博客

House Republicans warn of Chinese paper mills threat to US science funding | Fox News

Brian Babin and Rich McCormick demand answers from 5 federal agencies about safeguards against CCP-linked fraudulent research

By Morgan Phillips
Fox News

Published February 5, 2026 11:30am EST

FIRST ON FOX:House Republicans are sounding the alarm over what they say is a growing threat from China-linked “paper mills” that may be injecting fake scientific research into U.S. government-funded programs, potentially compromising taxpayer-funded science and American scientific leadership.

In oversight letters sent this week and obtained by Fox News Digital, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, and subcommittee chair Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., are demanding answers from federal agencies about what safeguards they have in place to prevent falsified or plagiarized studies tied to CCP-backed publishing operations from influencing federal grants and research.

The letters warn that fraudulent academic papers, produced by so-called paper mills that manufacture or sell research for profit, are increasingly appearing in U.S. journals and may already be shaping federally funded science, despite originating from operations linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“These operations are becoming major sources of falsified and plagiarized research,” the committee wrote, cautioning that U.S. research grants could be awarded to individuals who rely on compromised studies or collaborate with CCP-affiliated funding sources, undermining the integrity of taxpayer-funded programs.

CHINESE SCHOLARS CHARGED WITH SMUGGLING BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS INTO US UNDER RESEARCH COVER

House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas,above, and subcommittee chair Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., are demanding answers from federal agencies about what safeguards they have in place to prevent falsified or plagiarized studies tied to CCP-backed publishing operations from influencing federal grants and research.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In the letters, the committee asks the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide information on how agencies vet published studies used in funding decisions, whether they screen for ties to foreign adversaries or paper-mill activity, and what steps are taken when fraudulent research is identified.

The committee also requests briefings on how agencies plan to strengthen oversight and protect taxpayer-funded science from compromised or manipulated findings.

Fox News Digital has asked the five agencies to provide a response.

CHINESE NATIONALS ARRESTED AT TOP SCHOOL SHOWS HOW CCP VIEWS US UNIVERSITIES AS ‘WEAK LINK,’ EXPERTS WARN

The committee pointed to a 2006 Alzheimer’s disease study, which helped popularize the so-called “amyloid hypothesis,” and was later revealed to have relied on fabricated data — yet the findings were used for years to justify research priorities and funding decisions at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

According to the committee, NIH continued to fund research based on the faulty hypothesis for roughly 16 years, culminating in the approval of an experimental drug aimed at stabilizing amyloid proteins in the brain — before the underlying research was exposed as fraudulent.

Lawmakers warn the case illustrates how fake or manipulated studies can embed themselves into the scientific ecosystem, misdirecting funding, delaying legitimate breakthroughs, and eroding trust in federally supported research.

The committee requests briefings on how agencies plan to strengthen oversight and protect taxpayer-funded science from compromised or manipulated findings.(iStock)

The committee also cites massive retractions by major academic publishers as evidence that fraudulent research tied to paper-mill operations has already flooded Western journals.

In one example highlighted in the letters, Wiley, a prominent U.S. academic publisher, retracted more than 8,000 fabricated papers in 2023 alone after uncovering widespread manipulation linked to paper mills. The scandal ultimately forced the collapse of one of Wiley’s journal subsidiaries.

Lawmakers say the scale of the retractions underscores how paper mills have been able to exploit peer-review systems and push fake research into respected publications where it can be cited, relied upon, and reused long before problems are detected.

US UNIVERSITIES TRAINING CHINESE MILITARY SCIENTISTS ON TAXPAYER DIME, COMMITTEE WARNS

Investigations cited by the committee estimate that individual paper mills can generate hundreds of fraudulent studies per year, and that hundreds of thousands of suspect papers worldwide may already be contaminating scientific databases.

Analyses of the scientific literature suggest that thousands of fake or suspicious papers have already entered legitimate journals, particularly in fields like biomedical research and engineering, undermining confidence in academic publishing and scientific credibility.

Lawmakers say the scale of the retractions underscores how paper mills have been able to exploit peer-review systems and push fake research into respected publications — where it can be cited, relied upon, and reused long before problems are detected.(Reuters)

In some cases, publishers have been forced to retract thousands of articles linked to suspected paper-mill activity, and entire journals have been shut down after fraud was uncovered.

