President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to paint a sweeping picture of an administration delivering historic results — a “golden age” for America on the economy, health care, foreign policy and more.
But a close look at his claims reveals that many don’t hold up under scrutiny.
Whether alleging widespread fraud beyond what even his own Justice Department maintains, taking credit for drug price savings that already existed or claiming he “ended eight wars,” Trump’s address was filled with statements that ranged from misleading to outright false.
Here’s a look at some of his most audacious and notable claims from the speech.
Somali fraud in Minnesota
Trump’s claim: “But when it comes to the corruption that is plundering, really, it’s plundering America. There’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer, we have all the information, and in actuality, the number is much higher than that.”
Check: False.
Why: Not even Trump’s Department of Justice agrees with him on this.
The fine print: There is no evidence for the “$19 billion” fraud claim, which has been shared by Republican allies of Trump in Congress and appears to have originated with Trump himself, in social media and in on-camera interviews. In December, then-U.S. attorney for Minneapolis Joe Thompson said the 14 Medicaid services under investigation had billed $18 billion *in total* since 2018 and suggested a “significant” amount, perhaps $9 billion, could be fraudulent. State officials have argued that figure, too, may be a wild overestimate. Whatever the actual figure might be, even if Thompson’s figures are right, it would be mathematically impossible for $18 billion in billings to include $19 billion in fraud.
‘A stagnant economy’ and ‘record’ inflation
Claim: “I had just inherited a nation in crisis, with a stagnant economy, inflation at record level.”
Check: False.
Why: Inflation under Biden peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. The last time inflation was higher than that was November 1981, when it reached 9.6%. The worst annual inflation was 23.7% in June 1920. Currently, inflation is 2.4%. In April of last year, it was 2.3% and rose after likely as a result of tariffs. Five years ago, in January 2021, inflation was 1.4%. (Source: BLS)
GDP growth, meanwhile, was steady in recent years. (Source: BEA)
- 2023: 2.9%
- 2024: 2.8%
- 2025: 2.2%
Foreign investments
Claim: “In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe. Think of it — much less than $1 trillion for four years, versus much more than $18 trillion for one year.”
Check: Misleading and unverifiable.
Why: Trump is comparing apples and oranges; Trump’s own White House website touts a total of “$9.7 trillion” in U.S. and foreign investments.
The fine print: Trump appears to be comparing apples and oranges — comparing roughly $800 billion in specific manufacturing projects tallied by the Biden administration in January 2025 and his own administration’s claim of highly speculative investment commitments from around the world.
Even the claim of “more than $18 trillion” in commitments from “around the globe” is not supported by the government’s own data. The official White House running list of investment announcements totals about $9.7 trillion — roughly half of what Trump claimed during the address. The figures in the White House’ list include long-term spending plans spread over many years, nonbinding pledges, trade targets counted as “investment” and some projects that were previously announced or began before his presidency.
Some of the largest country-level figures are also aspirational and economically implausible at the scale described. Just last month, Trump lamented on his social media platform that South Korea’s legislation “is not living up to” its deal with the U.S., and declared an increase in tariffs on South Korea’s auto, lumber and pharmaceutical industries from 15% to 25%.
2.4 million Americans ‘off of food stamps’
Claim: “In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans — a record — off of food stamps.”
Check: Needs context.
Why: An estimated 2.6 million fewer Americans are on food stamps, based on latest data from the Department of Agriculture. It’s due not to a marked change in poverty rates, but to a policy change limiting who is eligible. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was slated to already kick off 2.4 million people off SNAP, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate.
The fine print: The Department of Agriculture’s data finds that 40.4 million Americans were receiving SNAP benefits in November 2025, compared to 43 million Americans who received benefits in November 2024.
The CBO estimated when assessing the effect of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that “those provisions will reduce participation in SNAP by roughly 2.4 million people in an average month over the 2025-2034 period.”
