Analyzing Trump's Claims: A Fact-Check of His Congressional Address

A careful examination of the claims made by President Trump during his address to Congress reveals several inaccuracies, particularly regarding the state of the economy, inflation rates, and immigration statistics.

In a recent address to Congress that lasted over an hour and a half, President Donald Trump made numerous assertions concerning the United States under the leadership of former President Joe Biden, as well as his achievements since taking office. He reiterated key campaign points such as illegal immigration, rising prices, and alleged government inefficiencies.

Fact-checking these claims reveals important discrepancies. For instance, Trump characterized his arrival in office as inheriting an "economic catastrophe" from Biden. This assertion is misleading, as data shows the U.S. economy was expanding at an annual growth rate of 2.3% in late 2024, with a growth of 2.8% over the full year.

Trump's remarks on inflation stated that the U.S. suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, which is an exaggeration. While inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022—the highest since 1981—previous decades had seen inflation rates significantly higher, notably in the 1940s and 1920s. By the time Trump took office, inflation had already declined to 3%.

In addressing food prices, Trump blamed Biden's administration for allowing egg prices to soar. While prices did rise significantly due to a bird flu outbreak earlier in 2022, this was a biological crisis rather than a result of direct policy failure. The Biden administration had allocated substantial funds to manage the fallout, including nearly $800 million to address the bird flu situation.

Additionally, Trump praised the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) led by Elon Musk for allegedly uncovering "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud" in government spending; however, this claim lacks supporting evidence. Doge officially reports an estimated savings of about $105 billion, while true verification of these figures remains uncertain.

Regarding border security, Trump stated that February 2025 saw the lowest ever recorded illegal border crossings, with only 8,326 encounters reported. This statement is accurate and contrasts sharply with the approximately 140,000 encounters recorded for February 2024 under Biden's administration.

On the contentious issue of immigration numbers, Trump claimed that 21 million migrants entered the U.S. during Biden's term. This number is highly inflated, as encounters reached only about 10 million, and many of these individuals did not settle in the U.S. Estimates suggest a more realistic figure closer to half of Trump's claim, with 11 million formerly undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. as of early 2022.

In his remarks about U.S. aid to Ukraine, Trump claimed around $350 billion in spending by the U.S., a figure that lacks credible support. According to various analyses, overall assistance from the U.S. amounted to about $119.7 billion, significantly lower than Trump's assertion.

Trumps' address raised critical issues but bore notable inaccuracies that warrant ongoing scrutiny as the political landscape continues to evolve. Additional claims from Trump's speech are currently under investigation by fact-checking bodies.