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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke April 24, 2020

No evidence Donald Trump said ‘hundreds’ of governors called him

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  • Donald Trump said he had hundreds of examples of governors praising him but we found no evidence that he said hundreds of governors called him.

President Donald Trump has made many comments about the country’s governors during the pandemic, from calling Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer "that woman from Michigan" to criticizing Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for reopening Georgia "too soon." 

But we couldn’t find evidence that he claimed hundreds of governors have reached out to him, as a recent Facebook post alleges.

"Trump said ‘hundreds’ of governors are calling him…& we only have 50," it says.

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

At an April 13 press conference, Trump showed a video that included clips of what was described as "bipartisan governors recognize the president’s support." The clips included New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying "his team is on it, they’ve been responsive," and California Gov. Gavin Newsom saying "he returns calls, he reaches out, he’s been proactive." 

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Trump then said at the press conference that he "could give you hundreds of clips like that from governors."

"We could give you hundreds of clips just like that," he said. "We have hundreds of statements. Hundreds of statements, including from Democrats and Democrat governors." 

A few weeks earlier, Trump talked about speaking to governors again when he phoned into Fox and Friends on March 30 — but he talked about calls with 50 governors, not hundreds.

"I get on calls, and I get on a lot of the governor calls where we’ll have all 50 governors plus where we have some territories also, but we have 50 governors, and I’ll tell you what, if you could listen to those calls, you’d never hear a complaint," he said. 

Featured Fact-check

Reviewing deleted tweets this year from Trump’s Twitter accounts, including @POTUS, @WhiteHouse and @realDonaldTrump, we found none mentioning calls from hundreds of governors.  

We didn’t find any such tweets that haven’t been deleted, either. On March 26, the White House tweeted about a "teleconference call with 50 governors, plus territories." Trump also tweeted about the call from his personal account that day. On April 20, the White House tweeted about a "call with all 50 governors." During a press conference later that day, Trump said that Vice President Mike Pence "spoke with governors from all 50 states about our unified effort to defeat the virus."

Searching Factbase for interviews, speeches and tweets in which Trump mentions governors and hundreds, we found several instances but none in which he says he’s received calls from hundreds of governors. 

Several other fact-checkers have also looked into posts claiming Trump said hundreds of governors have called him, but no such remark has surfaced.

We rate this Facebook post False.

 

Our Sources

Facebook post, April 21, 2020

The Atlantic, Gretchen Whitmer: ‘There’s going to be a horrible cost,’ April 4, 2020

The New York Times, Trump criticizes Georgia governor for decision to reopen state, April 22, 2020

YouTube, White House coronavirus pandemic briefing, April 13, 2020

White House, Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and members of the coronavirus task force in press briefing, April 14, 2020

Reuters, False claim: Trump said ‘hundreds of governors’ are calling him, April 24, 2020

Lead Stories, Fact check: Trump did NOT say ‘hundreds of governors’ are calling him, April 20, 2020

Snopes, Did Trump say ‘hundreds’ of governors are calling him amid COVID-19 pandemic, April 22, 2020

YouTube, Interview: Donald Trump calls in to Fox and Friends for an interview, March 30, 2020

ProPublica, Politwoops: deleted tweets from Donald J. Trump, visited April 24, 2020

White House tweet, March 26, 2020

Donald Trump tweet, March 26, 2020

White House tweet, April 20, 2020

YouTube, White House coronavirus pandemic briefing, April 20, 2020 

Factbase, search of "governors" and "hundreds" and Donald Trump, April 24, 2020

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More by Ciara O'Rourke

No evidence Donald Trump said ‘hundreds’ of governors called him

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