In his first address to the US Congressional Joint Session on Tuesday, President Donald Trump summed six weeks of active efforts to cut federal workforce, restructure the economy and restructure foreign policy.
His speech was long by historical standards (about 1 hour and 40 minutes), and influenced more opposition party pushbacks than recent memories.
House Speaker Mike Johnson discharged Texas and longtime Trump critic Al Greene, after turmoiling the president minutes after his speech. Republicans cheered on Greene for removal. As Trump mentioned law enforcement, some Democrats cried out “January 6th,” referring to the 2021 Capitol riots that led to numerous casualties among Capitol police. Johnson slammed the little giveaway and called for courtesy.
Trump highlighted his commitment to following tariffs, including those that came into effect earlier in the day against Canada, Mexico and China.
“Taxes – they’re about protecting the souls of our nation,” Trump said. “There’s a bit of a hindrance, but that’s fine. That’s not that much,” Trump said, “it might be a bit of a tweak,” but urged him to “have a lot of fun.”
This is a summary of some of his important claims and confirmed the facts.
“Mexican authorities have given it to us thinking about this because our tariff policy is being imposed on them. It’s never happened before,” Trump said.
This requires context.
Mexico handed over 29 “drug cartel leaders and administrators” to the United States on February 27, the Justice Department said. The number of people extradition in a day was described as “unconventional” and “unprecedented” by Insight Crime, a think tank focusing on American crime and safety.
But Trump is wrong to say that Mexico has never handed over members of a drug cartel to the United States.
Mexico has handed over several drug cartel members to the United States over the years, including Trump’s first term.
Trump touts an increase in Army recruitment, but it has already risen
He said, “We are happy to report in January that the US Army had its best recruitment month in 15 years and that all armed services have one of the best recruitment results in our history of services.” Before that, Trump said “the heart is bad” and “no longer.”
The military had one of the worst recruitment years in 2022 since the all-volunteer forces began in 1973, we reported in September 2023.
However, Pentagon policies, which were criticized as “awakening,” including diversity training, vacation time, abortion access time, and healthcare coverage for transgender members, were not the main issues affecting adoption. The biggest drivers include competition with the private labor market, the prolonged impact of Covid-19 restrictions, and a gradual decline in the number of young people meeting the standards.
A few days before Trump took office, Secretary of War Christine Walmut told The Associated Press that the Army was keeping pace to bring 61,000 young people by the end of September.
In 2024, which ended September 30th, the Army recruited just a little more than its target of 55,150. This has been improved over 2023, when the Army achieved 76.6% of its 65,500 target.
Taren Sylvester, who is studying military recruitment at the new American Security Center in Washington, D.C., told NPR in February that the main reason for the increase in recruitment was an army program aimed at future soldiers that helped Americans speed up physically or academically to qualify for participation.
Trump says autism rates have increased from one in 10,000 to one in 36
Trump said the number of children diagnosed with autism is on the rise, meaning there has been something “got something wrong.”
This is partly true.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says current estimates show that one in 36 children in the United States is diagnosed, driven by both advances in diagnostic screening and an increase in prevalence of the condition, leading to an increase in rates. Researchers in the 1960s estimated that about 2-4 children in 10,000 people were autistic.
According to a March 2023 report in the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Week Report, the overall prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was one in 36 children aged 8, almost four times that of boys. This increase is due to an expanded definition of the condition, increased parental awareness about autism, and improved screening. Other risk factors include preterm birth and genetics.
Trump commented on his autism rate after praised his health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who leads the task force to study chronic childhood diseases, has defended vaccine skepticism and unfounded theories about autism.
Trump is once again exaggerating our support for Ukraine
“We’ve probably spent $350 million on Ukraine,” Trump said.
This is wrong.
The amount the US spent on Ukraine depends on what is counted, but most estimates range from $175 billion to $185 billion.
