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In a combative State of the Union speech — the longest in modern history at about 108 minutes — President Donald Trump defended his administration’s economic performance and hardline immigration agenda amid sagging poll numbers ahead of the midterm elections.
Trump boasted that inflation is plummeting and gas prices are lower. He also defended his immigration efforts, which have caused turmoil in Democratic-run cities and resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens shot by immigration agents.
Trump called on legislators to stand and show their support if they agree that the “first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” That garnered a prolonged standing ovation from Republicans and silence from seated Democrats, prompting Trump to say they should be “ashamed of themselves.”
Scant in Trump’s speech: acknowledgement of the fourth anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war, which he vowed during his presidential campaign to end. He also didn’t discuss the release of government files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an issue Trump pivoted on after undermining efforts to release them, although some Epstein victims were in attendance.
Dozens of Democrats skipped Trump’s address and attended outside events, including a rally on the National Mall. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was escorted out of the House chamber at the start of Trump’s speech after he held up a sign that read “Black people aren’t apes,” referencing a video Trump recently posted on Truth Social depicting President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. (The video was later removed, and the White House said it was posted in error.)
A rare moment of bipartisan cheer came when Trump introduced the Olympic gold-medal winning men’s hockey team and announced plans to award goaltender Connor Hellebuyck the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian awards.
Here are fact-checks of some of Trump’s statements.
Economy
“Inflation is plummeting.”
Inflation has eased somewhat during Trump’s second term, but “plummeting” is an exaggeration.
The year-over-year rise in prices for January 2026 was about 2.4%. That’s lower than the year-over-year rate when he took office in January 2025, but it had already fallen from a peak of roughly 9% in the summer of 2022 under former President Joe Biden.
By Biden’s last month in office, year-over-year inflation was about 2.9%. The Federal Reserve aims to keep inflation about 2% year-over-year.
Some items have seen price decreases during Trump’s second term, while others have experienced price increases.
The price of gasoline has dropped about 6%, and the price of new and used cars has dropped by a little under 1%.
Groceries are up by about 2%, electricity is up by 6.3%, housing is up by 3.4%, medical care is up by 3.2% and apparel is up by 1.8%.
Wages on Trump’s watch have so far risen faster than inflation.
Gasoline is “now below $2.30 a gallon in most states, and in some places, $1.99 a gallon.”
Looking at statewide averages, Trump is wrong — not one state has an average below $2.30 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association. Some individual stations might be lower.
The state with the nation’s lowest average price on Feb. 24 was Oklahoma, at $2.37 a gallon. Arkansas, Kansas and Mississippi are the other states with average prices at or below $2.50 a gallon. Another nine states had gasoline between $2.50 and $2.60 a gallon.
According to GasBuddy, a gasoline price app, two Oklahoma stations on Feb. 23 were charging $1.99 a gallon, as were three in Kansas and two in Texas.
Trump said, “When I visited the great state of Iowa just a few weeks ago, I even saw $1.85 a gallon for gasoline.” However, a woman attending the speech fact-checked him; it was $2.69 a gallon at the station outside the Iowa venue for Trump’s speech there. The state average at the time was $2.57 a gallon, and GasBuddy found just four stations in the state selling for less than $2 a gallon.
Gasoline prices have fallen during Trump’s second term, from a nationwide average of $3.11 a gallon when he was inaugurated to $2.92 the week of Feb. 16.
“I’m also ending the wildly inflated cost of prescription drugs like it’s never happened before.”
Trump said prescription drug prices for Americans are dropping to some of the lowest in the world, with differences as high as “300, 400, 500, 600% and more, all available right now at a new website called TrumpRX.gov.”
That’s mathematical hyperbole, and it exaggerates savings on the new TrumpRx.gov website. A 100% drop in a drug’s price means it would cost $0. Prices slashed by 300% to 900% would mean drug manufacturers are paying people who are obtaining medications, instead of the other way around.
The discounts on TrumpRx.gov are largely limited to drugs for weight loss and fertility that many Americans have to pay for out of pocket because insurance plans often offer limited or no coverage. For example, the site offers Cetrotide, a medication used as part of fertility treatments, for $22.50, down from $316.12 — a 93% discount. It also offers Wegovy pills for $149 a month, down from $1,349 — an 89% discount.
