President Donald Trump, during his Tuesday night State of the Union address, awarded the Purple Heart to Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe and deceased Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, two National Guard members who were critically injured and fatally shot by a gunman who ambushed them while on duty last year in Washington, D.C.
Trump used a portion of his State of the Union address to acknowledge Wolfe and the parents of 20-year-old Beckstrom, who did not survive her injuries.
“I’m going to ask a highly respected General James Seward to present Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe and the great family of Sarah Beckstrom, with the award created by our late, great president, George Washington himself,” Trump said. “It’s called the Purple Heart. We love you all.”
As Trump spoke, Major General James “Jim” D. Seward, Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard, presented Specialist Beckstrom’s medal to her parents and pinned the Purple Heart on Staff Sergeant Wolfe in the viewing gallery above.
National Guard Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who survived a November 2025 shooting attack in Washington, DC, receives a Purple Heart as he is recognized by US President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
“Your daughter was a true American patriot,” Trump told Beckstrom’s parents, “and she will be greatly missed.”
“She was a great person,” Trump said. “I saw reports on her. They’ve never seen anything like it. So sorry.”
Addressing Wolfe, Trump said, “The doctors thought that Andrew was gone, but his mother said, ‘No, no, Mr. President, Andrew will be fine. He’s going to make it.’ I’ve never seen anything like it.”
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey praised their award in a statement, describing the award as a “solemn and unforgettable moment, one that ensured their courage and sacrifice were honored not only by West Virginia but also before the entire nation.”
U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was “laid to rest with full military honors during a ceremony and interment on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, at the West Virginia National Cemetery in Grafton, West Virginia,” the National Guard said.(U.S. Army National Guard photo by Edwin L. Wriston)
Beckstrom, 20, and Wolfe, 24, were both shot by a gunman just blocks from the White House last November, in what federal authorities are investigating as a terror attack.
The alleged shooter is an Afghan refugee who came to the U.S. as part of Operation Allies Welcome during the military’s withdrawal from Kabul in 2021.
President Donald Trump walks past Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Brent Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Mary Coney Barrett as he arrives for the State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution honoring the two National Guard members.
“Spc. Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Wolfe represent the very best of our nation,” Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, said at the time.
“Young Americans driven by service, compassion, and a sense of duty. Their willingness to step forward to serve their communities and their country reflects the highest ideals of military and public service.”
Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind contributed to this report
Related Article
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
On Friday, hours after the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump had no tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), he invoked a different law to impose “a temporary import surcharge of 10 percent,” later raised to 15 percent. Trump suggested he also might impose tariffs under four other statutes, some of which he has used before.
Despite that seemingly quick recovery from a decision that Trump called “terrible” and “deeply disappointing,” the IEEPA ruling undeniably complicated his economically illiterate trade war. More importantly, it upheld the rule of law and the separation of powers by rejecting Trump’s audacious claim that the 1977 law, which does not even mention import taxes and had never before been used to impose them, gave him the previously unnoticed authority to completely rewrite the tariff schedule approved by Congress.
Trump maintained that IEEPA authorizes the president to impose any taxes he wants on any imports he chooses from any country he decides to target for any length of time he considers appropriate whenever he deems it necessary to “deal with” an “unusual and extraordinary threat” from abroad that constitutes a “national emergency.” And according to Trump, Chief Justice John Roberts noted, “the only way of restraining the exercise of that power” is the “veto-proof majority in Congress” required to terminate the supposed emergency.
The Constitution unambiguously gives Congress the power to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.” If Congress meant to delegate that authority to the president as completely as Trump claimed, the Supreme Court reasoned, it would have said so.
“When Congress grants the power to impose tariffs, it does so clearly and with careful constraints,” Roberts noted. “It did neither here.”
In other words, the very statutes to which Trump resorted after his Supreme Court defeat provide compelling evidence that Congress did not grant him the extraordinary powers he claimed under IEEPA. Among other things, those laws authorize tariffs to protect “national security,” counter allegedly discriminatory trade practices, help U.S. manufacturers “adjust” to foreign competition, and alleviate “fundamental international payments problems.”
These provisions cover a lot of territory, and their use is often dubious. But all of them restrict presidential action by specifying acceptable rationales, requiring agency investigations, or limiting the size, scope, or duration of tariff hikes.
Trump’s attempt to avoid those “careful constraints” prompted a richly deserved rebuke. Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, concluded that Trump’s reading of IEEPA ran afoul of the “major questions” doctrine, which says the executive branch can exercise delegated powers of “vast ‘economic and political significance’” only with clear congressional approval.
Two Trump appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, agreed that the president could not meet that test. “The Constitution lodges the Nation’s lawmaking powers in Congress alone, and the major questions doctrine safeguards that assignment against executive encroachment,” Gorsuch explained in his concurring opinion.
Under that doctrine, “the President must identify clear statutory authority for the extraordinary delegated power he claims,” Gorsuch wrote. “That is a standard he cannot meet,” Gorsuch continued, because Congress “did not clearly surrender to the President the sweeping tariff power he seeks to wield.”
The three Democratic appointees on the Court—Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—saw no need to rely on the major questions doctrine. But they agreed that the IEEPA cannot reasonably be read as conferring the untrammeled authority that Trump perceived.
By joining Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson in rejecting his power grab, Trump averred, Gorsuch and Barrett became “an embarrassment to their families,” revealing themselves as “fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical-left Democrats.” But that assessment had nothing to do with the quality of their reasoning.
Trump’s condemnation instead hinged on the fact that Gorsuch and Barrett had the temerity to vote against the president who appointed them. Unlike Trump, they understand that justices have a higher duty than obedience to the president’s will.
President Trump gave his 2026 State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, during which he addressed, among other topics, the economy — an urgent topic of concern for millions of Americans who say they’re worried about everything from the price of food to spiraling health care costs.
The president touted his work during his first year back in office, saying, “inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising fast, the roaring economy is roaring like never before.”
By conventional metrics, the economy looks resilient. Unemployment remains low at 4.3%; inflation is cooling; and GDP is expanding, with the U.S. largely shrugging off the impact of tariffs that economists feared could trigger a recession. Consumers — whose spending keeps the economy humming — also report feeling more confident of late amid a burst in January job creation.
At the same time, many households still report grappling with stubbornly high prices for essentials like food, housing and health insurance, a disconnect that underscores the challenge Mr. Trump faces in touting his economic record.
Mr. Trump has offered a range of proposals to address affordability issues. Yet some of the most visible initiatives, such as a push to cap credit card rates at 10%, have yet to show benefits, Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick said in an email.
Americans polled by the Pew Research Center in January said their top economic concerns are the cost of food, housing and health care.
Food prices
The cost of food has been a flashpoint for consumers since inflation soared to a 40-year high in 2022. High food prices also bedeviled former President Biden, prompting Mr. Trump to vow while on the campaign trail that he would end the “inflation nightmare.”
Since Mr. Trump returned to office in 2025, food prices have continued to climb, although at a slower pace than under the Biden administration, when pandemic-related supply disruptions drove price hikes.
But economists have long noted that shoppers tend to be more focused on the prices they see on store shelves than the rate of inflation. Although food costs are rising more slowly, prices of some staples have continued rise sharply in the past year: Ground beef has jumped 17.2% from a year ago, while coffee has surged 18.3%.
The Trump administration has sought to counter rising food prices in part by exempting beef, coffee and bananas from tariffs. Earlier this month, Mr. Trump also said he would boost U.S. imports of beef from Argentina in an effort to ease prices.
Because beef imports from Argentina represent only 0.6% of the overall U.S. beef supply, that policy is unlikely to move the needle on prices, experts have told CBS News.
Housing affordability
More than 8 in 10 Americans say it is harder today to buy a home than it was for earlier generations, according to a CBS News poll that surveyed consumers in early February. Pew also recently found that 62% of Americans report feeling concerned about the cost of housing.
The Trump administration has proposed several remedies, including banning institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes. The president has also directed the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage securities, a move that could help lower the cost of home loans.
Experts say that those ideas may provide some relief, but aren’t likely on their own to address the deeper issue behind rising home prices: a shortage of affordable housing. Homebuilding cratered after the Great Recession in 2008-09 and has never caught up with demand.
The U.S. would need to build as many as 4 million additional homes beyond the normal pace of construction to significantly reduce the housing shortage, Goldman Sachs analysts estimate.
Health care spending
Paying for health care has emerged as Americans’ top financial worry after Congress failed last year to extend some Affordable Care Act subsidies, triggering premium spikes for millions, health policy research firm KFF found in a recent poll.
Meanwhile, workers with employer-sponsored health insurance face increases of about 6% to 7% in 2026 — more than double the current rate of inflation. Since 2008, the cost of private health insurance has roughly doubled, KFF found.
Millions who rely on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for insurance plans faced even sharper spikes after Congress failed to extend enhanced premium subsidies, which expired Dec. 31. Some Americans told CBS News they planned to skip coverage this year because they couldn’t afford their soaring premiums.
The Trump administration is tackling drug costs through its new TrumpRx website, which lists lower direct-to-consumer prescription prices. Mr. Trump described the site as “one of the most transformative health care initiatives of all time.”
But experts note that the site is geared to consumers who pay out of pocket, meaning that it doesn’t help people with insurance and won’t count toward meeting a consumer’s health plan deductible.
The Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” act also paid for tax cuts by significantly trimming spending on Medicaid and other social programs, Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, noted in an email.
“When you add to that the refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act credits, which caused health insurance premiums to double for millions of Americans, and the cuts to affordable energy programs, you can see Americans were really hit in their wallets over the last year,” she said.
In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump proudly proclaimed to members of Congress and the public that the United States is “bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before,” touting the benefits of his signature tax policy in particular, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). He also claimed that his administration is working to make it easier for Americans to save for retirement. “Under this administration,” he said, “we will always protect Social Security and Medicare … We will always protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.”
But both things cannot be true.
Despite Trump’s ongoing pledges to protect the nation’s vital social safety nets, recent economic projections reveal a starkly different reality. Sweeping legislative changes spearheaded by his administration have drastically shortened the financial lifespans of both Medicare and Social Security, accelerating their paths toward insolvency.
For decades, surplus payroll tax revenue was socked away in trust funds, which were designed to be tapped when revenue was no longer sufficient to cover benefits.
According to a newly updated report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), recent policy shifts have erased 12 years of projected solvency from the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, which pays for Medicare Part A. The fund is now expected to be entirely exhausted by 2040, rather than 2052, as projected in March 2025. The primary culprit behind this rapid financial deterioration is the OBBBA into law, lowering tax rates and creating a temporary deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older. While politically popular, these tax cuts significantly starved the trust fund of the revenues it normally receives from taxing Social Security benefits.
