'A lot of lying': Who'da thunk?

CNN fact checker tears apart Trump first press conference since election.

CNN's Daniel Dale fact-checked Donald Trump's latest news conference — and determined the president-elect told a lot of lies.

Trump held the event — the first since he was elected — Monday from his home at Mar-a-Lago, where he discussed his views on vaccines, tariffs and other policy issues. Dale highlighted some of his false or misleading claims.

"So there was a lot of lying from the president-elect at this press conference," Dale said. "But I think the most dangerous part was an equivocation.

"It wasn't really a claim, but he was asked whether he thought there was a link between vaccines and autism, and he equivocated. He said, 'Well, we have some brilliant people looking at this,' and he talked about the increased prevalence of autism diagnoses. Look, there is no link between vaccines and autism. This notion has been discredited by study after study over decades. The idea that there is some connection came from a thoroughly discredited, in fact scandalous, fraudulently altered study in the 1990s that should just be ignored, dismissed, again, because it was fraudulent, and so the idea that, well, we're just going to look into this, I think is dangerous to consider because the idea is simply wrong."

"I'll pivot to some other topics," Dale continued. "He talked, as usual, about tariffs, said under his first presidency, we took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China. That money was paid by Americans. It is American importers who pay the tariffs, not Chinese exporters, and many of those importers pass along the costs to U.S. consumers. He said no previous president had tariffs on China – that's wrong. He said there was no inflation under his own presidency, despite the tariffs – certainly lower than during the Biden presidency, but there was 8 percent cumulative inflation during his presidency, so not nothing. In talking about health, he also said, well, 'Europe has lower mortality than us or better mortality,' and they don't use pesticides. Europe uses hundreds of thousands of tons of pesticides every year, so I'm not sure where he got that idea."

"Earlier in the press conference, he said over and over, I think three times, that during his presidency there were no wars, like, no wars, period, in the world – that is simply not true, a rewriting of history," Dale concluded. "One research institution said there were active armed conflicts in about 50 states in 2020, including, of course, civil wars in Yemen, in Syria, in Somalia, we had an active Israeli-Palestinian conflict. U.S. troops deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere, so the idea that this was a world at peace left by Donald Trump to Joe Biden, simply not true."

President-elect Donald Trump made a number of assertions that left viewers in giggles.

While discussing the world leaders he'd spoken to after his election, Trump confessed to being shocked at the number of countries in the world.

"I've spoken to way over 100 people, where they called to congratulate not only the election but also the size of the election and the extent of the victory," Trump claimed. "They were great. I spoke to over 100 countries."

He then announced: "You wouldn't believe how many countries there are. I'm trying the best I can to get back to everybody," said Trump. "There are a lot of countries. Literally, everyone called. It was very nice."

Trump was then asked about invitations he'd given out for the inauguration. He reportedly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to join him on Jan. 20, though Trump told reporters they'd "barely" discussed it.

"People are saying he won't come, and people think he will come, but won't come," said Trump. "It's something we barely discussed. Just about didn't discuss. But I have had, especially through letters, very good conversations."

Former CUNY professor and "This Week in Google" podcast host Jeff Jarvis reacted to Trump's countries remark: "The idiot you elected, America."

Randi Mayem Singer, who wrote the screenplay for "Mrs. Doubtfire," turned to anger.

"F--k every American who voted for this MORON and every billionaire, news outlet or elected official right now gently licking his diseased and demented a-s," she posted on Blue Sky.

Ex-Global Engagement Director at the White House, Brett Bruen, noted of Trump's question about who knew the number of countries in the world: "Actually, diplomats do."