Fact check on Donald Trump's town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania

Donald Trump's Monday town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, made headlines for its impromptu 30-minute listening party and several medical emergencies that derailed conversations with supporters.

Moderated by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, the proceedings were paused while two participants received medical attention. Trump then jokingly asked if “anyone else wants to faint?” Then he said, “Let’s ask no more questions. Let's just listen to music. Let's make music out of it. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”

The Republican presidential candidate stopped taking questions from the audience about an hour after his arrival and instead played music for 39 minutes.

There were also several false and misleading claims made throughout the evening Newsweeks The fact check team analyzed.

Newsweek emailed a Trump representative seeking comment.

“We didn’t lose a single soldier in 18 months until this disaster happened when they took power.”

This refers to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Trump often mentions at his rallies. The last U.S. troops left Afghanistan in late August 2021, days after an ISIS-K suicide attack at Kabul airport killed 13 American soldiers and 170 Afghan civilians.

His claim that before the withdrawal he “didn’t lose a single soldier in 18 months” is not true. The Department of Defense's Defense Casualty Analysis System shows that there were two enemy deaths and five non-hostile/pending deaths in the 18 months prior to the August 2021 withdrawal.

“We had an interest rate of 2 percent, now it’s 10 percent.”

Trump claimed that mortgage rates had reached 10 percent. That is not true. During Trump's presidency, the lowest average interest rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages were 2.65 and 2.1 percent, respectively.

They are currently not at 10 percent. Data from Freddie Mac, provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, says the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average in the United States was 6.32 percent as of October 10, 2024. The 15-year rate was 5.41 percent.

“They added 818,000 fake jobs and a few months ago they padded the job numbers to make the jobs look better… they were fake jobs.”

Trump claimed that the Biden administration recently added 818,000 “phantom jobs” to its economic forecasts, which is untrue. There were no “dummy jobs”.

As noted in a Fact Check by Poynter, in August 2024, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced a “benchmark revision” of employment statistics for March 2024. Using unemployment insurance tax records, the BLS corrected previous figures by 818,000 jobs. The jobs that were revised downwards were not “sham jobs”; They were part of estimate recalculations. The final revision will be published in February 2025.

“People will come to our country legally. You know, it's so unfair when people wait… They do tests and then people come, I actually say, 'Why don't you just go in?'”

Trump suggested that it would be easier to become a U.S. citizen across the border than to apply for naturalization. This is an inflammatory yet misleading comparison between those applying for U.S. citizenship through naturalization — with Trump referring to the English and civics “tests” taken as part of that process — and those entering the country undocumented enter the country.

Non-citizens who enter the country without a legal basis to remain in the United States will be deported to their home country or a third country, face a ban on re-entry for at least five years, and may be charged with a crime.

“Migrants caught crossing the border illegally face apprehension, likely detention, and removal from the United States by the Department of Homeland Security,” the Department of Homeland Security said.

“Springfield, Ohio, a city of 50,000 people, just added 32,000 people who are illegal immigrants.”

There is no evidence of this. A statement from the city of Springfield, Ohio, said there are approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in Clark County (the county seat where Springfield is located).

“Haitian immigrants are here legally under the Immigration Parole Program. Once here, immigrants can apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS),” the statement said.

“Haiti was designated for TPS by the Secretary of Homeland Security. The current TPS will be granted until February 3, 2026.”

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services states that once TPS has been granted, DHS cannot detain an individual in the United States based on their immigration status.

“Kamala Harris also contributed to the loss of 300,000 children.”

Kristi Noem, who accompanied Trump on stage, made this claim. Trump seemed to agree with this and has already repeated a version of it.

It is false, as has been debunked before Newsweek. It was based on an audit by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that found ICE had failed to order 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children to appear in court. More than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children failed to appear in court for immigration proceedings.

However, Trump and others have incorrectly said that these numbers show that more than 300,000 children have disappeared. Migrant children are placed in emergency shelters or with a sponsor by the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for overseeing the placement.

The audit monitored reporting under the Trump and Biden administrations.

“In Butler, Pennsylvania … we had 101,000 people.”

Trump referred to the crowd at a recent rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of his first assassination attempt in July. This claim has been refuted Newsweek. Estimates of Newsweek and others estimate the actual number to be somewhere under 59,000.