The HI Trust Fund serves as the financial backbone for essential health services, including inpatient hospital care, skilled nursing facility stays, home health care, and hospice care. If that fund is exhausted in 2040, Medicare would be legally restricted to paying out only what it collects in revenue, triggering automatic benefit cuts. The CBO estimates these reductions would begin at an 8% cut in 2040 and steadily climb to a 10% cut by 2056.
Meanwhile, Social Security faces a similarly accelerated timeline toward crisis. The CBO estimates that the Social Security trust fund will run out of money even sooner, by fiscal year 2032, which begins in October 2031. If Congress fails to intervene before this insolvency date, benefits would be strictly limited to incoming revenue. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that a typical couple turning 60 today would face a devastating $18,400 annual cut to their retirement benefits when the fund runs dry.
Trump laid into Democrats for voting against OBBBA, which he called “these really important and very necessary massive tax cuts. They wanted large-scale tax increases to hurt the people instead. But we held strong and with the great Big Beautiful Bill we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great country.”
Reducing tax revenue for these programs, though, is hastening their looming fiscal crisis. Alongside lower projected payroll tax revenues, this policy shift enacted during the Trump administration has starved the safety net of critical future funding.
Cuts to come in the future?
Once the trust funds are exhausted, additional money must be found somewhere or else benefits must be slashed. Another source is discretionary money.
But Bernard Yaros, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, has warned that funding Social Security and Medicare with general revenue could trigger a negative reaction in the bond market, sparking a sustained increase in interest rates, ultimately forcing lawmakers to make painful, drastic cuts to nondiscretionary programs to head off a full-blown fiscal crisis.
Faced with these looming cliffs, lawmakers may be tempted to simply finance the shortfalls with more national debt rather than making tough political choices to hike taxes or reduce benefits. However, economists warn this could spark a severe financial crisis. Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, cautioned in a Creators Syndicate op-ed that financial markets will quickly account for the additional borrowing.
“Inflation may not wait for debt to pile up,” de Rugy warned, noting it could “arrive the moment Congress commits to that debt-ridden path”.
Addressing this looming shortfall will require significant legislative action. To restore the 12 years of lost Medicare solvency alone, lawmakers will be forced to increase taxes, slash health care payments, or implement a politically fraught combination of these approaches—eventually. That flies directly in the face of the politically popular tax cuts that Trump hailed as so significant, on the year of the United States’ 250th birthday.
At a moment when polls show the American public increasingly concerned about the economy, Trump’s assignment Tuesday evening also is to cut through thickening skepticism that he’s staying true to his “America First” philosophy after a year in which his focus was often far from home. It’s a wariness shared by some who once counted themselves among Trump’s closest allies.
But Trump is poised to make the case that he’s taking the right approach balancing domestic policy concerns while using America’s military might when needed.
“As president, I will make peace wherever I can — but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,” Trump will say, according to excerpts of his address released by the White House.
Here are a few things to look out for in Trump’s major address, which is now underway:
Will he take action against Iran?
The growing unease comes as Trump weighs whether to carry out new military action on Iran. He last week warned Iran that “bad things will happen” soon if a deal is not reached over its nuclear program.
The administration appears flummoxed that Iran has not blinked to the mounting pressure.
“He’s curious as to why they haven’t — I don’t want to use the word capitulated — but why they haven’t capitulated,” Witkoff said of Trump in a weekend Fox News appearance.
Trump could use the moment to explain to Americans why military action could be needed, just eight months after he claimed that U.S. strikes had “obliterated” three critical Iranian nuclear facilities and left “the bully of the Middle East” with no choice but to make peace.
The pathway to a deal seems murky as the authoritarian clerics who rule Iran say they will only discuss the nuclear issue. The U.S. and Israel also want to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional armed proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
Russian and Ukrainian officials are negotiating in U.S.-mediated talks but are at loggerheads over key issues, including Russian demands that Kyiv concede Ukrainian territory still in its control and who will get the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe.
Russian troops have moved only about 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) into eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region in the past two years.
Despite the slow pace, Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains his maximalist demands, saying Kyiv must pull its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured.
Trump argues it’s inevitable that Russia will win control of the Ukrainian territory and has pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to save lives.
“Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelenskyy is going to have to get moving,” Trump said last week.
Trump appears eager for a peace deal before the U.S. midterm elections despite the challenges. Zelenskyy says the White House has set a June deadline for the war’s end and will likely pressure both sides to meet it.
Ukraine, Russia and the rest of Europe will be listening closely to hear what Trump has to say about ending the war.
Another victory lap on Maduro and focus on Western Hemisphere
Trump, early in his address, alluded to last month’s capture of the Venezuelan leader in an audacious military operation, saying the U.S. “just received from our new friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80 million barrels of oil.” The Trump administration had previously said it was orchestrating the effort to sell a total of about 30 to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stranded by a partial blockade imposed by the administration.
In the aftermath, Trump has called on U.S. oil executives to rush back into Venezuela as the White House tries to quickly secure $100 billion in investments to fix the country’s neglected infrastructure and fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum.
Trump’s action against Maduro, coupled with an increasingly aggressive posture in the Western Hemisphere aimed at eliminating drug trafficking and illegal migration, are a concern for many in the region — although they also have won support from some smaller countries.
Trump has likened the strategy to the Monroe Doctrine, with its rejection of outside influences and assertion of U.S. primacy throughout what the administration considers to be “America’s backyard.”
U.S. forces, under Trump’s orders, have carried out dozens of military strikes on alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean, seized sanctioned oil tankers and tightened the embargo of Cuba as part of what the president is referring to as the “Donroe Doctrine.”
“We are also restoring American security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere — acting to secure our national interests and defend our country from violence, drugs, terrorism and foreign interference,” Trump will say according to the speech excerpts released by the White House.
Tariff strategy following Supreme Court ruling
The president ahead of the address ridiculed the six justices, including two conservatives he appointed in his first term, who last week struck down his use of a 1977 legal authority he had cited for most of the tariff hikes he imposed over the past year on friends and foes alike.
In his speech, he took a more measured tone, calling the decision “an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court.”
Trump on Monday threatened countries around the world to abide by any tariff deals they have already agreed to.
Any country that wants to “play games” with the Supreme Court decision, Trump posted on social media, will be met with “a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to.”
Over the weekend, Trump announced he would increase to 15% a new global tariff aimed at replacing many of the import taxes ruled illegal by the Supreme Court last week.
He’s already signed an executive order enabling him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world, starting Tuesday. Those tariffs are limited to 150 days unless they are extended legislatively.
“The good news is almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made,” Trump said. He added, “The legal power that I as president have to make a new deal could be far worse for them and therefore they will continue to work along the same successful path we had negotiated before the Supreme Court’s unfortunate involvement.”
Associated Press writers Colin Binkley, Jonathan J. Cooper and Matthew Lee contributed reporting
At a moment when polls show the American public increasingly concerned about the economy, Trump’s assignment Tuesday evening also is to cut through thickening skepticism that he’s staying true to his “America First” philosophy after a year in which his focus was often far from home. It’s a wariness shared by some who once counted themselves among Trump’s closest allies.
But Trump is poised to make the case that he’s taking the right approach balancing domestic policy concerns while using America’s military might when needed.
“As president, I will make peace wherever I can — but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,” Trump will say, according to excerpts of his address released by the White House.
Here are a few things to look out for in Trump’s major address, which is now underway:
Will he take action against Iran?
The growing unease comes as Trump weighs whether to carry out new military action on Iran. He last week warned Iran that “bad things will happen” soon if a deal is not reached over its nuclear program.
The administration appears flummoxed that Iran has not blinked to the mounting pressure.
“He’s curious as to why they haven’t — I don’t want to use the word capitulated — but why they haven’t capitulated,” Witkoff said of Trump in a weekend Fox News appearance.
Trump could use the moment to explain to Americans why military action could be needed, just eight months after he claimed that U.S. strikes had “obliterated” three critical Iranian nuclear facilities and left “the bully of the Middle East” with no choice but to make peace.
The pathway to a deal seems murky as the authoritarian clerics who rule Iran say they will only discuss the nuclear issue. The U.S. and Israel also want to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional armed proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
Russian and Ukrainian officials are negotiating in U.S.-mediated talks but are at loggerheads over key issues, including Russian demands that Kyiv concede Ukrainian territory still in its control and who will get the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe.
Russian troops have moved only about 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) into eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region in the past two years.
Despite the slow pace, Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains his maximalist demands, saying Kyiv must pull its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured.
Trump argues it’s inevitable that Russia will win control of the Ukrainian territory and has pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to save lives.
“Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelenskyy is going to have to get moving,” Trump said last week.
Trump appears eager for a peace deal before the U.S. midterm elections despite the challenges. Zelenskyy says the White House has set a June deadline for the war’s end and will likely pressure both sides to meet it.
Ukraine, Russia and the rest of Europe will be listening closely to hear what Trump has to say about ending the war.
Another victory lap on Maduro and focus on Western Hemisphere
Trump, early in his address, alluded to last month’s capture of the Venezuelan leader in an audacious military operation, saying the U.S. “just received from our new friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80 million barrels of oil.” The Trump administration had previously said it was orchestrating the effort to sell a total of about 30 to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stranded by a partial blockade imposed by the administration.
In the aftermath, Trump has called on U.S. oil executives to rush back into Venezuela as the White House tries to quickly secure $100 billion in investments to fix the country’s neglected infrastructure and fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum.
Trump’s action against Maduro, coupled with an increasingly aggressive posture in the Western Hemisphere aimed at eliminating drug trafficking and illegal migration, are a concern for many in the region — although they also have won support from some smaller countries.
Trump has likened the strategy to the Monroe Doctrine, with its rejection of outside influences and assertion of U.S. primacy throughout what the administration considers to be “America’s backyard.”
U.S. forces, under Trump’s orders, have carried out dozens of military strikes on alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean, seized sanctioned oil tankers and tightened the embargo of Cuba as part of what the president is referring to as the “Donroe Doctrine.”
“We are also restoring American security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere — acting to secure our national interests and defend our country from violence, drugs, terrorism and foreign interference,” Trump will say according to the speech excerpts released by the White House.
Tariff strategy following Supreme Court ruling
The president ahead of the address ridiculed the six justices, including two conservatives he appointed in his first term, who last week struck down his use of a 1977 legal authority he had cited for most of the tariff hikes he imposed over the past year on friends and foes alike.
In his speech, he took a more measured tone, calling the decision “an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court.”
Trump on Monday threatened countries around the world to abide by any tariff deals they have already agreed to.
Any country that wants to “play games” with the Supreme Court decision, Trump posted on social media, will be met with “a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to.”
Over the weekend, Trump announced he would increase to 15% a new global tariff aimed at replacing many of the import taxes ruled illegal by the Supreme Court last week.
He’s already signed an executive order enabling him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world, starting Tuesday. Those tariffs are limited to 150 days unless they are extended legislatively.
