in jail in 2013.

Homelessness

What Trump mentioned: “After Kamala Harris and Gavin Newscum took charge of San Francisco, homelessness increased by over 200%.”

Information: Homelessness has grown in California, however not by that a lot. From 2007 to 2023, the variety of folks experiencing homelessness grew by 30.5%in accordance with a report back to Congress. In San Francisco, the point-in-time rely of homeless folks this 12 months reached the bottom stage since 2015, in accordance with town. Almost 186,000 Californians stay on the streets or homeless shelters, up 8% from 2022, in accordance with a brand new CalMatters evaluation. As of final 12 monthsCalifornia accounted for almost 30% of the nation’s homeless inhabitants and roughly half of the unsheltered inhabitants.

California exodus

What Trump mentioned: He claimed the state has probably the most variety of folks leaving.

Information: It’s true that California shed the most individuals final 12 months — 75,423, in accordance with the Census Bureau. However it’s not only a California downside: New York misplaced probably the most inhabitants between 2020 and 2022, dropping 2.6% of its inhabitants, in accordance with Census information. The causes for California’s shrinking inhabitants are sophisticated: Some died, some moved to different states as a result of excessive value of dwelling, and a few left the nation altogether.