AP FACT CHECK: Trump's compulsive claims of 'biggest' ever

WASHINGTON (AP) — Size matters to President Donald Trump. So much that he exaggerates continually, sometimes spectacularly, the size of what he does.

Just as his tax cuts are far from the biggest in history, the economy isn't the best ever and his election victory in 2016 was no landslide of historic proportions, Trump's two trade deals don't stand atop the field of presidential endeavors. One is a partial settlement of trade grievances with China; the other is a refresh of what past presidents created for North America.

The opening of the Senate impeachment trial stirred other fabrications from the president this past week while Democratic presidential contenders engaged in their final debate before the first votes of the 2020 campaign, in Iowa.

A sampling from a week in political rhetoric:

TRADE

TRUMP on his trade agreement with China: “This is the biggest deal there is, anywhere in the world by far.’’ — remarks Wednesday at the signing.

TRUMP on the China deal and his updated North American trade agreement: “So we've done two of the biggest trade deals. They are the two biggest trade deals in the world ever done.” — remarks at the White House on Thursday.

THE FACTS: Neither claim is true.

The China agreement is not nearly as big as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, so it's not the largest ever, much less “by far.” The deal with Canada and Mexico was an update of the long-standing North American Free Trade Agreement worked out by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

The North American agreement also is not the largest ever.

For instance, 123 countries signed the Uruguay Round agreement that liberalized trade and produced the World Trade Organization in 1994. The organization's initial membership accounted for more than 90% of global...