“The U.S. Navy was created "to free international waters from the Barbary pirates.”
What PolitiFact found
One reason the U.S. Navy was created in the late 1700s and early 1800s was to counter north African states’ attacks on shipping, during conflicts that became known as the Barbary wars. That situation shares some similarities with today’s Iran war; both involved the U.S. taking military action to protect trade against efforts to exact tributes or tolls.
Their words, from the summary they publish with the rating.
In short
Byron Donalds (U.S. Representative, R-Fla.) made this claim around 12 April 2026. PolitiFact (United States) looked into it and published its finding on 14 April 2026, 2 days later. Its rating was “Mostly True”.
Byron Donalds has 7 checked claims in this archive. Fact-checking organisations rated 0 of them false or fake, 4 misleading or mixed and 3 true.
Where the claim appeared
- nbcnews.comhttps://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/byron-donalds-says-he-supports-full-scale-re…
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This check was done by PolitiFact, not by DoesItStand. We list it so you can find it. Their full evidence and reasoning are in their article.