“The good news is almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made,” Trump said. He added, “The legal power that I as president have to make a new deal could be far worse for them and therefore they will continue to work along the same successful path we had negotiated before the Supreme Court’s unfortunate involvement.”
Associated Press writers Colin Binkley, Jonathan J. Cooper and Matthew Lee contributed reporting
PolitiFact is live fact-checking President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress Feb. 24. PolitiFact has fact-checked 1,144 of Trump’s statements since 2011. Tonight, we’ll draw on that deep archive to check his speech’s accuracy.
President Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address in history Tuesday night, touting his administration’s economic policies and immigration enforcement, while condemning Democrats and the previous administration.
Trump also made a series of exaggerated, misleading and false claims throughout the course of the evening on topics ranging from the economy to crime to elections.
Here’s what the president got right — and wrong — in his address.
Did Trump lift millions off food stamps?
“We have lifted 2.4 million Americans — a record — off of food stamps,” Trump said.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
Nearly 42 million Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, informally known as food stamps.
Around 2.4 million people are expected to lose eligibility for the program because of new work requirements passed in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, according to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank.
But the timeline for making sure that people meet those requirements varies by state, so some of the cuts haven’t happened yet. And there is no proposed federal program to supplement the loss of food assistance.
Under the new work requirements, adults ages 55 to 64 and parents whose youngest children are at least 14 years old must document 80 hours per month of work, education or volunteering to maintain SNAP benefits. Without such documentation, they are eligible for food stamps for only three months within a three-year period. The law also gets rid of exemptions for veterans and people experiencing homelessness.
Did the ‘Warrior Dividend’ money come from tariffs?
“Every service member recently received a Warrior Dividend of $1,776. They put it on my desk. We got the money from tariffs and other things. A lot of money we have,” Trump said.
Verdict
The claim that “Warrior Dividend” payments came from tariffs is false.
Analysis
According to a Pentagon release in December, the money to pay 1.28 million active-duty service members and 174,000 reserve members $1,776 each came from a supplemental housing fund that Congress appropriated as part of Trump’s massive domestic spending bill last summer.
The funds were delivered to recipients “as a nontaxable supplement to their regular monthly housing allowance,” the internal Pentagon News Service reported in December.
As part of the announcement, Jules W. Hurst III, the acting comptroller for the Defense Department, said at the time, “We are grateful to President Trump, Chairman [Roger] Wicker, Chairman [Mike] Rogers and the other members of Congress who have made this Warrior Dividend possible through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Trump says there’s almost ‘no crime anymore’ in D.C.
“[W]e have almost no crime anymore in Washington, D.C. How did that happen? In fact, crime in Washington is now at the lowest level ever recorded, and murders in D.C. this January were down close to 100% from a year ago,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
Crime in Washington has fallen in all but one category in 2026 so far, according to data published by the Metropolitan Police Department. (Assault with a dangerous weapon is the only category that has increased in 2026.) That data also showed declines in 2025 from 2024 in all violent crime and property crime categories.
But it is not accurate to say there is “almost no crime” in Washington.
Since Jan. 1, there have been nine homicides, 126 assaults with a dangerous weapon and 322 motor vehicle thefts in the city. Year-to-date, homicides are down 67%.
Trump claims other presidents failed to lower drug prices
“I am also ending the wildly inflated cost of prescription drugs. Other presidents tried to do it, but they never could. They didn’t even come close,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, capping insulin at $35 a month for people on Medicare, placing a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug costs for people on Medicare and, for the first time, allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of some of its most expensive medications. On Jan. 1, the first negotiated prices took effect, including for the blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis and the cancer drug Imbruvica. After the law capped insulin costs for Medicare patients, drugmakers also extended $35 monthly caps to privately insured patients.
By contrast, Trump has stuck voluntary deals with at least 16 drugmakers in exchange for tariff relief. He launched the self-pay platform TrumpRx, which so far offers cash prices on 43 medications. Most of those deals, however, don’t change what people with private insurance or Medicare pay at the pharmacy counter. Medicaid patients already tend to pay little or nothing for prescriptions. And many of the drugs listed on TrumpRx have generic versions that cost less than the advertised prices.
Was inflation at record levels when Trump assumed office?
“The Biden administration and its allies in Congress gave us the worst inflation in history of our country. But in 12 months, my administration has driven core inflation down to the lowest level in more than five years, and in the last three months of 2025 it was down to 1.7%,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
Inflation is not typically measured in just three-month periods. The consumer-price index, the most cited inflation metric, includes food and energy. While energy prices have been dropping, food prices have been on the rise over the last year.
On an annual basis, inflation when Trump took office was 2.9%, which is not a record high level.
Inflation fell as low as 2.3% in April before it spiked again after his sweeping worldwide tariffs were introduced.
Recent record inflation was experienced in 2022 when it hit 8.9%. The highest inflation ever experienced happened in the 1980s, when it reached as high as around 14%.
Trump said more Americans are working now than ever before
“More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” Trump said.
Verdict
This is true.
Analysis
The statement is correct, though the labor market’s rate of growth has slowed sharply since Trump took office, and 2025 was the worst year for job creation since 2020. Excluding recessions, 2025 was actually the worst year for job creation since 2003.
A total of 584,000 jobs were created last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down significantly from more than 2 million in both 2024 and 2023. In 2022, as the economy bounced back from the pandemic, more than 4.5 million jobs were created. The pace of job creation is also slower than it was in each of the first three years of Trump’s first term.
President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday, touting his administration’s policies on immigration and trade.
Did Trump secure $18 trillion in investments in U.S.?
“I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion, pouring in from all over the globe,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
While a number of companies, such as tech firms, semiconductor companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers, have made public commitments to invest in the U.S., many of those commitments are either only slight increases from previous announcements or in line with previous plans. In addition, the commitments and investments the White House touted on its own website total $9.7 trillion.
A review of the White House list also found the $9.7 trillion figure to be misleading. More than $2.5 trillion of that is not investments, Bloomberg Economics found in November. About $3.5 trillion of that comes from opaque sovereign pledges, and another $3.5 trillion is corporate investments. Of those corporate investments, $2.9 trillion is planned for data centers.
“More than $250 billion of the White House pledges were announced or planned before Trump retook office in January,” Bloomberg Economics researchers also found.
Many of the commitments are also over the long term and are likely to be subject to change. For example, it recently took drugmaker Fujifilm Biotechnologies five years to open one factory in North Carolina.
Did Trump eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security?
“We held strong, and with the Great Big Beautiful Bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,” Trump said.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
It’s true that Trump cut taxes for seniors and hourly workers with the bill he signed into law last year, but he didn’t eliminate all the taxes he mentioned here. Some workers can now deduct overtime and tips, though there are income caps and maximum deduction limits. While some seniors may pay less in tax thanks to a new deduction, Social Security income is still taxed.
Trump says the murder rate is the lowest it’s been in 125 years
“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,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is true.
Analysis
This is true, according to an analysis of crime data published last month by the Council on Criminal Justice, an independent, nonpartisan group.
The group’s January analysis predicted that “when nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes is reported by the FBI later this year, there is a strong possibility” that the homicide level “would be the lowest rate ever recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900, and would mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record.”
Trump says the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ was the largest tax cut in history
“Last year, I urged this Congress to begin the mission by passing the largest tax cut in American history, and our Republican majority delivered so beautifully,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
Trump is referring in this statement to his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which he signed into law in July. The law cut taxes for many people and businesses while also significantly cutting an array of federal programs.
Trump says 70,000 new construction jobs have been added
“We have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
From January 2025 to January 2026, 44,000 construction jobs were added, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, far fewer than the 70,000 Trump touted.
Did Biden allow millions of migrants, including murderers, into the U.S.?
“They poured in by the millions and millions — from prisons, from mental institutions. There were murders — 11,888 murders. They came into our country. You allowed that to happen,” Trump said, in reference to Biden.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
It’s true that 10 million people entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration, but there’s no evidence that millions of migrants were coming from prisons and mental institutions, as Trump claims.
As for the claim about 11,888 murders, there are more than 13,000 convicted murderers without legal status who are not in ICE custody, but that figure can’t be blamed exclusively on Biden. It’s not clear when those migrants arrived in the U.S. — they could have entered at any point over the last four decades or even earlier, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The 13,000 number also includes noncitizens in state and federal prisons.
Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota shouted in dissent at President Trump as he urged the House to prohibit sanctuary cities.
Trump claims $19 billion in fraud committed in Minnesota
“When it comes to the corruption that is plundering, it really is plundering, America, there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion dollars from the American taxpayer. We have all the information, and in actuality, the number is much higher than that,” Trump said.
Verdict
This lacks evidence.
Analysis
The figure far exceeds estimates from the Justice Department, which has so far charged 98 people in Minnesota, 85 of whom are Somali, with $1 billion of fraud. The House Oversight Committee has estimated the fraud “could exceed $9 billion” as investigations continue.
Federal prosecutors, who began investigating the fraud allegations during the Biden administration, have also indicated that the total amount of federal taxpayer money that was misused could be as much as about $9 billion. That number stems from a federal prosecutor’s public statement that estimated that half of the $18 billion in federal funds paid out to 14 programs in the state may have been fraudulent.
Trump says egg and beef prices are declining
“The price of eggs is down 60%,” Trump said. “And even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly.”
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
Egg prices came down over the last year — dipping around 48% from January 2025 to January 2026, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, beef prices keep hitting all-time highs — with ground beef reaching a fresh record at $6.75 per pound last month, up nearly 22% from the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Has Trump ended 8 wars?
“I ended eight wars,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
There is no consensus about how many wars or potential wars Trump has ended. And where peace has prevailed, Trump’s impact as a mediator is up for debate.
Trump has claimed credit for ending conflicts between Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Thailand and Cambodia, Serbia and Kosovo, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and India and Pakistan.
In some cases, fighting has resumed after declarations of peace or ceasefires, including between Thailand and Cambodia and Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And in other cases, there was no shooting war in the first place, as with Egypt and Ethiopia, but Trump’s envoys sought to defuse tensions that could trigger a conflict over a dam project.
Trump has claimed that in his first term, a U.S.-brokered economic secured peace between Serbia and Kosovo. The two sides have not been in a shooting war since the 1990s, but deep political tensions persist, despite the deal agreed upon during Trump’s first term.
Some of the countries’ leaders have said Trump helped end the fighting, including between Israel and Iran, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Pakistan and India. Pakistan has described Trump as having played an instrumental role in ending a war with India. But India’s government has denied that the U.S. played a role in negotiating the ceasefire, saying the fighting ended as a result of direct talks between the two countries.
Israel and regional experts have credited Trump with helping end a 12-day war between Israel and Iran after he ordered airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear sites. Trump is now threatening another U.S. air attack on Iran depending on the outcome of diplomatic talks with Iranian officials Thursday.
Even some of Trump’s critics have praised his role in helping broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, though the ceasefire remains fragile.
Will the SAVE America Act get rid of mail voting?