Of those people, about 800,000 will be able-bodied adults through age 64 who do not live with dependent children. Another 300,000 will be able-bodied adults ages 18 to 64 who live with children who are age 14 or older. And roughly one million will be able‑bodied adults ages 18 to 54 (or 18 to 49, starting in 2031) who do not live with dependents but who, in CBO’s January 2025 baseline projections — which preceded the law’s enactment — would have received a waiver from the work requirements.” It specifically ties the changes to work requirement provisions.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities also describes the OBBBA as the largest cut to SNAP benefits in history.
Cost of living
Claim: “The price of eggs is down 60%. … The cost of chicken, butter, fruit, hotels, automobiles, rent is lower today than when I took office — by a lot. And even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly. … Nobody can believe when they see the kind of numbers, and especially energy. When they see energy going down to numbers like that, they cannot believe it. It’s like another big tax cut.”
CHECK: True and false.
WHY: Some prices went up…
- Food inflation: 2.9% compared to 2.5% a year earlier.
- Groceries inflation: 2.1% compared to 1.9% a year earlier.
- Ground beef prices up nearly 22% and have been going up significantly (more here).
- Energy commodity inflation is down 7.1% year over year, but “commodity” is the raw product — like gasoline, crude oil or coal. Some prices are down, but costs for electricity (that use oil and coal and such) is up 6.3%.
And other prices are down…
- Eggs, one dozen grade A: Prices down 48% compared to a year ago.
- Chicken: Prices are down 1%.
- Rent: down 1.4 percentage points (2.8% vs. 4.2%, year over year).
- Hotel: inflation rate -3.2% vs. 1.9% a year ago.
- New and used auto: inflation rate -0.9% vs. 0.7% inflation a year ago.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Claim: “Under this administration, we will always protect Social Security and Medicare. They are not protecting it for our seniors. We will always protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.”
Check: False.
Why: The Trump administration has repeatedly taken or tried to take actions to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The One Big Beautiful Act includes more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and roughly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare. And the Trump administration has tried to cut access to Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI, before backing off the initiative.
The fine print: An assessment this summer from the Urban Institute found that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act left 3 in 10 young adults ages 18 to 24 who were insured by Medicaid at risk of losing their coverage. An analysis by the Center for American Progress of data provided by the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation found the OBBBA will cut around $1 trillion from Medicaid, primarily by altering state tax arrangements, work requirements and state-directed Medicaid payments.
The CBO’s estimate suggests that without additional congressional action, the OBBBA’s automatic cuts will trigger roughly $500 billion in cuts.
In October, the Trump administration introduced a plan to slash the share of applicants who qualified for SSDI by about 20%, with a particular hit on older Americans. In mid-November, Social Security scrapped the plan.
The SAVE America Act
Claim: “I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act, illegal aliens and others who are unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections, that cheating is rampant in our elections, it’s rampant. It’s very simple, all voters must show voter ID. You must, all voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote, and no more crooked mail in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.”
Context: Cheating is not rampant in American elections. Citizenship is already a requirement to vote — the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 explicitly prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Noncitizen voting in the U.S. is extremely rare, and state election offices conduct regular assessments of their voter rolls.
The SAVE America Act would require people to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, more than 21 million voting-eligible Americans lack those documents.
The fine print: The SAVE America Act amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by introducing a requirement for individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. For most Americans, this would be a passport or birth certificate — government-issued driver’s licenses, including REAL IDs, as well as military or tribal IDs do not satisfy the bill’s requirements.
The Brennan Center for Justice research shows roughly half of Americans don’t have a passport, and millions lack access to a paper copy of their birth certificate. The SAVE Act would disenfranchise Americans of all ages and races, particularly younger voters and voters of color. Millions of women whose married names aren’t on their birth certificates or passports would face extra steps to registering also.
Core inflation
Claim: “My administration has driven core inflation to the lowest level in more than five years, and in the last three months of 2025, it was down to 1.7%.”
