The president of the United States continued his pattern of using key holidays to lob false accusations at his opponents and enemies, this time throwing in a slur that drew international headlines.
In his Thanksgiving Day post on Truth Social, Donald Trump called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “retarded.” That drew cries of protest from the right and left among those who find the term an unacceptable slur against people with mental illness or developmental issues.
But that was by far not the worst of his message. I asked ChatGPT to assess Trump’s full post for truth, and this is the summary returned: “The statement is mostly false or misleading, with a few isolated accurate facts. It mixes real statistics (size of immigrant population) with broad, negative claims — many of which are not backed by credible data — about crime, welfare and social decline. Because of that, the statement overall is badly flawed: it misrepresents what research and data show about immigrants and immigration in the U.S.”
Yet this was the message to the world from the president of the United States, continuing his pattern of missing the meaning of every key holiday. His Easter message this year began: “Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well-known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country.”
What follows below is a verbatim copy of Trump’s Thanksgiving message followed by a ChatGPT evaluation of its truthfulness.
Trump’s statement:
A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being “Politically Correct,” and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration. The official United States Foreign population stands at 53 million people (Census), most of which are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels. They and their children are supported through massive payments from Patriotic American Citizens who, because of their beautiful hearts, do not want to openly complain or cause trouble in any way, shape, or form. They put up with what has happened to our Country, but it’s eating them alive to do so! A migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family. The real migrant population is much higher. This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America, something that did not exist after World War II (Failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, and large deficits, etc.). As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for “prey” as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone. The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst “Congressman/woman” in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how “badly” she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation, which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc…
ChatGPT said:
That statement contains a mix of some true or partly accurate numbers and many false, misleading or unsupported claims. Below is a breakdown — what appears true, what is wrong or unproven and where the statement goes beyond what public data supports.
What is more or less correct (or has factual basis)
- The U.S. foreign-born population is large. According to recent data, as of 2025 there were about 53.3 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. (legal and unauthorized combined), a record-high number.
- Immigrants (overall) — including legal and unauthorized — are a substantial share of the population (around 14% to 16%).
What is false, misleading or unproved in the statement
- Research finds that immigrants — both legal and unauthorized — are less likely to commit crimes (including violent crime) or be incarcerated than native-born Americans.
- On a per-person basis, immigrants overall receive less in means-tested welfare and entitlement benefits than native-born Americans, according to a recent 2022 analysis.
- The claim that “most” of the 53 million foreign-born are “on welfare, from failed nations or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs or drug cartels” is unfounded and not supported by credible data. The welfare-use data show that immigrants — per capita — use less welfare than native-born Americans.
- There is no evidence that “most” immigrants are from “prisons, mental institutions, gangs or drug cartels.” That is a sweeping, stigmatizing claim without empirical support.
- There is no credible data to support the claim that “a migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family.” Benefit receipt and value vary widely, eligibility depends on many factors, and this specific number appears fabricated.
- The claim that “this refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America … failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, large deficits” is not supported by broad, rigorous social-science research. For example, the data on crime do not support a link between higher immigrant population and higher crime — indeed the opposite.
- Problems like urban decay, school quality, housing shortages and deficits have multiple structural causes (economic inequality, policy choices, budgeting, segregation, historical disinvestment, etc.), and attributing them primarily to immigration lacks evidence.
- Claims about specific groups — e.g., “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota,” “Somalian gangs … roving the streets looking for ‘prey’,” “worst Congressman/woman … Ilhan Omar … who probably came illegally,” “her place of origin is a decadent, backward, crime ridden nation” — are highly inflammatory, oversimplified, and not supported by data or credible reporting.
- There is no credible evidence that refugees from Somalia “completely take over” Minnesota. The statewide Somali-born (or Somali-origin) population is small relative to Minnesota’s total.
- There is no reliable data showing that Somali (or generally immigrant) communities as a whole are associated with a surge in gang violence nationwide. Broad claims about “migrant crime waves” have been repeatedly debunked.
Why the statement is misleading and problematic — mixing facts and prejudice
- The statement conflates very different groups: legal immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, unauthorized immigrants and stereotyped criminals — as if they are interchangeable. That kind of conflation is misleading and stigmatizing.
- It uses emotionally charged and pejorative language (“murdered, beaten, mugged,” “decadent, backward, crime ridden nation,” “STUPID when it comes to Immigration,” “seriously retarded governor…”) — such language is not only offensive but also tends to obscure rational analysis.
- It presents worst-case or anecdotal scenarios as representative of the whole immigrant population — a classic case of hasty generalization and scapegoating.