“I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. All voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship. No more crooked mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.”
Verdict
Trump’s comments about mail-in ballots are false.
Analysis
The SAVE America Act, which was approved by the House but has not passed the Senate, proposes adding significant new proof of citizenship and voter ID requirements, but it wouldn’t eliminate mail voting.
Trump claims cheating in elections is ‘rampant’
“Cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in American elections. The conservative Heritage Foundation has collected only dozens of cases of fraud in key swing states amid tens of millions of ballots cast over decades.
Aria Bendix , Dan De Luce, Kayla Steinberg, Julia Ainsley, Berkeley Lovelace Jr. , Steve Kopack and Christina Wilkie contributed.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivered the Democratic rebuttal to President Trump’s State of the Union address, slamming the White House over cost of living concerns.
President Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address in history Tuesday night, touting his administration’s economic policies and immigration enforcement, while condemning Democrats and the previous administration.
Trump also made a series of exaggerated, misleading and false claims throughout the course of the evening on topics ranging from the economy to crime to elections.
Here’s what the president got right — and wrong — in his address.
Did Trump lift millions off food stamps?
“We have lifted 2.4 million Americans — a record — off of food stamps,” Trump said.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
Nearly 42 million Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, informally known as food stamps.
Around 2.4 million people are expected to lose eligibility for the program because of new work requirements passed in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, according to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank.
But the timeline for making sure that people meet those requirements varies by state, so some of the cuts haven’t happened yet. And there is no proposed federal program to supplement the loss of food assistance.
Under the new work requirements, adults ages 55 to 64 and parents whose youngest children are at least 14 years old must document 80 hours per month of work, education or volunteering to maintain SNAP benefits. Without such documentation, they are eligible for food stamps for only three months within a three-year period. The law also gets rid of exemptions for veterans and people experiencing homelessness.
Did the ‘Warrior Dividend’ money come from tariffs?
“Every service member recently received a Warrior Dividend of $1,776. They put it on my desk. We got the money from tariffs and other things. A lot of money we have,” Trump said.
Verdict
The claim that “Warrior Dividend” payments came from tariffs is false.
Analysis
According to a Pentagon release in December, the money to pay 1.28 million active-duty service members and 174,000 reserve members $1,776 each came from a supplemental housing fund that Congress appropriated as part of Trump’s massive domestic spending bill last summer.
The funds were delivered to recipients “as a nontaxable supplement to their regular monthly housing allowance,” the internal Pentagon News Service reported in December.
As part of the announcement, Jules W. Hurst III, the acting comptroller for the Defense Department, said at the time, “We are grateful to President Trump, Chairman [Roger] Wicker, Chairman [Mike] Rogers and the other members of Congress who have made this Warrior Dividend possible through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Trump says there’s almost ‘no crime anymore’ in D.C.
“[W]e have almost no crime anymore in Washington, D.C. How did that happen? In fact, crime in Washington is now at the lowest level ever recorded, and murders in D.C. this January were down close to 100% from a year ago,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
Crime in Washington has fallen in all but one category in 2026 so far, according to data published by the Metropolitan Police Department. (Assault with a dangerous weapon is the only category that has increased in 2026.) That data also showed declines in 2025 from 2024 in all violent crime and property crime categories.
But it is not accurate to say there is “almost no crime” in Washington.
Since Jan. 1, there have been nine homicides, 126 assaults with a dangerous weapon and 322 motor vehicle thefts in the city. Year-to-date, homicides are down 67%.
Trump claims other presidents failed to lower drug prices
“I am also ending the wildly inflated cost of prescription drugs. Other presidents tried to do it, but they never could. They didn’t even come close,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, capping insulin at $35 a month for people on Medicare, placing a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug costs for people on Medicare and, for the first time, allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of some of its most expensive medications. On Jan. 1, the first negotiated prices took effect, including for the blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis and the cancer drug Imbruvica. After the law capped insulin costs for Medicare patients, drugmakers also extended $35 monthly caps to privately insured patients.
By contrast, Trump has stuck voluntary deals with at least 16 drugmakers in exchange for tariff relief. He launched the self-pay platform TrumpRx, which so far offers cash prices on 43 medications. Most of those deals, however, don’t change what people with private insurance or Medicare pay at the pharmacy counter. Medicaid patients already tend to pay little or nothing for prescriptions. And many of the drugs listed on TrumpRx have generic versions that cost less than the advertised prices.
Was inflation at record levels when Trump assumed office?
“The Biden administration and its allies in Congress gave us the worst inflation in history of our country. But in 12 months, my administration has driven core inflation down to the lowest level in more than five years, and in the last three months of 2025 it was down to 1.7%,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
Inflation is not typically measured in just three-month periods. The consumer-price index, the most cited inflation metric, includes food and energy. While energy prices have been dropping, food prices have been on the rise over the last year.
On an annual basis, inflation when Trump took office was 2.9%, which is not a record high level.
Inflation fell as low as 2.3% in April before it spiked again after his sweeping worldwide tariffs were introduced.
Recent record inflation was experienced in 2022 when it hit 8.9%. The highest inflation ever experienced happened in the 1980s, when it reached as high as around 14%.
Trump said more Americans are working now than ever before
“More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” Trump said.
Verdict
This is true.
Analysis
The statement is correct, though the labor market’s rate of growth has slowed sharply since Trump took office, and 2025 was the worst year for job creation since 2020. Excluding recessions, 2025 was actually the worst year for job creation since 2003.
A total of 584,000 jobs were created last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down significantly from more than 2 million in both 2024 and 2023. In 2022, as the economy bounced back from the pandemic, more than 4.5 million jobs were created. The pace of job creation is also slower than it was in each of the first three years of Trump’s first term.
President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday, touting his administration’s policies on immigration and trade.
Did Trump secure $18 trillion in investments in U.S.?
“I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion, pouring in from all over the globe,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
While a number of companies, such as tech firms, semiconductor companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers, have made public commitments to invest in the U.S., many of those commitments are either only slight increases from previous announcements or in line with previous plans. In addition, the commitments and investments the White House touted on its own website total $9.7 trillion.
A review of the White House list also found the $9.7 trillion figure to be misleading. More than $2.5 trillion of that is not investments, Bloomberg Economics found in November. About $3.5 trillion of that comes from opaque sovereign pledges, and another $3.5 trillion is corporate investments. Of those corporate investments, $2.9 trillion is planned for data centers.
“More than $250 billion of the White House pledges were announced or planned before Trump retook office in January,” Bloomberg Economics researchers also found.
Many of the commitments are also over the long term and are likely to be subject to change. For example, it recently took drugmaker Fujifilm Biotechnologies five years to open one factory in North Carolina.
Did Trump eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security?
“We held strong, and with the Great Big Beautiful Bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,” Trump said.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
It’s true that Trump cut taxes for seniors and hourly workers with the bill he signed into law last year, but he didn’t eliminate all the taxes he mentioned here. Some workers can now deduct overtime and tips, though there are income caps and maximum deduction limits. While some seniors may pay less in tax thanks to a new deduction, Social Security income is still taxed.
Trump says the murder rate is the lowest it’s been in 125 years
“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,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is true.
Analysis
This is true, according to an analysis of crime data published last month by the Council on Criminal Justice, an independent, nonpartisan group.
The group’s January analysis predicted that “when nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes is reported by the FBI later this year, there is a strong possibility” that the homicide level “would be the lowest rate ever recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900, and would mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record.”
Trump says the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ was the largest tax cut in history
“Last year, I urged this Congress to begin the mission by passing the largest tax cut in American history, and our Republican majority delivered so beautifully,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
Trump is referring in this statement to his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which he signed into law in July. The law cut taxes for many people and businesses while also significantly cutting an array of federal programs.
Trump says 70,000 new construction jobs have been added
“We have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
From January 2025 to January 2026, 44,000 construction jobs were added, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, far fewer than the 70,000 Trump touted.
Did Biden allow millions of migrants, including murderers, into the U.S.?
“They poured in by the millions and millions — from prisons, from mental institutions. There were murders — 11,888 murders. They came into our country. You allowed that to happen,” Trump said, in reference to Biden.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
It’s true that 10 million people entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration, but there’s no evidence that millions of migrants were coming from prisons and mental institutions, as Trump claims.
As for the claim about 11,888 murders, there are more than 13,000 convicted murderers without legal status who are not in ICE custody, but that figure can’t be blamed exclusively on Biden. It’s not clear when those migrants arrived in the U.S. — they could have entered at any point over the last four decades or even earlier, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The 13,000 number also includes noncitizens in state and federal prisons.
Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota shouted in dissent at President Trump as he urged the House to prohibit sanctuary cities.
Trump claims $19 billion in fraud committed in Minnesota
“When it comes to the corruption that is plundering, it really is plundering, America, there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion dollars from the American taxpayer. We have all the information, and in actuality, the number is much higher than that,” Trump said.
Verdict
This lacks evidence.
Analysis
The figure far exceeds estimates from the Justice Department, which has so far charged 98 people in Minnesota, 85 of whom are Somali, with $1 billion of fraud. The House Oversight Committee has estimated the fraud “could exceed $9 billion” as investigations continue.
Federal prosecutors, who began investigating the fraud allegations during the Biden administration, have also indicated that the total amount of federal taxpayer money that was misused could be as much as about $9 billion. That number stems from a federal prosecutor’s public statement that estimated that half of the $18 billion in federal funds paid out to 14 programs in the state may have been fraudulent.
Trump says egg and beef prices are declining
“The price of eggs is down 60%,” Trump said. “And even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly.”
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
Egg prices came down over the last year — dipping around 48% from January 2025 to January 2026, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, beef prices keep hitting all-time highs — with ground beef reaching a fresh record at $6.75 per pound last month, up nearly 22% from the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Has Trump ended 8 wars?
“I ended eight wars,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
There is no consensus about how many wars or potential wars Trump has ended. And where peace has prevailed, Trump’s impact as a mediator is up for debate.
Trump has claimed credit for ending conflicts between Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Thailand and Cambodia, Serbia and Kosovo, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and India and Pakistan.
In some cases, fighting has resumed after declarations of peace or ceasefires, including between Thailand and Cambodia and Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And in other cases, there was no shooting war in the first place, as with Egypt and Ethiopia, but Trump’s envoys sought to defuse tensions that could trigger a conflict over a dam project.
Trump has claimed that in his first term, a U.S.-brokered economic secured peace between Serbia and Kosovo. The two sides have not been in a shooting war since the 1990s, but deep political tensions persist, despite the deal agreed upon during Trump’s first term.
Some of the countries’ leaders have said Trump helped end the fighting, including between Israel and Iran, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Pakistan and India. Pakistan has described Trump as having played an instrumental role in ending a war with India. But India’s government has denied that the U.S. played a role in negotiating the ceasefire, saying the fighting ended as a result of direct talks between the two countries.