As of September 30, 2024, the United States said it had spent $183 billion to support Ukraine, and Ukraine’s oversight, the website of the Atlantic Atlantic Government’s special inspectors, which the US government established in 2014 to coordinate military aid to Ukraine, provided military assistance to Ukraine.
Trump inflates savings from the government’s efficiency department
“We found a multi-tenant billion dollar scam. We’ve got the money back,” Trump said.
That’s wrong.
As of March 4th, the Doge website had shown $100 billion in savings. But that “receipt wall” claims to track savings generated from Doge’s cuts, showing less than $20 billion. That “receipt wall” is full of errors.
The White House points to projects against ideology, including diversity, equity, inclusion and climate change. However, it does not prove fraud as determined by the court, and requires crime and intention to deceive.
The hunt for fraud is nothing new. For decades, inspectors have been searching for agency fraud, with some investigations leading to prosecution.
Trump created the doge by executive order on his first day in office.
Trump falsely claims that Biden flew immigrants across the US border
The humanitarian parole program launched by President Joe Biden has allowed 30,000 eligible immigrants from Hippo, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the United States. They were able to legally live and work in the United States for two years. The Biden administration did not cover travel expenses. The beneficiaries had to book and fund the trip.
Trump has finished the program.
Trump says 21 million people have illegally entered the US “in the last four years”
error.
Immigration officers encountered immigrants illegally crossing the US border in February 2021, Biden’s first month, January 2025, and his last month.
Considering the September 2024 “Gotaway” of Congressional Republicans, border officials will rise to around 12.4 million.
However, encounters are not the same as admission. Meetings represent events. Therefore, one person trying to cross a border counts as two encounters. Also, not everyone you meet enters the country. The Department of Homeland Security estimated that approximately 4.5 million encounters led to the expulsion or withdrawal between February 2021 and November 2024.
Trump was not eligible to receive Social Security payments.
Trump said the Social Security database shows millions of people over the age of 100, and that “many of them are being paid.”
This is wrong.
Trump recited numbers from Elon Musk’s chart shared on X. This showed millions of people in the Social Security database over 100 years old, including those who were in the bracket, age 360-369.
The proxy Social Security Commissioner said more than 100 people who do not have a date of death related to Social Security records “doesn’t necessarily receive benefits.” Recent Social Security Administration data shows that around 89,000 people over the age of 99 receive Social Security payments.
Government databases may classify someone as someone 150 years old for reasons unique to complex social security databases or because of missing data, but that doesn’t mean that millions of payments will be fraudulently delivered to people of unbelievable ages.
Trump on historic inflation under Biden
“We were suffering from the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in our country’s history, they are not sure.”
This is partly correct.
Biden’s watch’s highest inflation rate compared to the previous year was around 9% in 2022.
The highest sustained US inflation rates were recorded in the 1970s and early 80s, with price increases ranging from 12% to 15%. That was over 40 years ago. (One year – after the US won World War II in 1946, the inflation rate compared to the previous year exceeded 18%.)
However, it is not true that Trump is the highest in US history, as inflation rates have exceeded 9% over the years.
The Paris climate agreement cost us no “trill”
Trump defended his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, saying the agreement was at the expense of “trillions of dollars” in the United States.
That’s wrong.
The Trump administration defended its decision to withdraw from the climate agreement based on forecasts from consultants Nera Economic Consulting. They concluded that high production costs and high production costs will result in the closure of uncompetitive manufacturing industries due to limited fossil fuel emissions. These closures mean less manufacturing jobs.
The consultants estimated that these losses and knock-on effects across the manufacturing sector would reach 6.5 million jobs by 2025 and 6.5 million jobs by 2040. This will result in $250 billion in losses by 2025, accelerating to $2040 trillion, reducing job losses.
Therefore, the climate agreement did not cost US trillion dollars. That is hypothetical.
However, even if that is the case, the study states that long-term forecasts did not take into account all offset work benefits and GDP growth associated with a clean technology transition.
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