Public trust in science and federal research institutions has already been shaken — a trend exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic — raising concerns that further revelations could deepen skepticism toward taxpayer-funded science.

The committee ties much of the paper-mill activity to Chinese Communist Party–linked academic incentives, arguing that China’s centralized “publish or perish” system has fueled demand for fabricated research.

According to sources cited in the letters, Chinese researchers face intense pressure to continually publish in order to secure jobs, promotions, and funding — a system that lawmakers say has encouraged widespread abuse, including ghostwriting, data fabrication, and the purchase of authorship slots.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The letters cite surveys showing that nearly half of medical residents at some Chinese hospitals admitted to buying or selling papers or hiring ghostwriters, while other investigations found that Chinese institutions have historically offered large cash rewards for publication in elite Western journals.

Although Beijing announced reforms aimed at curbing cash-for-publication incentives, the committee argues those efforts have been poorly enforced and riddled with loopholes, allowing paper mills to continue operating at scale.

No English content available

El Salvador’s Bukele says violent gang bangers are literal Satan worshippers, in sharp immigration warning

El Salvador president spoke at National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday ahead of Trump

By Emma Colton
Fox News

Published February 5, 2026 11:33am EST

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele joined the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, warning attendees that violent gang members in his country have a documented history of worshiping Satan.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Listen to this article

2 min

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele joined the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, warning attendees that violent gang members in his country have a documented history of worshiping Satan — and that some of those gang members have crossed into the U.S.

“Many people don’t know that our enemy was not just the flesh and blood, but spiritual as well. The gangs didn’t just murder, rape, extort. They also worship Satan,” Bukele said on Thursday morning from the U.S. Capitol. “It’s straight up. Literally. When we went to their homes to arrest them, we discovered altars that were used for satanic rituals.”

“This is well documented. We put up the pictures, the videos right away. But for some reason, the global mainstream media didn’t think it was worth it to cover it. But we know gangs in El Salvador were satanic and they worshiped Satan,” he continued.

[TRUMP SAYS CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS ‘MAKE HELLS ANGELS LOOK LIKE THE SWEETEST PEOPLE ON EARTH’]

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele joined the annual National Prayer Breakfast, warning attendees that violent gang members in his country have a documented history of worshiping Satan.(Alex Pena/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He warned the body of bipartisan lawmakers and business leaders: “Some of those gangs are here in the United States.”

Bukele has previously warned that El Salvador’s security forces found alleged MS-13-linked “satanic” altars and ritual materials during raids.

Bukele is a Trump ally who struck a deal with the U.S. government in 2025 to accept hundreds of Venezuelan gang members, who were illegally living in the United States, into El Salvador’s notoriously no-nonsense, high-security prison.

[TRUMP DISCUSSES EXPANSION OF DRUG CARTEL CRACKDOWN, ISSUES GRIM WARNING TO IRAN]

Bukele said crime has cratered in his country after snuffing out violent gang syndicates with prison time and law-and-order policies.

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 6, 2025.(Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

“El Salvador was the murder capital of the world. That was our nickname, murder capital of the world. The most dangerous place in the whole wide world. And now it’s the safest country in the whole continent,” he said Thursday.

[BUKELE CHALLENGES HILLARY CLINTON TO TAKE EL SALVADOR’S ENTIRE PRISON POPULATION AFTER CRITICISM]

The National Prayer Breakfast was held at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 5, 2026.(Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump also addressed the prayer breakfast, reflecting on the administration’s mission to protect religious liberty.

[CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP]

“They declared that all of us are made free and equal by the hand of our creator,” Trump said of the Founding Fathers. “A lot of presidents refuse to say that.… Some major politicians refuse to say the word God. They don’t want to say it. I say it, that we are endowed with our sacred rights to life, liberty, and not by government, but by God Almighty himself.”

