Reality-checking Trump’s State of the Union handle

Simply over a yr into his second time period, President Donald Trump delivered the State of the Union handle Tuesday, making his case for sweeping coverage adjustments and government actions which have come to outline America’s present second.

From steep international tariffs that have been lately struck down by the Supreme Court docket to an overhaul of home immigration enforcement and mounting tensions with Iran, all eyes have been on the president talking earlier than Congress on the Capitol.

An ABC Information/Washington Publish/Ipsos ballot launched Sunday discovered that Trump’s general disapproval ranking is at 60% — a excessive for his second time period. 

With midterm elections in November looming, the place management of Congress is at stake, Trump rolled out a number of new measures to deal with affordability and tout his administration’s efforts to spice up the U.S. financial system.

All through Trump’s remarks Tuesday evening, ABC Information dwell fact-checked a few of the president’s statements that will have been exaggerated, want extra context or are false.

TRUMP CLAIM: “Previously 9 months, zero unlawful aliens have been admitted to the USA.”

FACT CHECK: False, however crossings are down drastically

After utilizing government authority to implement a sequence of restrictive coverage measures on the southern border, the Trump administration has severely decreased the quantity of people that crossed the border illegally, down from the file highs of the Biden administration.

In line with the info collected by Customs and Border Safety, in 2024, the final full yr of Biden’s presidency, there have been over 1.5 million encounters with migrants trying to illegally cross the border. In 2025, the primary full yr of Trump’s second time period in workplace, that quantity dropped to only underneath 28,000.

These low tendencies proceed in 2026, however have by no means been at “zero” because the president has usually instructed. The numbers recommend migrants are nonetheless trying to cross the border, and it will be inconceivable to know if any had gone by unnoticed.

-ABC Information’ Luke Barr and Justin Fishel

TRUMP CLAIM: “My administration has pushed core inflation down to the bottom degree in additional than 5 years.” 

FACT CHECK: Sure and No

Whereas it’s a constructive growth that inflation has come down in latest months, this hasn’t led to diminished costs throughout the board. The state of play is extra difficult.

The info are that when Trump took workplace, inflation was at 3% and right this moment it is all the way down to 2.4%

The latest inflation report was constructive.

However costs for on a regular basis merchandise for People are impacted by extra than simply inflation. 

The president’s tariffs have impacted the price of contemporary produce, beef and occasional. Floor espresso costs are up 34% up to now yr. And even these elevated prices aren’t all on account of tariffs.

Bureau of Labor and Statistics information additionally present People are paying extra for power (in lots of circumstances as a result of information facilities wanted to energy AI know-how), up 6.3 % from January 2025 to January 2026.

-ABC Information’ Zunaira Zaki

TRUMP CLAIM: “In 12 months, I secured commitments for greater than $18 trillion pouring in from everywhere in the globe.”

FACT CHECK: Lacks proof 

It’s unclear the place the $18 trillion quantity is coming from. It’s a large quantity. US GDP is $31 trillion. On their web site, the White Home says they’ve secured $9.6 trillion in home and overseas investments since Trump took workplace for his second time period. A White Home official confirmed that this determine consists of “investments which have materialized or dedicated,” however they didn’t reply ABC’s questions on the place the president’s $18 trillion quantity is coming from.

The White Home’s $9.6 trillion in investments additionally seems to be inflated, as different sums are included of their calculations. For instance, the web site lists a $1.2 trillion “overseas funding” from Qatar. However in line with a White Home reality sheet distributed when the deal was made, the U.S. and Qatar had agreed to “generate an financial alternate value at the least $1.2 trillion” — not an express funding.

-ABC Information’ Zunaira Zaki

TRUMP CLAIM: “I took pharmaceuticals, a really large a part of well being care, from the best value in the complete world to the bottom.”

FACT CHECK: Wants extra context

Most favored nation pricing ties what the U.S. pays for a drug to the bottom value that the drugmaker expenses in different rich nations, in line with the well being data non-profit KFF. Trump mentioned People pay the best drug costs on the planet, and one latest examine helps that, discovering U.S. costs run about 2.7 to 4.2 occasions larger than in different rich nations for a similar medicines. However KFF studies the coverage has confronted authorized and trade pushback and has not broadly lowered costs throughout the U.S. market.

