“We have had record people wanting to join our military in the last 2½ months literally since this — I think probably since the election November 5th. But especially since we came to office and since I announced Pete. He’s young, he’s smart, he’s strong, he loves it, and they love him. But we’ve had record numbers of people wanting to join our military. Now if you go back six months, it was the exact opposite. You had record numbers of people not wanting to join the military. Now you have record numbers of people wanting to be in our military.”

— President Donald Trump, remarks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office, March 21

Even when President Donald Trump has a good-news story to tell, he can’t resist embellishing it. It’s not enough that he can point to positive military recruiting numbers. He has to also slam his predecessor: “Now if you go back six months, it was the exact opposite. You had record numbers of people not wanting to join the military.”