美俄同意恢复军事对话 核条约续约有望 | 联合早报

蔡添成
发布/2026年2月5日 23:30

（莫斯科／华盛顿综合电）美国和俄罗斯的《新削减战略武器条约》（New START）周四（2月5日）到期，但几个小时后，就有消息指美俄可能同意到期后继续遵守条约。联合国与国际组织呼吁美俄谈判限制核武军备，担心引发新的军备竞赛。

美国新闻网站Axios周四报道，熟悉谈判的消息人士称，美俄即将达成一项协议，在《新削减战略武器条约》到期后继续遵守条约。

报道说，双方过去24小时在阿布扎比进行谈判。目前仍不确定美俄是否同意继续遵守条约多一段时间，可能多半年。

白宫仍未对此置评。

在条约到期的几个小时后，美国五角大楼周四称，美俄已同意在中断四年多后，恢复高级别军事对话。

美军欧洲司令部指出，恢复军事对话的协议是在阿联酋首都阿布扎比举行的乌克兰和平谈判取得进展之后达成的。特朗普的特使威特科夫和女婿库什纳出席了此次谈判。

俄罗斯总统普京去年9月建议继续遵守《新削减战略武器条约》一年，但没有收到美方的正式回应。

克里姆林宫发言人佩斯科夫周四表明，如果华盛顿对莫斯科提出继续遵守条约限制的提议做出建设性的回应，俄罗斯仍然准备与美国对话。

美国国务卿鲁比奥周三受询时似乎不急于推动核军控条约延期，只说总统特朗普会在迟些时候处理这一问题。

鲁比奥说：“总统过去已明确指出，如要在21世纪实现真正的军备控制，不可能在不包括中国的情况下推进，因为他们（中国）拥有庞大且增长迅速的核武库。”

美国科学家联盟（FAS）估计，中国部署和储存的核弹头约600枚，远少于美国的3700枚和俄罗斯的约4300枚。不过，五角大楼去年12月发表的报告指出，到2030年，中国核弹头库存可能超过1000枚。

俄乌战争爆发后，俄罗斯在2023年暂停执行条约。分析指出，《新削减战略武器条约》作为一项军控手段仍然有价值，因为俄罗斯没有正式退出条约，并承诺遵守条约规定的核弹数量限制。美国国务院去年初提交给国会的一份报告指出，美方高度确信俄罗斯在2024年没有进行任何超过条约限制的大规模核军备活动。

国际忧军备竞赛加速 促美俄克制

国际对核军备无所限制仍是忧心忡忡。联合国秘书长古特雷斯周三晚说，这是半个多世纪以来，全球首次面对一个战略核武库不再受限的世界，敦促美俄尽快重返谈判桌。

古特雷斯发声明说：“几十年来取得的成就付诸东流，时机再糟糕不过了。当前动用核武器的风险，正处在几十年来的最高水平。”

国际废除核武运动（ICAN）也呼吁美俄在新协议谈判期间，继续遵守条约限制。ICAN负责人帕克说：“没有《新削减战略武器条约》的限制，美俄新一轮军备竞赛加速的风险将真实存在……而其他拥核国也将感受到被迫跟进的压力。”

教宗良十四世周三呼吁美俄尽力避开新一轮的军备竞赛；北约官员周四呼吁美俄在核领域保持克制与负责任，指这对全球安全至关重要。

另外，中国外交部发言人林剑周四在例行记者会上回答媒体的提问指出，中方对美俄《新削减战略武器条约》到期失效表示遗憾，并指条约对维护全球战略稳定具有重要意义。

林剑强调，中方一贯主张推进核裁军，必须遵循维护全球战略稳定和各国安全不受减损的原则，并说中国的核力量与美俄完全不在一个量级，现阶段不会参加核裁军谈判。

不过，在澳大利亚访问的德国外长瓦德富尔，周四呼吁中国在武器发展上保持克制。他说，中国应当加入未来的军备约束。

Bio lab found in Las Vegas is similar to scene discovered in California, raising questions from officials

February 5, 2026 / 10:54 AM EST / CBS News

Officials in California criticized the federal response to a bio lab found in a Fresno County suburb after a similar setup was found at a home in Las Vegas over the weekend.

The California lab was found in a Reedley home in late 2023. Police said the illegal facility contained “pathogen-labeled containers” with labels that included dengue fever, HIV, and malaria, as well as about 1,000 mice that officials believe were used as test subjects.

Jia Bei Zhu, a Chinese citizen, was arrested in October 2023 and indicted in November. He was charged with distributing adulterated and misbranded medical items, including coronavirus tests, and remains behind bars. He is set to appear in court in April.

Authorities raided a home in Las Vegas early Saturday morning and found a similar set-up inside. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sheriff Kevin McMahill said that officials found “multiple refrigerators, a freezer, and other laboratory-type equipment, along with numerous bottles and jugs containing unknown liquid substances” inside a locked garage.