Israel and regional experts have credited Trump with helping end a 12-day war between Israel and Iran after he ordered airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear sites. Trump is now threatening another U.S. air attack on Iran depending on the outcome of diplomatic talks with Iranian officials Thursday.
Even some of Trump’s critics have praised his role in helping broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, though the ceasefire remains fragile.
Will the SAVE America Act get rid of mail voting?
“I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. All voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship. No more crooked mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.”
Verdict
Trump’s comments about mail-in ballots are false.
Analysis
The SAVE America Act, which was approved by the House but has not passed the Senate, proposes adding significant new proof of citizenship and voter ID requirements, but it wouldn’t eliminate mail voting.
Trump claims cheating in elections is ‘rampant’
“Cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in American elections. The conservative Heritage Foundation has collected only dozens of cases of fraud in key swing states amid tens of millions of ballots cast over decades.
Aria Bendix , Dan De Luce, Kayla Steinberg, Julia Ainsley, Berkeley Lovelace Jr. , Steve Kopack and Christina Wilkie contributed.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivered the Democratic rebuttal to President Trump’s State of the Union address, slamming the White House over cost of living concerns.
President Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address in history Tuesday night, touting his administration’s economic policies and immigration enforcement, while condemning Democrats and the previous administration.
Trump also made a series of exaggerated, misleading and false claims throughout the course of the evening on topics ranging from the economy to crime to elections.
Here’s what the president got right — and wrong — in his address.
Did Trump lift millions off food stamps?
“We have lifted 2.4 million Americans — a record — off of food stamps,” Trump said.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
Nearly 42 million Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, informally known as food stamps.
Around 2.4 million people are expected to lose eligibility for the program because of new work requirements passed in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, according to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank.
But the timeline for making sure that people meet those requirements varies by state, so some of the cuts haven’t happened yet. And there is no proposed federal program to supplement the loss of food assistance.
Under the new work requirements, adults ages 55 to 64 and parents whose youngest children are at least 14 years old must document 80 hours per month of work, education or volunteering to maintain SNAP benefits. Without such documentation, they are eligible for food stamps for only three months within a three-year period. The law also gets rid of exemptions for veterans and people experiencing homelessness.
Did the ‘Warrior Dividend’ money come from tariffs?
“Every service member recently received a Warrior Dividend of $1,776. They put it on my desk. We got the money from tariffs and other things. A lot of money we have,” Trump said.
Verdict
The claim that “Warrior Dividend” payments came from tariffs is false.
Analysis
According to a Pentagon release in December, the money to pay 1.28 million active-duty service members and 174,000 reserve members $1,776 each came from a supplemental housing fund that Congress appropriated as part of Trump’s massive domestic spending bill last summer.
The funds were delivered to recipients “as a nontaxable supplement to their regular monthly housing allowance,” the internal Pentagon News Service reported in December.
As part of the announcement, Jules W. Hurst III, the acting comptroller for the Defense Department, said at the time, “We are grateful to President Trump, Chairman [Roger] Wicker, Chairman [Mike] Rogers and the other members of Congress who have made this Warrior Dividend possible through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Trump says there’s almost ‘no crime anymore’ in D.C.
“[W]e have almost no crime anymore in Washington, D.C. How did that happen? In fact, crime in Washington is now at the lowest level ever recorded, and murders in D.C. this January were down close to 100% from a year ago,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
Crime in Washington has fallen in all but one category in 2026 so far, according to data published by the Metropolitan Police Department. (Assault with a dangerous weapon is the only category that has increased in 2026.) That data also showed declines in 2025 from 2024 in all violent crime and property crime categories.
But it is not accurate to say there is “almost no crime” in Washington.
Since Jan. 1, there have been nine homicides, 126 assaults with a dangerous weapon and 322 motor vehicle thefts in the city. Year-to-date, homicides are down 67%.
Trump claims other presidents failed to lower drug prices
“I am also ending the wildly inflated cost of prescription drugs. Other presidents tried to do it, but they never could. They didn’t even come close,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, capping insulin at $35 a month for people on Medicare, placing a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug costs for people on Medicare and, for the first time, allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of some of its most expensive medications. On Jan. 1, the first negotiated prices took effect, including for the blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis and the cancer drug Imbruvica. After the law capped insulin costs for Medicare patients, drugmakers also extended $35 monthly caps to privately insured patients.
By contrast, Trump has stuck voluntary deals with at least 16 drugmakers in exchange for tariff relief. He launched the self-pay platform TrumpRx, which so far offers cash prices on 43 medications. Most of those deals, however, don’t change what people with private insurance or Medicare pay at the pharmacy counter. Medicaid patients already tend to pay little or nothing for prescriptions. And many of the drugs listed on TrumpRx have generic versions that cost less than the advertised prices.
Was inflation at record levels when Trump assumed office?
“The Biden administration and its allies in Congress gave us the worst inflation in history of our country. But in 12 months, my administration has driven core inflation down to the lowest level in more than five years, and in the last three months of 2025 it was down to 1.7%,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
Inflation is not typically measured in just three-month periods. The consumer-price index, the most cited inflation metric, includes food and energy. While energy prices have been dropping, food prices have been on the rise over the last year.
On an annual basis, inflation when Trump took office was 2.9%, which is not a record high level.
Inflation fell as low as 2.3% in April before it spiked again after his sweeping worldwide tariffs were introduced.
Recent record inflation was experienced in 2022 when it hit 8.9%. The highest inflation ever experienced happened in the 1980s, when it reached as high as around 14%.
Trump said more Americans are working now than ever before
“More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” Trump said.
Verdict
This is true.
Analysis
The statement is correct, though the labor market’s rate of growth has slowed sharply since Trump took office, and 2025 was the worst year for job creation since 2020. Excluding recessions, 2025 was actually the worst year for job creation since 2003.
A total of 584,000 jobs were created last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down significantly from more than 2 million in both 2024 and 2023. In 2022, as the economy bounced back from the pandemic, more than 4.5 million jobs were created. The pace of job creation is also slower than it was in each of the first three years of Trump’s first term.
President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday, touting his administration’s policies on immigration and trade.
Did Trump secure $18 trillion in investments in U.S.?
“I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion, pouring in from all over the globe,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
While a number of companies, such as tech firms, semiconductor companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers, have made public commitments to invest in the U.S., many of those commitments are either only slight increases from previous announcements or in line with previous plans. In addition, the commitments and investments the White House touted on its own website total $9.7 trillion.
A review of the White House list also found the $9.7 trillion figure to be misleading. More than $2.5 trillion of that is not investments, Bloomberg Economics found in November. About $3.5 trillion of that comes from opaque sovereign pledges, and another $3.5 trillion is corporate investments. Of those corporate investments, $2.9 trillion is planned for data centers.
“More than $250 billion of the White House pledges were announced or planned before Trump retook office in January,” Bloomberg Economics researchers also found.
Many of the commitments are also over the long term and are likely to be subject to change. For example, it recently took drugmaker Fujifilm Biotechnologies five years to open one factory in North Carolina.
Did Trump eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security?
“We held strong, and with the Great Big Beautiful Bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,” Trump said.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
It’s true that Trump cut taxes for seniors and hourly workers with the bill he signed into law last year, but he didn’t eliminate all the taxes he mentioned here. Some workers can now deduct overtime and tips, though there are income caps and maximum deduction limits. While some seniors may pay less in tax thanks to a new deduction, Social Security income is still taxed.
Trump says the murder rate is the lowest it’s been in 125 years
“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,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is true.
Analysis
This is true, according to an analysis of crime data published last month by the Council on Criminal Justice, an independent, nonpartisan group.
The group’s January analysis predicted that “when nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes is reported by the FBI later this year, there is a strong possibility” that the homicide level “would be the lowest rate ever recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900, and would mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record.”
Trump says the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ was the largest tax cut in history
“Last year, I urged this Congress to begin the mission by passing the largest tax cut in American history, and our Republican majority delivered so beautifully,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
Trump is referring in this statement to his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which he signed into law in July. The law cut taxes for many people and businesses while also significantly cutting an array of federal programs.
Trump says 70,000 new construction jobs have been added
“We have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
From January 2025 to January 2026, 44,000 construction jobs were added, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, far fewer than the 70,000 Trump touted.
Did Biden allow millions of migrants, including murderers, into the U.S.?
“They poured in by the millions and millions — from prisons, from mental institutions. There were murders — 11,888 murders. They came into our country. You allowed that to happen,” Trump said, in reference to Biden.
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
It’s true that 10 million people entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration, but there’s no evidence that millions of migrants were coming from prisons and mental institutions, as Trump claims.
As for the claim about 11,888 murders, there are more than 13,000 convicted murderers without legal status who are not in ICE custody, but that figure can’t be blamed exclusively on Biden. It’s not clear when those migrants arrived in the U.S. — they could have entered at any point over the last four decades or even earlier, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The 13,000 number also includes noncitizens in state and federal prisons.
Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota shouted in dissent at President Trump as he urged the House to prohibit sanctuary cities.
Trump claims $19 billion in fraud committed in Minnesota
“When it comes to the corruption that is plundering, it really is plundering, America, there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion dollars from the American taxpayer. We have all the information, and in actuality, the number is much higher than that,” Trump said.
Verdict
This lacks evidence.
Analysis
The figure far exceeds estimates from the Justice Department, which has so far charged 98 people in Minnesota, 85 of whom are Somali, with $1 billion of fraud. The House Oversight Committee has estimated the fraud “could exceed $9 billion” as investigations continue.
Federal prosecutors, who began investigating the fraud allegations during the Biden administration, have also indicated that the total amount of federal taxpayer money that was misused could be as much as about $9 billion. That number stems from a federal prosecutor’s public statement that estimated that half of the $18 billion in federal funds paid out to 14 programs in the state may have been fraudulent.
Trump says egg and beef prices are declining
“The price of eggs is down 60%,” Trump said. “And even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly.”
Verdict
This needs context.
Analysis
Egg prices came down over the last year — dipping around 48% from January 2025 to January 2026, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, beef prices keep hitting all-time highs — with ground beef reaching a fresh record at $6.75 per pound last month, up nearly 22% from the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Has Trump ended 8 wars?
“I ended eight wars,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is exaggerated.
Analysis
There is no consensus about how many wars or potential wars Trump has ended. And where peace has prevailed, Trump’s impact as a mediator is up for debate.
Trump has claimed credit for ending conflicts between Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Thailand and Cambodia, Serbia and Kosovo, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and India and Pakistan.
In some cases, fighting has resumed after declarations of peace or ceasefires, including between Thailand and Cambodia and Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And in other cases, there was no shooting war in the first place, as with Egypt and Ethiopia, but Trump’s envoys sought to defuse tensions that could trigger a conflict over a dam project.
