Trump revives his Washington ‘two desks’ story and a Panama Canal death toll. Historians say both are false

President Donald Trump repeated two historical claims this past week, one about George Washington and one about the Panama Canal, that historians say are not accurate. The claims came amid broader scrutiny of Trump’s financial activities while in office, after his annual financial disclosure reportedly showed he made more than $1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures in 2025.

When a reporter asked Trump about cryptocurrency on Monday, he brought up a story about Washington. Trump said Washington “had two desks in his pre-White House,” adding: “And they were right next to each other. One was for business and one was for the presidency. He had two desks, in the same room. And so you’re allowed to. But I choose not to. I don’t talk to my kids about, you know, this stuff.”

Trump appeared to use the story to suggest that mixing personal business with presidential duties has historical precedent. However, historians have previously pushed back on this claim. When Trump told the same story more than six years ago, one historian told CNN it was “utter nonsense,” another called it “an absurd allegation,” and a third said, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

Trump has repeated several disputed historical claims in the past week alone

While Washington did reportedly conduct some personal business during his presidency, historians say there is no evidence that he kept separate desks for business and official matters.

During his July 4 speech marking the United States’ 250th birthday, Trump also made a claim about American deaths during the construction of the Panama Canal. “And by the way,” Trump said, “38,000 Americans died to give us one of the greatest engineering feats of all time: Panama Canal.” According to historians, that figure is significantly higher than what the records show.

Julie Greene, a history professor at the University of Maryland and author of “The Canal Builders: Making America’s Empire at the Panama Canal,” told CNN that roughly 5,600 people died during the American construction phase between 1903 and 1914.

Greene also noted that “the vast majority were Afro-Caribbeans,” including workers from Barbados and Jamaica. The late historian David McCullough, who also wrote a book on the canal’s construction, found that “the number of white Americans who died was about 350.”

Thousands more workers, perhaps around 22,000,reportedly died during the earlier French construction phase. Trump, however, said he was referring specifically to American deaths, as he has in similar past statements, according to CNN.

In a separate interview with CNBC last week, Trump also claimed: “I’m the only president, they say, that’s ever given up my salary. I gave up my salary.” That claim is not supported by the historical record. According to multiple media reports, both John F. Kennedy and Herbert Hoover donated their presidential salaries – a fact that news outlets had already pointed out when Trump made similar claims during his first term.

Additionally, while Trump provided documentation showing he donated his full $400,000 annual salary for most of his first term, the extent of his salary donations in his current term is not fully clear. The White House did not respond to CNN’s request for evidence of second-term donations. The White House Historical Association, a nonprofit Trump said in August 2025 he had donated his first paycheck to, said in October 2025 that Trump had donated a total of $66,000 to the organization since January 2025.

At a White House luncheon on Monday, Trump also appeared to suggest he won three presidential elections. As Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” played, Trump said: “That’s been with me a long time, that song. We won three elections with that song.” Trump won presidential elections in 2016 and 2024, and lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Trump has long and repeatedly claimed, without evidence accepted by courts or election officials, that he won the 2020 election – a claim that has been rejected by judges, election officials, and his own administration’s officials at the time. In a similar dispute, Trump walked out of an interview after host Kristen Welker pressed him for evidence on his election claims.

CNN, which first reported on these claims, noted that the Washington two-desks story and the Panama Canal death toll are among at least four disputed historical claims Trump made in the span of a single week. In another case, a recent fact check found Trump made multiple false claims about California’s elections.