“These items, importantly, were consistent in appearance to the items found and described in the Reedley, California lab investigation,” McMahill said.

FBI Special Agent in Charge for Las Vegas Christoper Delzotto said agents found items including a centrifuge, biosafety tools and “unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids.” More than 1,000 samples were collected from the scene and transported to the National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland, Delzotto said.

Aerial footage from Las Vegas police shows an investigation being conducted, during a news briefing about a warrant that was served on the east end of Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2026, at Metropolitan Police Headquarters. Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

McMahill said that the police department “received limited information that laboratory equipment and potentially hazardous materials” were being stored at the Vegas house before the raid.

The investigation revealed that Zhu also owned the Vegas residence and “raised significant concern for what” officers might encounter, McMahill said. A robot was used to clear the house before police entered, and hazmat teams helped move items from the home.

Nicole Zieba, the city manager of Reedley said she was “not surprised about the discovery.” Fresno County supervisor Nathan Magsig said items discovered in the Reedley lab “pointed to the fact that there may be additional laboratories in other parts” of the U.S. Zieba said that Reedley officials had tried to warn the federal government.

“I hope they are paying attention because when we tried to raise the flag, we received just such a poor response from the CDC,” Zieba said. “It’s almost as if they didn’t want anything to do with it.”

Las Vegas authorities also searched a second home, but found no suspicious materials there. McMahill said police had arrested Ori Solomon, a man believed to be the property manager of both Vegas properties, on an initial charge of disposing and discharging hazardous waste.

Anthony Capozzi, Zhu’s attorney, told the Associated Press that his client “is not involved in any kind of a biolab being conducted in a home in Las Vegas.” Capozzi said Zhu has been in federal custody for three years.

“What went on in that residence, we are unaware of,” Capozzi said.

Federal agents were seen entering the Reedley lab again in the past days. McMahill said the Las Vegas police department still has “a lot of work” ahead of them.

“Vegas is in for a long road,” Zieba said. “If it’s anything like the Reedley case, there was no manual to pull off the shelves.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/suspected-bio-lab-las-vegas-potentially-linked-2023-california-case/

‘Americans are starting to notice,’ White House reporter on reality of ICE tactics | CNN Politics

Published 1:54 PM EST, Thu February 5, 2026 / Source: CNN

By Dana Bash, CNN

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times joins the Inside Politics panel to break down the White House’s new communications strategy on immigration. According to Kanno-Youngs, “the president says this is a public relations problem, but it seems the problem is there is a break between what they say and the reality on the ground.”

4:51 • Source: CNN

Latest News from CNN Politics 15 videos

House GOP rips ‘insane’ Democrat demand to ‘unmask’ ICE agents as DHS shutdown looms

DHS runs out of funding and risks a shutdown on Feb 13

By Elizabeth Elkind
Fox News

Published February 5, 2026 11:20am EST

House Republicans are unsure if Democrats are negotiating in good faith on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with the chances of a partial shutdown growing larger by the day.

Congress has until the end of Feb. 13 to produce a bipartisan plan funding DHS for the remainder of the fiscal year.

A DHS funding bill will need at least some Democratic support in the Senate, where bipartisan cooperation is critical to the 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation.

But in the House, which governs by a simple majority, Republicans are balking at some of the key demands made by Democratic leaders in exchange for their support.

SCHUMER, JEFFRIES MEND RIFT, PRESENT UNITED FRONT ON DHS REFORMS AS DEADLINE NEARS

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and an ICE agent, right.(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images; David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

“I’m surprised that they didn’t just say the quiet part out loud, that they want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement altogether, which is what some of the members are actually saying,” Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. “So I think those demands are ridiculous.”

He and other conservatives have also said they do not believe Democrats are negotiating for a legitimate compromise — a lack of trust that puts any potential deal on shaky ground with only nine days until a possible DHS shutdown.

“We had four years of anything but good faith, and they really put our country into a really bad situation,” Pfluger said.

DEMS’ DHS SHUTDOWN THREAT WOULD HIT FEMA, TSA WHILE IMMIGRATION FUNDING REMAINS INTACT

Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said he had similar concerns about trust when engaging with Democrats on the topic.

And Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said, “I think it’s kind of hard to negotiate with legislative terrorists.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., rolled out a list of four key asks for the White House during a press conference on Wednesday — a ban on ICE agents wearing masks, mandatory body cameras for federal officers, requiring judicial warrants for arrests, and a ban on deporting and detaining U.S. citizens.

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger speaks during a press conference in Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2025.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

SHUTDOWN AVERTED FOR NOW, BUT SENATE WARNS DHS FIGHT COULD TRIGGER ANOTHER IN DAYS

While there is considerable bipartisan agreement on body-worn cameras, demands like forcing ICE agents to remove masks and getting judicial warrants have been largely criticized by Republicans.

“The ban on masks is insane. No, that’s a non-starter. This idea of this ban on deporting U.S. citizens thing, is a ruse. They’re trying to get us to admit this is happening in some type of systematic manner or something like that. Americans are getting deported out of the country, so that’s fake,” Moore said. “This is all political, and it’s all messaging on their part.”

Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, whose state was on the front lines of the recent border crisis, told Fox News Digital, “Let law enforcement do their job. They wouldn’t need to wear a mask if they weren’t getting doxxed.”

NEW DEM PROPOSAL WOULD RESTRICT ICE’S KEY TOOL TO DETAIN CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS

Moore pointed out that another ask on that list, mandatory body-worn cameras for ICE agents, was part of an initial DHS funding compromise that Democrats walked away from in droves.

“That was in the bill that they don’t wanna pass — the homeland bill that we had negotiated, that was in the bill. So if they want body cams so bad, vote for the bill,” he said.

Other Republicans, like Reps. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., and Troy Downing, R-Mont., said they were not as familiar with Democrats’ demands but were more hopeful about possibly striking a deal with the other side.

“I would hope that they are [negotiating in good faith], but I’ll withhold judgment until we see a little bit more of how that goes,” Barrett said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at a press conference following the passage of government funding bills, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2026.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Downing noted, however, that Democrats did not always agree with each other, either. Jeffries notably voted against the bipartisan compromise that Schumer struck with President Donald Trump last week to reopen the federal government after the left rejected the initial deal.

“It sounds like they’re not always speaking amongst themselves, so I don’t even know how to categorize good faith, because it seems like they don’t have good faith amongst the two chambers there,” Downing said.

Democrats, meanwhile, have accused Trump of empowering ICE to abuse the law in Minneapolis, where federal agents’ killing of two U.S. citizens during demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown has led to sky-high tensions.

Since the press conference, they’ve also released a list of six additional demands before they agree to a full DHS funding deal.

“Federal immigration agents cannot continue to cause chaos in our cities while using taxpayer money that should be used to make life more affordable for working families. The American people rightfully expect their elected representatives to take action to rein in ICE and ensure no more lives are lost,” Jeffries and Schumer wrote in a letter accompanying those demands.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6388812491112

印尼总统下令严打股市违规行为 穆迪下调评级展望至负面

发布时间：2026年2月5日 23:46 / 来源：联合早报

印度尼西亚经济事务协调部长哈塔托说，总统普拉博沃已下令对任何违反股市规则的行为予以坚决打击。

路透社引述哈塔托星期四（2月5日）在一个论坛上的讲话说，普拉博沃已指示官员尽快应对近期股市暴跌。他还说，当局将与评级机构保持透明沟通，并对印尼能够维护市场信任表示乐观。

穆迪将印尼评级展望下调至负面

国际信用评级公司穆迪（Moody’s）将印尼的评级展望从“稳定”下调至“负面”，理由是对普拉博沃执政下政策稳定性的担忧。

穆迪在确认印尼Baa2评级不变的同时调整了展望。上周印尼股指因可投资性担忧而遭遇大幅抛售，同时，普拉博沃推动的一揽子更广泛改革，也引发了市场对该国财政与货币政策的担忧。

彭博社引述穆迪的声明说：“此次展望调整源于决策可预测性下降，这可能削弱政策有效性，并指向治理的弱化，如果这种趋势持续，可能会侵蚀印尼长期建立起来的政策信誉，而这种信誉一直支撑着稳健的经济增长以及宏观、财政和金融稳定。”

在指数编制机构MSCI Inc.发出可能下调印尼股市评级的警告后，股市大跌。印尼证券交易所首席执行官伊曼·拉赫曼（Iman Rachman）1月30日宣布辞职。

伊曼在新闻发布会上对记者说：“我希望这对资本市场是最好的，希望我的辞职能改善我们的资本市场。”

Ukraine and Russia carry out first prisoner exchange in months as U.S. touts

Fact check: Trump repeats lies about inflation, immigration and elections in NBC interview

2026-02-05T18:30:47.152Z / CNN

When President Donald Trump claimed to NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas in a Wednesday interview that “I’m getting – starting to get great polls on the economy,” Llamas quickly pushed back by noting that Trump’s polling on the economy is “not great.”