Trump has claimed that in his first term, a U.S.-brokered economic secured peace between Serbia and Kosovo. The two sides have not been in a shooting war since the 1990s, but deep political tensions persist, despite the deal agreed upon during Trump’s first term.
Some of the countries’ leaders have said Trump helped end the fighting, including between Israel and Iran, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Pakistan and India. Pakistan has described Trump as having played an instrumental role in ending a war with India. But India’s government has denied that the U.S. played a role in negotiating the ceasefire, saying the fighting ended as a result of direct talks between the two countries.
Israel and regional experts have credited Trump with helping end a 12-day war between Israel and Iran after he ordered airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear sites. Trump is now threatening another U.S. air attack on Iran depending on the outcome of diplomatic talks with Iranian officials Thursday.
Even some of Trump’s critics have praised his role in helping broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, though the ceasefire remains fragile.
Will the SAVE America Act get rid of mail voting?
“I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. All voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship. No more crooked mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.”
Verdict
Trump’s comments about mail-in ballots are false.
Analysis
The SAVE America Act, which was approved by the House but has not passed the Senate, proposes adding significant new proof of citizenship and voter ID requirements, but it wouldn’t eliminate mail voting.
Trump claims cheating in elections is ‘rampant’
“Cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant,” Trump said.
Verdict
This is false.
Analysis
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in American elections. The conservative Heritage Foundation has collected only dozens of cases of fraud in key swing states amid tens of millions of ballots cast over decades.
Aria Bendix , Dan De Luce, Kayla Steinberg, Julia Ainsley, Berkeley Lovelace Jr. , Steve Kopack and Christina Wilkie contributed.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivered the Democratic rebuttal to President Trump’s State of the Union address, slamming the White House over cost of living concerns.
A federal judge in Minnesota ruled on Monday to hold government officials in civil contempt for violating a judicial order that prohibited the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from transferring detainee Fernando Gutierrez Torres, a Mexican national.
U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018, found that despite an earlier order prohibiting Torres’ transfer out of Minnesota, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) moved him to Texas without notifying his attorney.
A judge granted Torres’ habeas petition and ordered ICE to release him from custody “as soon as practicable, but not later than 48 hours” after the order was entered, according to court documents.
Filings state a major winter storm in Texas led to a state of emergency declaration, and Torres’ ICE-scheduled flight was canceled.
Drivers navigate icy road conditions on a major roadway Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Carrollton, Texas, as a winter storm moved through the region.(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
The agency realized the earliest they could reschedule his return to Minnesota was Jan. 27, which would be past the 48-hour release deadline mandated by the court.
In a rush to comply with that 48-hour deadline, the agency decided to release him immediately in El Paso, Texas, rather than waiting to fly him back to Minnesota.
His belongings were allegedly withheld when he was freed, according to court documents.
Ice covers a South Congress neighborhood after a winter storm brought rain, sleet and freezing temperatures to Austin on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026.(Aaron E. Martinez/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)
Tostrud ruled the haste to meet the deadline did not excuse the agency’s contempt because ICE should not have violated the original court order by transferring Torres to Texas in the first place, and ordered the government to pay for Torres’ nearly $570 flight home, which was initially covered by his attorney.
The government claimed the decision to transfer Torres was not made in “willful disregard for [sic] the Court’s order.”
Snow-covered streets and buildings are seen during a winter storm Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Dallas, Texas. Brutal cold and icy conditions followed the storm across parts of the region.(Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It is undisputable the Agency needed to consult with the undersigned counsel before making the decision to release Petitioner in Texas,” attorneys wrote. “That did not happen. Respondent acknowledges [his] release in Texas was not in compliance with the expectations and Order of this Court.”
Government lawyers added they are “deeply remorseful” and offered their “sincere apologies for the situation.”
Tostrud gave the administration an opportunity to file a motion for an evidentiary hearing before March 1, after which the judgment will go into effect.
In addition, the government can identify the specific person or entity that violated the order.
Court documents did not note what led to Torres’ initial arrest, with the administration citing “alleged immigration-law violations.”
DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Related Article
Alexandra Koch is a Fox News Digital journalist who covers breaking news, with a focus on high-impact events that shape national conversation.
She has covered major national crises, including the L.A. wildfires, Potomac and Hudson River aviation disasters, Boulder terror attack, and Texas Hill Country floods.
Convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried used to be a prolific donor to the Democratic Party, but these days his public statements have taken on a decidedly MAGA tone. “Clinton-appointed Judge Lewis Kaplan made his political bias very clear when sentencing me,” reads a recent screed on X. “I admire @realDonaldTrump for standing up to this ‘partisan and out of control activist’!”
This is just one of dozens of tweets railing about the deep state and other MAGA villains that Bankman-Fried, one of the century’s most notorious financial criminals, has published in recent weeks despite being locked up for 25 years in federal prison.
Though Bankman-Fried has not stated so explicitly, the goal of his social media spree is clear: persuade President Donald Trump to spring him from prison. The strategy makes sense given that Trump has been dispensing pardons to several high-profile figures convicted of financial crimes, including Binance founder and onetime Bankman-Fried archrival, Changpeng Zhao.
Alas for Bankman-Fried, his petitions to Trump for mercy appear to be in vain. In response to a request for comment about the recent social media campaign, a White House spokesperson reiterated to Fortune that Trump has no intention of pardoning Bankman-Fried.
In an email, the spokesperson referred Fortune to comments by Trump in January, where the president stated that he did not plan to pardon Bankman-Fried, along with a number of other prominent inmates including former New Jersey senator Robert Menendez and ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. “The President is the ultimate decider on all pardons,” the spokesperson wrote.
An attorney for Bankman-Fried did not respond to a request for comment.
Unsuccessful bid
Bankman-Fried was a longtime supporter of progressive causes and is the son of two Stanford law professors who carried considerable influence in the upper echelons of the Democratic Party. But as his fraudulent crypto empire crumbled in November 2022, the crypto founder plotted a rightward shift. In a personal document released as part of the trial, Bankman-Fried wrote that he planned to go on conservative TV host Tucker Carlson’s program and “come out as a Republican.”
On the surface, the tactic seems plausible, especially in today’s political environment. Trump entered office in January 2025 pledging to roll back the Biden administration’s crackdown on crypto. Under Trump, regulatory agencies have dismissed key cases against blockchain companies, and the Justice Department has undergone a reorganization of its approach to crypto enforcement.
Still, Bankman-Fried’s reputation as one of the top Biden donors has limited his appeal to the Trump administration. That, combined with Bankman-Fried’s still villainous status in the crypto industry, has always made his campaign for a pardon a long shot, according to D.C. insiders. That’s even with an unsanctioned appearance on Tucker Carlson last year, which reportedly landed Bankman-Fried in solitary confinement.
The tough odds haven’t curbed Bankman-Fried’s perseverance, as he is also fighting his conviction in federal appeals court. His X feed is filled with posts, which have been amplified by what critics describe as “sock-puppet” accounts, touting his new conservative bona fides. (In his bio, Bankman-Fried clarifies that he tells a proxy what to write through Bureau of Prisons–approved phone calls and emails.)
“Dems like censoring ‘misinfo’ on social media,” reads one recent post, before praising Trump’s own platform. “Truth Social & GETTR have always put free speech first.”
PolitiFact is live fact-checking President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress Feb. 24. PolitiFact has fact-checked 1,144 of Trump’s statements since 2011. Tonight, we’ll draw on that deep archive to check his speech’s accuracy.
How to watch Trump’s State of the Union address and follow live fact-checks
Most major network and cable news channels will broadcast Trump’s address. The White House’s YouTube channel will also stream the event starting at 9 p.m. EST.
Why does the president give a State of the Union address?
The State of the Union address is an annual speech the president gives to Congress as part of his duties outlined in the U.S. Constitution: “He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” (Technically, the president’s first-year speech to Congress is not considered a State of the Union address.)
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., invited Trump on Jan. 7 to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.
A politician from the opposing party traditionally delivers a speech in response to the State of the Union address; Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will give the 2026 Democratic rebuttal.
Some Democratic lawmakers have announced they will boycott Trump’s speech and attend alternativeevents near the U.S. Capitol.
What has Trump accomplished in the first year of his second term?
Trump will likely use the speech to highlight his administration’s achievements since he took office. We’re currently tracking 75 of his presidential campaign promises for his second term using our MAGA-Meter.
PolitiFact’s team has already done a lot of work preparing for this address, and we have developed a long list of the things we expect Trump to say.
When we hear an interesting and checkable statement, the first thing we’ll do is check our fact-checking archive to see if we’ve covered it before. If there’s a match, we’ll let you know almost immediately via our live blog and social media.
If it’s something we have not heard before, our reporters get to work running the numbers, speaking with experts and thoughtfully weighing the accuracy of the claim using our Truth-O-Meter rating system.
The Kennedy Center Honors will continue during a two-year renovation under a new name: “The Trump Kennedy Center Honors.”
One of D.C.’s most well-known arts traditions is moving forward with a new name.
Kennedy Center Interim President Richard Grenell told WTOP that the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony will be called “The Trump Kennedy Center Honors.”
Dancer and actor Fred Astaire, opera singer Marian Anderson, pianist Richard Rodgers, composer Arthur Rubinstein and choreographer George Balanchine were the inaugural class of Kennedy Center Honorees in 1978. Their careers were celebrated on a windy, wet day in December.
Donald Trump is the only president who did not attend the honors during his first term in office.
Federal law prohibits renaming the building or adding additional memorials without an act of Congress. But the board approved the placement of the president’s name above Kennedy’s name on the exterior of the building.
While changes were made to the honors last year, Grenell said even more are coming in 2026, such as the start of a two-year $257 million renovation to the facility.
But Grenell said the honors will not be canceled during the center’s closure.
“It will definitely go forward,” he said. “It will probably just be in a smaller venue, which just means ticket demand will be even higher. This year’s honors, we raised more money and had more ticket demand than ever before.”
While Grenell said the new location is “yet to be determined,” the name of the event is certain: “The Trump Kennedy Center Honors.”
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
Crypto analyst Cryptollica has revealed that the Dogecoin Relative Strength Index (RSI) has crashed to its lowest level since its launch. The analyst also predicted that this might mark the bottom for the foremost meme coin, with a bullish reversal on the horizon.
Dogecoin RSI Hits All-Time Low Since Launch
In an X post, Cryptollica stated that the Dogecoin RSI has hit its lowest level in 12 years and is completely oversold. The analyst noted that, after removing all social sentiment and meme narratives, DOGE’s 2-week chart shows one of the most “severe structural anomalies currently visible in the market.”
Related Reading
Cryptollica’s chart also highlighted what marked the macro bottom for Dogecoin in previous cycles and how this may be the bottom for the meme coin in this cycle. The analyst noted that the DOGE price has now compressed to the exact structural baseline that precedes major macro expansions, suggesting a bullish reversal may be on the horizon.
