AP FACT CHECK: Trump shapes facts to fit economic agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump changed some of his facts to fit his agenda Monday, pitching shades of truth and misconceptions in what was billed as a major economic policy speech.

Most entrepreneurs relied on personal savings, home equity and credit cards to finance new companies before the housing bust hurt their ability to access credit, according to a speech by Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

The American Society of Civil Engineers said in a report that the government needs to spend $1.4 trillion through 2025 to close the infrastructure funding gap.

Michigan actually added jobs after the North American Free Trade Agreement began in 1994, when auto plants employed roughly 200,000 workers.

The decline only occurred after the tech bubble burst and U.S. automakers lost market share among U.S. consumers, a decline that prompted a government bailout that caused Michigan auto jobs to start rising again in late 2009.

TRUMP on the unemployment rate: "This 5 percent figure is one of the biggest hoaxes in modern American politics."

The unemployment rate has become controversial since the recession ended because many people have stopped looking for work, and the government doesn't count those out of work unless they are actively searching for jobs.

If an unemployed person gives up on a job hunt, that reduces the unemployment rate without anyone being hired, so it has overstated the improvement in the job market.

Many of the figures Trump cited in his speech are compiled by the same monthly survey that produces the unemployment figure he considers a hoax.

The stated corporate tax rate looks high, but most U.S. businesses don't pay it.

The effective corporate income tax rate is around 27 percent, roughly in line with global averages, according to government estimates.

In some years, the majority of all large U.S.-controlled corporations reported no federal tax liability, according to the Government Accountability Office.

THE FACTS:

Since Obama's health care law came into effect, the economy has added more than 14.6 million jobs and the jobless rate has fallen to 4.9 percent from 9.9. percent.

Trump's charge has its origins in an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the labor force would be smaller by about 2 million workers in 2025 under the health care law than without it.

TRUMP: "Nearly 12 million people have been added to the food stamp rolls and ... it's growing so rapidly since President Obama took office."