Trump immediately backed off his assertion, retreating to a claim that his economy-related polling “should be great.”

That was a textbook moment in political interviewing – but it was one of the only times in the interview that Llamas challenged one of Trump’s false claims. Over and over, when the president repeated lies that were debunked months or years ago, Llamas responded simply “right” or “yeah” – or didn’t acknowledge them at all.

Ad Feedback

Trump’s rapid-fire dishonesty is difficult for any interviewer to handle, especially given the limited time they are given by the White House, and it’s not uncommon for them to largely ignore the serial inaccuracy in order to get to the topics they’ve planned to address. Llamas certainly asked the president various skeptical and important questions, including some sharp follow-ups. And NBC published a fact check of some of the false claims in a Wednesday article on its website.

But Llamas’ hands-off approach to the president’s falsehoods left people watching the interview on television and through social media clips without immediate corrective information on a variety of pressing subjects. An exchange about inflation, for example, was littered with a bunch of inaccurate Trump figures and assertions that Llamas let pass by with the word “right.” And in one case, when Trump claimed it’s only “very few” product prices that have stubbornly refused to fall during this presidency, Llamas initially responded with a comment that made it sound like he was endorsing the false claim: “Yeah, very few. I get it.”

Here is a CNN fact check of some of Trump’s remarks in the interview. An NBC spokesperson declined to comment.

Inflation and the economy

---

Prices during this presidency

Trump’s claim: Llamas told Trump, “Talking about the economy, you’ve brought a lot of prices down, as we said. Some are still stubborn.” Trump responded, “Very few.”

Fact check: It’s not “very few” prices that are stubbornly refusing to decline. Overall prices have increased during this presidency, Consumer Price Index data shows – in December 2025, average consumer prices were 2.7% higher than they were in December 2024 – and far more products have gotten more expensive since Trump’s January 2025 inauguration than have gotten cheaper.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas echoed Trump’s false claim, saying, “But – but when – yeah, very few. I get it.” He then proceeded to ask Trump, “When you talk to Americans, though, do you have to get them to understand that the prices are not gonna come back down to your first term because we had a pandemic and we had record inflation?”

The inflation Trump inherited

Trump’s claim: Trump claimed, “I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. It was through the roof. Now, you will say it wasn’t in history, it was 48 years. You know there’s a theory. There was – I say it was the worst. But whether it’s 48 years or what, I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country.”

Fact check: Trump didn’t inherit the worst inflation in US history. The year-over-year inflation rate in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, was 2.9%, and the rate in the month in which Trump took over partway through, January 2025, was 3.0%; those figures are only slightly higher than the most recent rate, 2.7% in December 2025. The rate did hit a 40-year high, 9.1%, in June 2022, but that was not a 48-year high, and it was far from the all-time high of 23.7%, which was set in 1920. Regardless, the rate then fell sharply over Biden’s last two-and-a-half years in office.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: He said “right” twice during these Trump comments.

Inflation today

Trump’s claim:“And now we have almost no inflation. Think of it. You know what it was for the last three months? 1.2%.” He repeated moments later, “For the last three months it’s at 1.2%. You know that.”

Fact check: The most recent year-over-year inflation rate, 2.7% in December 2025, is not “almost no inflation” by any reasonable definition of that vague phrase. And inflation wasn’t “1.2%” for the last three months; the year-over-year rate was 2.7% in November 2025 and 3% in September 2025. (The government couldn’t calculate the October rate because of data-collection issues caused by a government shutdown.)