The analyst mentioned that this appears to be the “absolute oscillator floor” as the Dogecoin RSI is at an all-time low. Cryptollica alluded to the underlying momentum indicator, noting that the 2-week RSI has hit the 34 threshold. He added that the current downward momentum is mathematically weaker than it was during the 2015 bear market and the 2020 COVID crash. Meanwhile, selling pressure is completely exhausted.
In another X post, Cryptollica highlighted a channel from 2021 up until now. The analyst’s accompanying chart showed that Dogecoin could still rally to as high as $1.3, which is the top of the line. The midline target for the foremost meme coin is $0.3. The chart also suggested that DOGE could see a bullish reversal between now and July later this year.
DOGE Bouncing From Oversold Level
Crypto analyst Trader Tardigrade stated in an X post that Dogecoin has just bounced from the RSI oversold zone and is heading back to the top. His accompanying chart showed that DOGE could rebound to $0.12 as it bounces from this oversold zone. It is worth noting that the meme coin, however, continues to face selling pressure amid the crypto market sell-off due to the Trump tariffs.
Related Reading
In another X post, Trader Tardigrade noted that Dogecoin has formed a second base on the weekly chart. A pump followed base 1, and he again expects another pump to follow base 2. His accompanying chart showed that DOGE could first rally to $0.4 between now and July, then see a corrective move before it rallies to $1 by next year.
At the time of writing, the Dogecoin price is trading at around $0.09116, up almost 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
DOGE trading at $0.09 on the 1D chart | Source: DOGEUSDT on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
WASHINGTON — The gold-medal-winning U.S. women’s hockey team has politely declined an invitation from President Donald Trump to attend his State of the Union address Tuesday.
“We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold-medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,” the team said in a statement released Monday. “Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”
Scheduling will be a challenge as the NHL regular season resumes with five games Wednesday and the PWHL resumes Thursday.
Logistics played a role in the decision, as many of the women’s players were not scheduled to arrive in North America until Monday evening. The men’s team flew by charter to Miami earlier Monday. The women took a commercial flight and were scheduled to land in Atlanta.
A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that the women’s players didn’t learn of the invitation until late Sunday, making it difficult to change their travel plans. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the team’s travel plans.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of both teams.
When extending the invitation to the men’s team Sunday night, Trump said, “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.” Trump joked that if he did not also invite the women’s team, “I do believe I probably would be impeached.”
The Olympic tournament featured two thrilling finals, both ending in overtime, with the American women beating Canada 2-1 in the gold-medal game Thursday and the U.S. men beating Canada 2-1 on Sunday.
“It’s been a whirlwind. It’s been amazing. It’s a dream of ours. It was such an amazing way to unite the country,” Matthew Tkachuk of the U.S. men’s team said after arriving in Miami.
“We felt the support being across the Atlantic, and now being back on home soil we could feel it the second the wheels hit the ground. So excited to be back in the greatest country in the world and so excited to celebrate.”
Tkachuk said it was an honor to hear from Trump after the win, “and so we are definitely honored to represent him and the millions and millions across the country.”
Vice President JD Vance attended two of the U.S. women’s preliminary-round wins with his family during the first week of the Games.
AP’s Stephen Whyno, Charles Odum in Atlanta and Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed.
President Donald Trump will address a joint session of the 119th Congress on Tuesday, after accepting House Speaker Mike Johnson’s formal invitation in January to speak.It’s an opportunity for the president to outline his administration’s goals and address the nation’s most pressing issues.Related video above: Massachusetts teen once detained by ICE will attend State of the UnionWhen Trump takes the dais Tuesday night, Vice President JD Vance and Johnson are expected to be seated behind him on either side.In front of the president, Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, Joint Chiefs of Staff, former members of Congress and members of the diplomatic corps will be seated. Seats in the rest of the chamber are not assigned, according to the Congressional Research Service. Senators and House members are seated on a first-come, first-served basis.The president and first lady also typically invite about two dozen guests to sit in the gallery, to help put a human face to the president’s message for both policymakers and viewers at home.One person will be absent during the speech: the designated survivor. The designated survivor is a member of the Cabinet chosen to remain in a secure location during the speech in case of catastrophe, to ensure continuity of government. Doug Collins, the secretary of the Department Veterans Affairs, was assigned the role during the president’s address in 2025.
President Donald Trump will address a joint session of the 119th Congress on Tuesday, after accepting House Speaker Mike Johnson’s formal invitation in January to speak.
It’s an opportunity for the president to outline his administration’s goals and address the nation’s most pressing issues.
Related video above: Massachusetts teen once detained by ICE will attend State of the Union
When Trump takes the dais Tuesday night, Vice President JD Vance and Johnson are expected to be seated behind him on either side.
In front of the president, Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, Joint Chiefs of Staff, former members of Congress and members of the diplomatic corps will be seated. Seats in the rest of the chamber are not assigned, according to the Congressional Research Service. Senators and House members are seated on a first-come, first-served basis.
The president and first lady also typically invite about two dozen guests to sit in the gallery, to help put a human face to the president’s message for both policymakers and viewers at home.
One person will be absent during the speech: the designated survivor. The designated survivor is a member of the Cabinet chosen to remain in a secure location during the speech in case of catastrophe, to ensure continuity of government. Doug Collins, the secretary of the Department Veterans Affairs, was assigned the role during the president’s address in 2025.
CNN, AP, Getty Images, Government Publishing Office, US House of Representatives via CNN Newsource
When Trump takes the dais Tuesday night, Vice President JD Vance and Johnson are expected to be seated behind him on either side.
CNN via CNN Newsource
Each House member may invite one guest, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. The president’s guests sit with the first lady in her box on stage left.
President Donald Trump has cited dramatic results from U.S. strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, saying they’ve nearly stopped the flow of drugs trafficked to the U.S. by water.
Since September 2025, the U.S. has struck at least 40 alleged drug vessels, killing 149 people.
“With our action in the Gulf of America, that sounds so nice when I hear the Gulf of America, drugs entering our country by sea are down 97%,” Trump said at a Jan. 29 White House event. “So when you see the boats being hit, those boats kill on average 25,000 people a boat.” We’ve rated the statement about 25,000 deaths Pants on Fire.
Even though Trump mentioned the Gulf of America, his comments appeared to reference the Caribbean and Pacific strikes.
When asked for evidence about the 97% claim, the White House pointed us to Customs and Border Protection statistics from July 2025 to November 2025. Those numbers show a 98% drop in the pounds of drugs seized by CBP air and marine operations.
But drug seizures tell us only how many drugs are stopped from entering the U.S. There isn’t data to show how many drugs are being sent to the U.S. or how many are making it in. Drug experts also say changes in drug seizure data aren’t sufficient to make definitive statements about policy outcomes.
“No one knows how much doesn’t get caught, so no one can cite a precise percentage change,” Jonathan Caulkins, a Carnegie Mellon University drug policy researcher, said. “Trump is making a claim about something that is unknowable.”
The White House didn’t explain why it chose those months. There has been a drop in CBP drug seizures since September 2025 when the vessel strikes began, but the percentage drop fluctuates depending on the months compared.
Additionally, the Coast Guard — not CBP — oversees most drug seizures on water, especially in international waters, an agency spokesperson told PolitiFact. Its data shows a spike in annual cocaine seizures — 200% in fiscal year 2025 compared with its yearly average. (The Coast Guard generally focuses on cocaine seizures, while CBP’s 98% decline is mainly related to marijuana.)
While the White House cites a drop in CBP drug seizures as a success, the Coast Guard cites an increase in seizures as a sign of strong enforcement.
This image from video provided by U.S. South Command, shows a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean shortly before it was destroyed by the U.S. military, killing two and injuring one, Jan. 23, 2026. (U.S. Southern Command via AP)
An uncharacteristically high month for marijuana seizures inflates percent drop
The White House’s calculation starts in July 2025, which was an outlier with an uncharacteristically high number of marijuana seizures. In July, CBP seized 224,000 pounds of drugs, including 203,000 pounds of marijuana. CBP seizes about 20,000 pounds of all types of drugs in a month.
From August 2025, the last month before the vessel strikes began, to January, the latest available data, CBP drug seizures dropped 79%.
For the Coast Guard, drug seizures are up.
In the 2025 fiscal year which ended in September, the Coast Guard seized 510,000 pounds of cocaine, a 200% increase from a typical fiscal year when the Coast Guard seizes about 167,000 pounds of cocaine.
In August 2025, the Coast Guard launched an operation to target cartels and criminal organizations. From August 2025 to February 2026, the Coast Guard seized 200,000 pounds of cocaine more than it seizes in a typical year, according to agency press releases.
The Coast Guard has hailed the increase in seizures as a success in “preventing the flow of dangerous drugs into American communities.”
Statistics don’t show how many drugs make it into the US
Regardless of the data point, it’s unknown how many drugs enter the U.S. each year. Drug seizures show only how many pounds of a drug were stopped from getting into the U.S.
“It’s a black market. And so by definition, we do not have good market data,” Elizabeth Dickinson, deputy program director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that researches global crises.
The decrease in CBP seizures could point to less enforcement or fewer drugs moving on a specific route, Dickinson said. “There’s really not a good way to understand that data,” she said.
Dickinson said the Trump administration’s drug enforcement efforts, such as the vessel strikes, have “scared some traffickers away from using specific routes.”
Rather than stop trafficking, they might have rerouted.
“Drug trafficking is a very old and mature business, in many ways, these organizations have been in a cat and mouse game with law enforcement, not just for years, but really for decades,” Dickinson said. They “are expert at reconfiguring routes, finding new ways to ship things, and innovating in a way to avoid enforcement.”
Our ruling
Trump said, after U.S. vessel strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, “drugs entering our country by sea are down 97%.”
The administration hasn’t provided any evidence that the vessels it has struck were carrying drugs.
There has been a drop in CBP 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.
Trump’s statement is unsubstantiated. We rate it False.
U.S. policy is often reported through announcements, personalities and regulatory skirmishes. Far less attention is paid to the economic mechanisms that actually move structures and determine outcomes.
To understand how the White House is organizing a multipronged strategy for AI adoption and export, and how its pieces are meant to work together in practice, I had an exclusive sit down with Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Tanvi Ratna: The fundamental issue you speak about at the summit is the widening AI adoption gap between the developed and developing world. What makes that a concern for the White House right now?
Michael Kratsios: The divergence in AI adoption between developed and developing countries is growing every day. We see the world in two broad categories, and different tools are needed for each.
Developing countries are at risk of falling behind at a fundamental inflection point. That is why we urge them to prioritize AI adoption in sectors that deliver concrete benefits: healthcare, education, energy infrastructure, agriculture, and citizen-facing government services.
Michael Kratsios testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing, and Competitiveness on Capitol Hill on Sept. 10, 2025.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
For too long, countries seeking development support faced a false choice. We believe the American AI Exports Program offers a different path: trusted best-in-class technology, financing to overcome adoption barriers, and deployment support, so governments can learn how and where to use these tools.