Check: It’s unclear what number he is sourcing.
Why: The Wall Street Journal reports that in December, the “12-month PCE inflation rate [was] 2.9%, up from 2.8% in November. Core PCE inflation — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — ticked up to 3% in the 12 months through December, from 2.8% a month earlier.”
The Bureau of Economic Analysis confirms those numbers.
Consumer Price Index Core inflation rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that in January 2021, the core inflation rate was 1.4%. In November 2025, it was 2.6%. In December 2025, it was 2.6%. And in January 2026, it was 2.5%.
‘I ended eight wars’
Claim: “My first 10 months, I ended eight wars, including Cambodia. … Cambodia and Thailand. Pakistan and India — would have been a nuclear war; 35 million people – said the Prime Minister of Pakistan – would have died if it were not for my involvement. Kosovo and Serbia. Israel and Iran. Egypt and Ethiopia. Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Congo and Rwanda. And, of course, the war in Gaza, which proceeds at a very low level — it’s just about there.”
Check: Misleading.
Why: While Trump has had a role in some ceasefire or peace efforts, some of the conflicts he mentioned aren’t really wars, some aren’t fully resolved and some claims are disputed by governments and experts.
The fine print: Experts say Trump did play a meaningful part in ending or deescalating conflicts and wars between Israel and Hamas, India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan — even as tensions remain in some of these regions.
However, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi denies that the U.S. mediated the India–Pakistan ceasefire, saying direct military channels ended that fighting.
In Egypt and Ethiopia, the long-running dispute between the two countries over the Nile dam never escalated to actual warfare, thus experts saying you cannot end a war that hasn’t occurred.
Similarly, in Serbia and Kosovo — despite Trump’s claim that he prevented hostilities between the two countries by threatening to cut off trade — the countries signed an economic agreement at the Oval Office back in 2020 and were not at war during that time.
And in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a U.S.-brokered deal was signed last year, but violence involving rebel groups has continued.
The ‘Great Healthcare Plan’
Claim: “Since the passage of the ‘Unaffordable Care Act,’ sometimes referred to as Obamacare, big insurance companies have gotten rich … with our government giving them hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars a year as their stock prices soared, 1,000%, 1,200%, 1,400% and even 1,700% — like nothing else. That’s why I introduced the Great Healthcare Plan. I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care, which will be better health care at a much lower cost.”
Check: False.
Why: The proposal to send $2,000 checks directly to Americans would not cover real medical costs
The fine print: Per MS NOW health analyst Dr. Vin Gupta, Trump has no replacement plan for allowing the Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire. Instead, he proposes sending $2,000 checks directly to Americans. That amount would not cover the costs for people who need meaningful medical care – emphasizing the lack of a detailed plan to improve the Affordable Care Act. The checks are not a workable substitute for health coverage and does not constitute a comprehensive policy, Gupta says.
Trump Rx
Claim: “I took prescription drugs — a very big part of healthcare — from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest. That’s a big achievement. The result is price differences of 300%, 400%, 500%, 600% and more all available right now at a new website called TrumpRx.gov.”
Check: False.
Why: The price reductions/differences are not unique to Trump Rx.
The fine print: Per MS NOW health analyst Dr. Vin Gupta, a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis says Trump overstates the value of Trump Rx, claiming people can access never-before-seen or lifesaving therapeutics through it.
However, fewer than 50 drugs are listed on the platform. By comparison, GoodRx, the healthcare company with an app and website that tracks prescription drug prices for free and provides discount coupons for some drugs, lists about 10,000 drugs, representing a much larger share of medications Americans actually use.
The price reductions online are not unique to Trump Rx. The advertised “$900 off” type of savings is framed as a special discount, but is essentially the same rebate pharmaceutical companies already provide to achieve those prices. It may be a new way for consumers to view prices, but it covers only about 43 drugs out of thousands that exist. It does not provide prices that aren’t already available elsewhere.
Know the Facts team