SURPRISE, SURPRISE

Trump’s SOTU Story About Veteran Included Some False Claims: AP

The tax breaks program Trump claimed helped Tony Rankins turn his life around apparently had nothing to do with it.

President Trump’s story during the State of the Union address about a former homeless and drug-addicted Army veteran who turned his life around thanks to a special tax break program from the Trump administration was not completely true, according to the Associated Press. Trump described in his Feb. 4 speech how Tony Rankins overcame difficulties after he got a construction job at a company using the administration’s “Opportunity Zone” tax breaks targeting poor neighborhoods. “Tony found a construction company that invests in Opportunity Zones,” the president said. “He is now a top tradesman, drug-free, reunited with his family.” Rankins, however, told the AP that he does not work at a site that benefited from the tax breaks and never has.

Rankins reportedly moved out of his car and into an apartment after landing a job refurbishing a Nashville hotel two years ago—four months before the Treasury Department released its designated list of neighborhoods eligible for the tax breaks. Additionally, the hotel where he worked was not even eligible for that list, the AP reported. Rankins, who served in Afghanistan and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, will start working at a warehouse in Cincinnati next month that uses tax breaks—it will be his first job on a site using the breaks.