Other pharmacies or websites sell generic versions of 20 of the 43 drugs on Trump’s website, often at lower prices. Plus, the website says these discounts are currently “only available for cash-paying patients,” not people using their insurance.
A White House official told PolitiFact the administration plans to extend the website’s benefits to people with insurance through Trump’s health care plan, which has not advanced in Congress.
Trump accounts
“With modest additional contributions, these young people’s accounts could grow to over $100,000 or more by the time they turn 18.”
This growth is not guaranteed over decades, and it almost certainly wouldn’t happen in 18 years.
For newly launched “Trump accounts,” babies born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, will receive $1,000 in seed money from the federal government. Parents can make additional deposits but aren’t required to.
An investment calculator maintained by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission shows that $1,000 could grow to about $6,000 after 18 years.
If accountholders added another $9,000 during that time — something many Americans could not afford to do — it would produce about $60,000 in 18 years, at a 10% rate of growth.
The historical annual average gain for the U.S. stock market is about 10%, but that rate of gain is not assured. Management fees also could eat into any gains.
Even a modest 2% inflation rate would take a big bite out of the final amount.
Finally, the amount in the account would decline further upon withdrawal because of taxes.
Immigration
“In the past nine months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States.”
Encounters with people trying to illegally cross the U.S. southern border have dropped significantly during Trump’s second term.
In January 2026, Customs and Border Protection officials encountered immigrants at the southern border nearly 10,000 times compared with more than 61,000 encounters in January 2025.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Border Patrol has not released any immigrants into the U.S. for eight months while they await their court proceedings. That means immigrants encountered by Border Patrol have either been quickly deported or detained.
“And with our new military campaign, we have stopped record amounts of drugs coming into our country and virtually stopped it completely coming in by water or sea.”
There is no evidence that drugs coming in by sea have been “virtually stopped” by the Trump administration’s “new military campaign.”
Trump didn’t detail what military campaign he was referencing, but since September 2025, the Trump administration has struck at least 41 vessels killing about 152 people in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. The administration hasn’t provided any evidence that the vessels it has struck were carrying drugs.
There has been a drop in Customs and Border Protection drug seizures since the strikes began. But the Coast Guard — not CBP — oversees most drug seizures on water, especially in international waters. And that agency has seen a steep increase in drug seizures.
The White House cites a drop in CBP drug seizures as a success at the same time the Coast Guard cites an increase in drug interdictions as a success, too.
However, neither an increase nor a decrease in drug seizures shows how many drugs are entering the U.S. That number is unknowable, according to drug experts. Drug seizures tell us only how many drugs are stopped from entering the U.S.
Crime
“Last year, the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history. This is the biggest decline, think of it, in recorded history, the lowest number in over 125 years.”
He’s right about the largest decline, but whether it’s the lowest in 125 years is less certain.
Experts expect that when the final 2025 murder rate, as defined by the FBI, is released later this year, it likely will be the lowest in at least 65 years. The 2025 drop of about 20% is likely to become the largest one-year decline ever recorded, experts say.
Whether it is the lowest in 125 years is less certain. Here’s why the 125 years number raises questions: The data collected between 1930 and 1960 is not comparable to later data, and the data from 1900 to 1930 includes all homicides, not just murders. (A killing in self-defense, for instance, is a homicide but not murder.)
SNAP benefits
“In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record, off of food stamps.”
The number refers to Americans who are projected to lose their benefits following the passage of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — not necessarily people who were able to afford to be off them.
An August 2025 Congressional Budget Office analysis found that about 2.4 million Americans would lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps, because of the law.
The law expanded work requirements for able-bodied adults, mandating that parents of dependent children ages 14 and older work, volunteer or participate in job training at least 80 hours a month. It also requires adults ages 55 to 64, veterans, people experiencing homelessness and people who were formerly in foster care to meet the new requirements, while exempting Native Americans.
About 42 million low-income people receive benefits through SNAP, getting an average individual monthly benefit of about $190, or $356 per household. Recipients can use the benefits to buy fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products, bread and other foods. The majority of SNAP households live in poverty.
RELATED: Our liveblog of Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address
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