Trump claimed in a newspaper op-ed last week “annual core inflation for the past three months has dropped to just 1.4%,” but: Trump used “1.2%” in the NBC interview; the math behind even the 1.4% figure is not clear (CNN got a result of 1.6% when using a standard method of “annualizing” data); the White House ignored CNN’s requests this week for a detailed explanation of the 1.4% figure; and Trump did not say in the interview that he was referring to “core” inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, or using annualized data.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas said “right” when Trump claimed we now have almost no inflation. He did interject with the current inflation rate after Trump first made his “1.2%” claim; Llamas said, “Inflation is down – 2.7 right now.” But when Trump repeated the “1.2%” figure and insisted “you know that,” Llamas said, “Yeah. But the last – okay.” He then moved on to another subject.

Gas prices

Trump’s claim: Trump said, “You saw gasoline this last week at $1.99 a gallon. It used to be, it was $4-and-a-half, $5 a gallon – (now) $1.99 a gallon of gasoline.”

Fact check: The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline on Wednesday was about $2.89, per data published by AAA – down from about $3.12 on his inauguration day in January 2025 – and the average was $2.86 or higher every day since the start of last week; a tiny number of stations were selling gas for $1.99 or less during that period. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, told CNN that each day from January 26 through February 2, GasBuddy found just 18 to 34 gas stations around the country, out of about 150,000 stations GasBuddy tracks, offering gas for under $2 aside from special discounts.

“An average over those dates would be 28 stations over the course of the week, or 0.018% of all U.S. stations. I think I’d rather find the needle in the haystack at that point,” De Haan said in a Thursday email.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: None; he said “yeah” moments later.

Investment in the US

Trump’s claim: Trump claimed, “I have $18 trillion being invested into the country.”

Fact check: The $18 trillion number is fiction. The White House’s own website said at the time of the interview that the figure for “major investment announcements” during this Trump term is $9.6 trillion, and even that is a major exaggeration; a detailed CNN review last fall 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.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas asked a follow-up question that accepted Trump’s false premise: “But when can Americans expect to feel that?”

China and tariffs

Trump’s claim: Trump said of China: “Well, they’re paying a lot of tariffs, as you know. China’s paying a lot of tariffs.”

Fact check: Tariff payments are made by importers in the US, not China and other foreign countries, and those importers often pass on some of their costs to consumers. While foreign exporters may sometimes drop their prices to try to keep their products competitive, various analyses have found that the overwhelming majority of the costs of the tariffs Trump imposed in 2025 are being covered by a combination of US businesses and US consumers.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: None; he said “yeah” moments later.

The 2020 election

Trump’s claim: Trump lied twice about the 2020 election in rapid succession, saying, “I won three times.”

Fact check: He won twice, in 2016 and 2024, and lost fair and square in 2020.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: None; he continued to ask questions about the subject he was trying to get Trump to talk about, the possibility that Trump will have the federal government pay him billions in taxpayer money to settle a lawsuit he filed in his personal capacity, not in his official capacity as president, over an unauthorized leak of his tax returns during his first presidency.

What Trump said about elections in another interview this week

Trump’s claim: Llamas asked, “You’ve recently suggested nationalizing elections. What do you mean by that?” Trump responded, “When – and I didn’t say national(ize) – I said there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt.”

Fact check: As Llamas initially told him, Trump did say he wanted to nationalize elections; it’s not true that Trump merely said some parts of the country are corrupt. Specifically, in an interview that aired Monday, Trump said: “The Republicans should say, we want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: None; Trump quickly proceeded to make another false claim about elections.

Elections in Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta

Trump’s claim: Trump, talking about the interview that aired Monday, said this: “I said there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt. They have very corrupt elections. Take a look at Detroit. Take a look at Philadelphia. Take a look at Atlanta.”

Fact check: There is no evidence that elections in any of these cities are “extremely corrupt.” Trump has claimed for years that Democratic-dominated urban areas are rife with corruption in presidential elections, but he has presented no proof.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas said, “Yeah.”

The 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia

Trump’s claim: Llamas asked Trump what he is doing in the Georgia county in which most of Atlanta is located, Fulton – where FBI agents in late January searched an elections office and seized hundreds of boxes of materials. Trump responded, “I’m not doing anything, but the FBI went in because it’s been under – under – I guess review for years, the cheating that took place in Fulton County.”

Fact check: There is no evidence of elections cheating in Fulton County in 2020. Trump has for years made false claims about the county’s handling of the 2020 election, which have been repeatedly debunked – including in comments made directly to Trump, more than five years ago, by Georgia’s Republican elections chief and by a top Trump administration appointee in his first-term Justice Department.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: None. Instead, he asked Trump what the FBI agents are looking for.

