Trump repeats numerous false claims in prime-time address

President Donald Trump made a series of false claims in his prime-time speech at the White House on Wednesday night, many of which have previously been debunked. Here’s a fact check.

Inflation and economy

Inflation during the Trump era: Towards the end of the speech, Trump falsely claimed that “Inflation has been stopped.” Inflation did not stop; from year to year inflation rate In September, 3.0%it was the same Rate at which Trump returns to office in January – in fact, if you go to more than one decimal place, the September rate was slightly higher – and September was the fifth consecutive month that the year-over-year rate increased.

Inflation during the Biden era: Trump repeated his false claim that “when I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years and, some say, the worst in the history of our country.”

The annual inflation rate in December 2024, the last full month of the Biden administration, was as follows: 2.9%; happened 3.0% in January 2025This is the month of Trump’s second inauguration. That’s the same as the latest rate available when Trump spoke Wednesday. 3.0% in September 2025. (November rate planned to be released We don’t know who Trump meant when he said “some might say so,” but neither the December 2024 number nor the January 2025 number was anywhere near the worst inflation in recent years or of all time.

It is true, from year to year the USA inflation rate It hit a nearly 40-year high (not a 48-year high) at 9.1% in June 2022 during the Biden administration, but even that wasn’t anywhere near an all-time high record related to 23.7%, determined in 1920 – and this happened more than two years before Trump’s return. Inflation had fallen before Trump took office.

The cumulative price increase from the beginning to the end of the Biden administration was also not the worst in US history. Federal figures show Cumulative inflation under Biden was less than half of what it was under President Jimmy Carter.

Grocery prices: Noting that egg prices have been falling since March, Trump added, “And everything else is falling rapidly.” Even though he is specifically talking about market prices, this is not true. above this year. Consumer Price Index data shows that: a much larger number There are groceries augmented There has been a decline in prices since he returned to office. Latest available CPI figures He showed that average grocery prices for September, which he talked about Wednesday, were up about 2.7% compared to September 2024; About 1.4% from January 2025, when Trump returned to office; and about 0.3% from August to September.

November data, scheduled to be released Thursday, is likely to show a month-over-month decline in grocery prices, but grocery prices are almost certain to still be high during Trump’s term.

Prescription drug prices: Trump repeated his false claim that his executive order on prescription drug prices would reduce them by “400, 500, or even 600%.” These figures are mathematically impossible; If the president magically got companies to drop the prices of all their drugs to $0, that would be a 100% cut. You can read a longer fact check Here.

Gas prices: “Gasoline is currently under $2.50 a gallon in much of the country, and by the way, some are reporting it’s as high as $1.99 a gallon,” Trump said. These claims need context.

As of Wednesday, there were only four states with the average price of a gallon of regular gas below $2.50. Data published by AAA: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa and Colorado. (Nine other states had averages between $2.50 and $2.60 per gallon.) AAA national average It was $2,905 per gallon.

No state’s average was below Oklahoma’s $2.339 per gallon. Although some stations across the country offered gasoline for $1.99 per gallon or less, that figure was minuscule; Patrick De Haan, head of oil analysis at the firm GasBuddy, estimated it was between 75 and 100 stations on tens of thousands of GasBuddy lines across the country. (This excludes others offering special discounts.)

Investment in the USA this year: Trump repeated his unsubstantiated claim that “$18 trillion” was invested in the United States during his second presidency, saying on Wednesday, “I brought a record-breaking $18 trillion in investment to the United States.” This figure is fiction. The White House when he spoke on Wednesday. own website He said that the figure was “9.6 trillion dollars” and that even this was a huge exaggeration; A detailed CNN review in October found that the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment commitments, promises about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the United States, or vague declarations that did not even rise to the level of commitment. You can read more Here.

Immigration and foreign policy

Trump and wars: “I restored America’s power, ending eight wars in 10 months,” Trump said on Wednesday, repeating his false claim that he had ended eight wars this year. Although Trump has played a role (at least temporarily) in resolving some conflicts, the number “eight” is a obvious exaggeration.

Trump before explained that the list of wars supposedly resolved included a war between Egypt and Ethiopia, but that it was not actually a war; There is a long-running diplomatic dispute about. large Ethiopian dam project On a tributary of the Nile River. Trump’s list includes: Another so-called war that didn’t actually happen between Serbia and Kosovo during his presidency. (Sometimes requested He claimed to have prevented a new war from breaking out between those two sides, with little detail about what he meant, but that’s different from resolving an actual war.) And his list also includes nominal success in ending a war that includes the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, but that war continued That’s despite a peace deal brokered by the Trump administration this year that was never signed by the leading rebel coalition waging the war.

Trump’s list also includes the armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. broke out again this month and continued this week despite the peace deal brokered by the Trump administration at the beginning of the year.

The importance of Trump’s role in ending other conflicts on his list can be debated, or one can question whether some of them are truly over; for example kill continued In Gaza in November, following the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas in October. Regardless, Trump’s “eight” number is frankly huge.

Immigration and Biden: Trump repeated his unfounded claim that “25 million” immigrants entered the country during the Biden era. The “25 million” figure is incorrect; Even Trump’s previous “21 million” figure wild exaggeration. By December 2024, the last month under the Biden administration, the federal government recorded During this administration, no less than 11 million immigrants were “encountered” nationwide; This resulted in millions of people being quickly expelled from the country. Even if we add the so-called escapees that escape detection, estimated There’s no way the total is even close to what Trump said, considering it’s roughly 2.2 million, according to House Republicans.

Trump also repeated his false claim that during the Biden administration, foreign countries had emptied their prisons and mental hospitals and somehow sent the people in them to the United States as immigrants, claiming that “many” members of the so-called “army of 25 million” were from “prisons, prisons, mental institutions, and mental institutions.” Trump has never provided corroboration for such claims about foreign countries in general or specific places he has named in the past (Venezuela and Congo). Experts on Venezuela, Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Republic of Congo in question During the Biden administration, the governments of both Congolese countries saw no basis for Trump’s stories. I told CNN the stories were falseand an expert on global prison populations he told CNN He saw “absolutely no evidence” that any country was emptying its prisons to somehow release prisoners into the United States.

Other topics

Trump’s bill and Social Security: Trump repeated his false claim that the major domestic policy bill he signed earlier this year included “no taxes on Social Security.” The legislation temporarily created an additional $6,000 annual tax cut for individuals age 65 and over (with a smaller deduction for individuals earning $75,000 or more annually), but the White House itself implicitly accepted Millions of Social Security recipients age 65 and older will continue to pay taxes on their benefits, and the new deduction, which expires in 2028, doesn’t even apply to Social Security Buyers under 65.

Biden, crime and law enforcement: Trump falsely claimed that under Biden there was “record crime, law enforcement, and such remarks are strictly prohibited.” Neither of these two claims is true.

There was no ban on the term “law enforcement” in Biden; The Biden administration itself he used the expression repeatedly. And under Biden, crime wasn’t even close to an all-time high. crime in the usa much higher in the early 1990s and at various points 1970s and 1980s More in the 2020s than under Biden or Trump.

Homicides have increased both nationally and amid the turmoil of the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump in 2020 And Biden in 2021. But FBI data showed that both violent crime and property crime are down nationally under Biden. 2023 And 2024. Trump has FBI data challengedand though it has its flaws and limitations, has absolutely no basis Because of the idea that crime is at record levels under Biden.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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