False numbers, exaggerations: the Trump speech fact-checked

• Trump: “You poured in millions from prisons and psychiatric institutions. There were murderers, 11,888 murders.”

Incorrect: There is no evidence for this claim that Trump keeps making. The number is taken out of thin air and cannot be proven. Studies also show, such as the US news portal NPR writes that immigrants, both with and without valid residency status, are less likely to commit crimes than citizens. The number of people in detention pending deportation is at an all-time high – almost 700,000 people – a quarter of whom have committed a crime (including petty theft.)

• Trump: “Members of the Somali community have embezzled an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer.”

Incorrect: In the state of Minnesota, nearly 100 people – many of Somali descent – have been indicted by the Justice Department for alleged federal welfare fraud.

Trump once again used this to attack the Somali-American community in Minneapolis, commonly calling Somali migrants “trash.” The amount of fraud at $19 billion is unrealistic.

• Trump: “W“We now have the strongest and most secure border in American history.”

Mostly correct: According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), around 238,000 people crossed the border illegally in 2025 – the lowest number in over 50 years.

• Trump: “The Biden administration gave us the worst inflation in our country’s history, but my administration… brought it down to its lowest level in more than five years. In the last three months of 2025, it was 1.7%.”

Incorrect: Inflation hit a four-decade high of 9.1% in the U.S. in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed up prices worldwide. By the end of President Biden’s term, the inflation rate fell to percent.

In April of the previous year, when Trump had already been in office for three months, it fell to 2.3% before rising again to 3% in September. In January (latest available data) it was 2.4%.

• Trump: “The stock market has reached 53 all-time highs since I was elected. Millions of Americans… are benefiting. Things are looking up for everyone.”

Half right: Half of the US population owns no or very few stocks, while the richest 10 percent own 87% of all stock assets. It is true that the Dow Jones exceeded the 50,000 mark for the first time at the beginning of February. The S&P 500 index rose 18% last year, after a gain of 24% in 2024.

• Trump: “More Americans are working today than at any time in our country’s history.”

Incorrect: Last year, when hundreds of thousands of people were laid off from federal programs and departments, employers only created around 180,000 new jobs – down from 1.4 million in the last year of the Biden presidency.

• Trump: “The tariffs paid by foreign countries will largely replace the current income tax system and thus greatly relieve the financial burden on people.”

Incorrect: On the one hand, the US Supreme Court has overturned one of the pillars of Trump’s tariff policy. And on the other hand, it has been proven that 90 percent of the price increases caused by the tariffs are blamed on US companies and US citizens.

The unemployment rate remained low – in January it was 4.3%. However, it has increased compared to 4% a year ago, when Trump returned to the White House.

• Trump: “American oil production has increased by more than 600,000 barrels per day … American natural gas production is at an all-time high because I kept my promise: Drill, baby, drill!”

Correct: The U.S. posted record annual crude oil production last year. However, a decline of around 100,000 barrels per day is expected this year due to low oil prices. There is currently an oversupply of oil worldwide. Record production of natural gas is also expected this year and 2027.

• Trump: “Election fraud is widespread here. It is omnipresent.“

Incorrect: For years, Trump has claimed that non-citizens vote en masse in American elections. This is incorrect, non-citizens are prohibited from participating in federal elections. Out of several million ballot papers, only a few dozen incorrect details were ever found.

• Trump: “In my first ten months I ended eight wars.”

Exaggerated: Trump’s greatest success was brokering a ceasefire in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas. He was also successful in mediating between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In all of the other conflict solutions that Trump has championed, there was no current war (Serbia/Kosovo) or fighting broke out again and again (Thailand/Cambosha):

• Trump: “The US military … destroyed Iran’s nuclear weapons program with an attack on Iranian soil in June.”

Exaggerated: The US strike undoubtedly damaged and weakened Iran’s nuclear program, but did not destroy it. In his speech, Trump was unable to explain why the nuclear facilities in Iran should again be the target of a possible US attack when they were all supposedly destroyed.