Foreign affairs and immigration

---

Trump’s strikes on alleged drug boats

Trump’s claim: Touting his military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, Trump said, “Each boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives.”

Fact check: This “25,000” number obviously does not make sense – even aside from the fact that the Trump administration has not presented public proof for his repeated claims that the boats carried fentanyl, the drug involved in the most overdose deaths. The total number of US overdose deaths from all drugs in 2024 was about 82,000, according to provisional federal data. The president’s figure is “absurd,” Carl Latkin, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University school of public health with a joint appointment at its medical school, said in October. You can read a longer fact check here.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: None; Trump quickly pivoted to an anecdote about the president of China.

Foreign governments, jails and migration

Trump’s claim: Trump claimed, “You know, jails have been emptied into our country from all over the world.” He then added, “But from Venezuela, from the Congo in Africa, from all over the world, jails, the jail population, was emptied into our country.”

Fact check: Trump has never proven these claims about Venezuela, “the Congo,” or countries “all over the world.” Experts on Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the neighboring Republic of Congo said during the Biden administration that they had seen no basis for Trump’s stories, the governments of both of the Congo countries told CNN the stories are false, and an expert on the global prison population has told CNN that she has seen “absolutely no evidence” of any country emptying jails to somehow release prisoners into the US during either the Biden administration or this Trump administration. (Trump was slightly vaguer than usual here, but he has generally claimed that foreign governments have deliberately emptied prisons and mental health facilities to somehow send undesirable citizens to the US as migrants.)

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas said “mmhmm,” “right” and “yeah” during these Trump remarks.

Migration under Biden

Trump’s claim: Trump claimed that, under Biden, “We allowed in our country, I say, 25 million people.”

Fact check: The “25 million” figure is false; even Trump’s previous “21 million” figure was a wild exaggeration. Through December 2024, the last full month under the Biden administration, the federal government had recorded under 11 million nationwide “encounters” with migrants during that administration, including millions who were rapidly expelled from the country. Even adding in the so-called gotaways who evaded detection, estimated by House Republicans as being roughly 2.2 million, there’s no way the total was even close to what Trump has said.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: None; he said “yeah” moments later after some more Trump comments about immigration.

Biden, migration and murderers

Trump’s claim:“We have 11,888 murderers that Biden and his group let into our country. We’ve captured a lot of them. We’ve brought some of ’em back. A lot of ’em we don’t wanna bring back, because we don’t trust the country that they’re not sent back again.” He repeated the “11,888 murderers” claim moments later.

Fact check: Trump was inaccurately describing federal data. The Department of Homeland Security and independent experts have noted that the figure it appears Trump is referring to when he uses the “11,888” number is about non-citizens who entered the US not just under Biden but over the course of multiple decades, including during Trump’s own first administration. They were convicted of homicide at some point, usually in the US after their arrival, and are still in the US while being listed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “non-detained docket” – which includes people who are currently serving their prison sentences, not roaming free as Trump has also claimed.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas said “yeah” after both Trump’s first quote and second quote.

Russia and elections

Trump’s claim: Talking about foreign interference in US elections, Trump said, “And everybody knows that Russia – they talked about Russia, turned out to be a hoax. It was – Hunter Biden. It wasn’t Russia.”

Fact check: Russian interference in the 2016 election did not turn out to be a hoax. It happened. An investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion” and that it did so with the intention of helping Trump beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton Campaign and then released stolen documents,” the Mueller report said.

Trump has often seized on the fact that the Mueller report said the investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities” to declare that claims about him or his campaign having colluded with Russia were a “hoax.” But Mueller found evidence the Trump campaign felt it would benefit from those interference activities and that there were “numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign,” though “the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges.”

Regardless, the Russian interference itself was clearly real.

Trump’s confusing comment about Hunter Biden, son of former president Joe Biden, may have been a reference to how some social media companies briefly suppressed a damaging news story about the younger Biden late in the 2020 election campaign, in which Trump ran against the elder Biden. That has nothing to do with the fact of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, in which Trump ran against Clinton.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: He said “yeah” moments after Trump’s remark.

CNN’s Alicia Wallace and Marshall Cohen contributed to this article