America remains the undisputed leader in AI, from GPUs to data centers to frontier models and applications. That leadership brings with it a responsibility to share the foundations of a new era of innovation. We stand ready to work with partners around the world so creativity, freedom and prosperity shape today’s technological revolution.
Tanvi Ratna: A lot of governments say they want AI leadership. Your delegation came in talking about real AI sovereignty, rejecting global governance, and launching an export program with multiple prongs. What is fundamentally different about this approach, and how should countries understand the system you’re building?
Michael Kratsios: The hope of the United States is that the pursuit of real AI sovereignty, the adoption and deployment of sovereign infrastructure, sovereign data, sovereign models and sovereign policies within national borders and under national control, will become an occasion for bilateral diplomacy, international development, and global economic dynamism. The American AI Exports Program exists to make that happen.
Real AI sovereignty means owning and using best-in-class technology for the benefit of your people, and charting your national destiny in the midst of global transformations. We urge nations to focus on strategic autonomy alongside rapid AI adoption rather than aiming for full self-sufficiency. AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralized control.
We deeply believe that the best pathway for the developing world to fully realize the untold benefits of AI is through the adoption of the American AI stack. The American AI stack has the best chips, the best models and the best applications in the world, and that is what countries ultimately need to deploy AI effectively.
Tanvi Ratna: When you say the American AI stack, are you talking about selling products, or shaping the foundation on which countries build while keeping sensitive data under national control?
Michael Kratsios: Working with the American AI stack allows nations to build on the best technologies in the world while keeping sensitive data within their borders. Independent partners are critical to unlocking the prosperity AI adoption can deliver. That is why the president launched the American AI Exports Program.
American companies can build large, independent AI infrastructure with secure and robust supply chains that minimize backdoor risk. They build it, and it belongs to the country deploying it.
Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, speaks at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Feb. 21, 2026.
Tanvi Ratna: If this is an adoption strategy, then cost and complexity become the bottlenecks. Your public remarks emphasize financing and deployment sophistication as the two biggest hurdles for developing countries. How are you actually removing those barriers?
Michael Kratsios: Developing countries face two major obstacles to AI adoption. One is financing. The AI stack is expensive. Through the energy and material demands of its infrastructure, it brings the digital transformation of our world back into physical reality. Data centers, semiconductors, power production all require real labor and real resources.
The second barrier is a deficit in the technical sophistication needed to deploy AI tools effectively. To address this, we announced a U.S. government-wide suite of support initiatives to facilitate global adoption of trusted AI systems, create a competitive and interoperable AI ecosystem, and advance the American AI Exports Program in both developed and developing partner nations.
Tanvi Ratna: Spell out that suite. What are the prongs, capital, integration, standards, execution, and which agencies are being activated?
Michael Kratsios: We unveiled a new set of initiatives across the federal government supporting the American AI Exports Program, which was launched by executive order last July.
The first new initiative within it is the National Champions Initiative. It is designed to include the leading technology companies of partner countries directly into the American AI stack. We want the best technologies from all our partners and allies to be part of that ecosystem wherever the American AI stack goes.
The second is a full suite of financing and funding opportunities. We are mobilizing support through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the Export Import Bank, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and a new World Bank fund, with additional programs launched by Treasury and other parts of the U.S. government. The message is simple: this is serious. Every possible financing avenue is being brought to bear.
The third is the creation of the U.S. Tech Corps. It is a reimagining of how the Peace Corps can make an impact in the modern era. We are seeking Americans with technical backgrounds who can help deploy American technology abroad, because there is no better tool to drive economic development, health improvements, and quality of life gains than AI.
And finally, we believe one of the fastest ways to drive global adoption is through standards, particularly as the next wave of innovation centers on AI agents. How those agents communicate and coordinate their actions will benefit from unified standards, which is why NIST has launched a dedicated initiative.
Tanvi Ratna: The National Champions Initiative is easy to misunderstand. Critics hear American stack and assume dependency. Your framing suggests the opposite, integrating partner champions so countries do not have to choose between importing the stack and building domestic capability. Is that the point?
Michael Kratsios: Exactly. To integrate partner nation companies with the American AI stack and ensure that no country has to choose between completing the stack and developing domestic AI, we established the National Champions Initiative. Partners need the opportunity to build native technology industries, and facilitating that is a core part of the exports program.
Tanvi Ratna: You have also criticized previous U.S. approaches to AI diffusion for restricting partners. What did that get wrong strategically?
Michael Kratsios: The previous approach treated partners as second-tier actors with significant restrictions on access to advanced technology. That was a lose-lose AI diplomacy strategy. It cut off partners from the best technology and limited American companies from competing globally.
Under President Trump, the United States is rethinking how it advances international development and how technology can deliver lasting impact. We believe both developed and developing countries can build sovereign AI capability if given the chance.
Tanvi Ratna: Let’s talk about the Tech Corps, because it would be easy to dismiss it as a feel-good addition. In your model, it sounds like an execution layer. What would these teams actually do on the ground?
Michael Kratsios: These will be like Peace Corps volunteers, except the focus is on technology. We are looking for people with technical backgrounds who want to help implement AI solutions.
If a country wants to improve agriculture through precision farming, apply AI to healthcare systems to improve hospital efficiency, or modernize digital public services, American technologists through the Tech Corps and the Peace Corps will be able to support those efforts.
A lot of young people today care deeply about real-world impact. What is special about this moment is that the United States has incredible technology, the best chips, models, and applications, and we are being more deliberate about sharing it.
Tanvi Ratna: You put unusual emphasis on AI agents and interoperability. Why does the White House see standards as a strategic lever now?
Michael Kratsios: The next wave of AI innovation over the next year or two will center on agents. How those agents communicate and orchestrate their actions would benefit greatly from unified standards. NIST has launched an initiative to develop standards for agents, so these systems can interoperate securely and effectively.
Tanvi Ratna: You also linked this export architecture to supply chains, from chips to data centers to power and minerals. Where does Pax Silica fit? Is it the hard backbone complement to the adoption layer?
Michael Kratsios: Pax Silica is a broader alliance focused on supply chain challenges that the United States and many partner nations have faced. It is a small, select group of countries working together to alleviate these challenges. India is a tremendous addition.
AI adoption depends on secure physical inputs. The AI stack is tangible: data centers, semiconductors, power generation. Pax Silica helps address those vulnerabilities while the exports program accelerates adoption. They are complementary.
Tanvi Ratna: Since India hosted the summit and joined Pax Silica, what role do you see for India within this strategy?
Michael Kratsios: India is a technology powerhouse. It graduates an incredible number of engineers, has deep domestic talent, and is building strong products and applications. We look forward to working with them.
India has long been a strong partner in how the United States shares technology abroad. Our major hyperscalers have data centers and research operations here and employ large numbers of Indian engineers. We believe many Indian companies can ultimately become part of the American AI stack.
Tanvi Ratna: When critics frame this as being about China, you resist that characterization. How does the administration view competition?
Michael Kratsios: We do not see this as being about any one competitor. This is about the fact that the United States has the best AI technology in the world, and many countries want it in their ecosystems. We are excited to share it and build mutually beneficial partnerships globally.
Related Article
Tanvi Ratna is a policy analyst and engineer with a decade of experience in statecraft at the intersection of geopolitics, economics, and technology. She has worked on Capitol Hill, at EY, at CoinDesk and others, shaping policy across sectors from manufacturing to AI. Follow her takes on statecraft on X and Substack.
Today, The Dispatch published my new article (gift link) on the Supreme Court’s tariff decision, entitled “The Supreme Court Spurns a Presidential Power Grab.” Here’s an excerpt:
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled on three cases challenging President Donald Trump’s massive system of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). In a 6-3 decision, the court rightly held that IEEPA does not give the president the power to impose tariffs. Among the cases decided was VOS Selections Inc. v. Trump, which the Liberty Justice Center and I filed on behalf of five small American businesses harmed by the tariffs (we were later joined by prominent litigators Neal Katyal and Michael McConnell). The decision is important for its impact on tariffs, and as a rejection of a sweeping executive power grab. But it also raises a crucial broader—and as yet unresolved—issue: how much deference to give presidential invocations of sweeping emergency powers. That issue is central to various cases working their way through the courts, and may soon arise again in the tariff context….
The main basis for the court’s ruling is that IEEPA does not even mention the word “tariff,” and has never been used to impose them by any previous president during the statute’s nearly 50-year history. The power to “regulate” importation, which IEEPA does grant in some situations, does not include a power to impose taxes.
But an additional crucial factor was the sheer scope of the authority claimed by Trump. As Chief Justice John Roberts noted in his opinion for the court, the president claimed virtually unlimited power to “impose tariffs on imports from any country, of any product, at any rate, for any amount of time…”
Under Trump’s interpretation of the law, the president would have virtually unlimited tariff authority, similar to that of an absolute monarch of the kind King Charles I aspired to be. The court decisively rejected this aspiration to unconstrained presidential power. Roberts’ majority opinion, a concurring opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch, and one by Justice Elena Kagan (writing for all three liberal justices) all, in different ways, emphasized this aspect of the case. As Gorsuch put it, “Our system of separated powers and checks-and-balances threatens to give way to the continual and permanent accretion of power in the hands of one man. That is no recipe for a republic…”
But the judiciary’s future ability to constrain dangerous presidential power grabs depends in large part on an issue the court managed to avoid in the IEEPA case: whether and to what extent to defer to presidential assertions that an extraordinary situation exists justifying the invocation of sweeping emergency powers.
The article goes on to discuss how the issue of deference is likely to come up in potential litigation over Trump’s efforts to use Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose a new set of sweeping tariffs:
The issue of how much deference to give to presidential invocation of emergencies is also likely to arise again in the context of tariffs. Within hours of the court’s decision, Trump issued an executive order using Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose 10 percent global tariffs, before upping the rate to 15 percent the next day. But Section 122 only permits tariffs in response to “fundamental international payments problems” that cause “large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits” (which are not the same thing as trade deficits), “an imminent or significant depreciation of the dollar,” or to cooperate with other countries in addressing an “international balance-of-payments disequilibrium.” As prominent conservative legal commentator Andrew McCarthy explains in an insightful article for National Review, these preconditions for the use of Section 122 do not exist. There is no “fundamental international payments problem,” and the United States does not have a balance-of-payments deficit. In addition, Section 122 tariffs can only remain in force for up to 150 days unless extended by Congress.
But when the Section 122 tariffs are challenged in court (as they likely will be), judges will have to decide whether to defer to Trump on the question of whether the statutory prerequisites are met. And when the 150-day period expires, they may also have to decide whether Trump can extend it simply by claiming a new balance-of-payments problem has arisen. If judges (mistakenly) give him broad deference, Section 122 could become a blank check for presidential tariff-setting that the Supreme Court just denied him in the IEEPA case.