Trump has pointed to low cost efforts equivalent to his web site, TrumpRX, and direct negotiations with producers to slash costs. Some decrease money costs have appeared for sure IVF and weight-loss medicine, largely for uninsured and cash-paying sufferers, however general U.S. drug costs stay excessive and lots of insured sufferers haven’t seen main reductions.

Ben Jolley, senior fellow for healthcare on the American Financial Liberties Mission, mentioned producers have been already underneath strain to chop costs and that the reductions apply to restricted buying channels, not general checklist costs. He famous that a few of the largest latest value cuts stem from earlier legal guidelines, together with the Medicare drug value negotiation program underneath the Inflation Discount Act and better Medicaid rebates underneath the American Rescue Plan, each signed into regulation by Joe Biden. Jolley, who’s a pharmacist, mentioned pharmacists haven’t seen sweeping day-to-day reductions on the counter clearly tied to government actions throughout Trump’s second time period.

-ABC Information’ Liz Neporent

TRUMP CLAIM: “I wish to cease all funds to large insurance coverage corporations and as an alternative give that cash on to the folks to allow them to purchase their very own well being care.”

FACT CHECK: Lacks proof

Final month, with tax breaks for the Reasonably priced Care Act market expiring and premiums growing by 100% for some — Trump unveiled his concept for a well being care plan that he claimed may change the ACA. The so-called “The Nice Healthcare Plan” proposes to shift authorities insurance coverage subsidies on to customers and reap the benefits of its “most favored nation” drug value initiative.

Throughout his speech, Trump mentioned the well being care plan would “cease all funds to large insurance coverage corporations, and as an alternative give that cash on to the folks to allow them to purchase their very own well being care.”

Nonetheless, the video message and one-page reality sheet posted by the White Home have been gentle on specifics about how a lot cash would really go on to People, how a lot funding the plan would require or how the funds can be distributed. Some well being coverage consultants beforehand informed ABC Information that there is no method to inform how impactful these concepts could possibly be and if they’ll develop on the plans already in existence by the ACA.

Moreover, the unique ACA included cost-sharing discount funds, that are federal reimbursements that compensate insurers for decreasing out-of-pocket prices. The primary Trump administration halted direct federal funds, however “The Nice Healthcare Plan” seems to reinstate the funds to insurers.

-ABC Information’ Mary Kekatos

TRUMP CLAIM: “In lots of circumstances, drug lords, murderers throughout our nation. They’re blocking the elimination of those folks out of our nation,” Trump mentioned of unlawful immigrants and sanctuary cities.

FACT CHECK: Most DHS detainees haven’t any prison file

Whereas the Trump administration has claimed the Division of Homeland Safety goes after the “worst of the worst,” undocumented migrants, ICE information present a good portion of detainees at immigration detention services haven’t been convicted of against the law. In line with the newest ICE information obtainable, on Feb. 7, there have been 68,289 folks in detention. That’s down from over 70,000 just some weeks prior, which immigrant advocacy organizations say was a file excessive.

In line with the info, about one fourth (or 26%) of detainees on Feb. 7 have been thought-about “convicted criminals.” One other 26% had pending prison expenses. 47% or 32,364 detainees have been categorised as “different immigration violators,” folks with no prison convictions or pending expenses. 

In different phrases, 73% of detainees on Feb. 7 had no prison convictions.

-ABC Information’ Armando Garcia and Jack Date

TRUMP CLAIM: “The dishonest is rampant in our elections, it is rampant.”  

FACT CHECK: False

Trump has repeatedly alleged that undocumented immigrants have improperly influenced federal elections, however state voting information recommend that such cases are extremely uncommon.

In 2024, voter roll audits in states together with Georgia, Ohio, and Iowa, main as much as the 2024 election, uncovered only a few cases of noncitizen voting in federal elections. A complete audit of Georgia’s voter rolls — which embody 8.2 million registered voters — uncovered 20 noncitizens who registered to vote, together with 9 cases when noncitizens really solid a poll. An identical audit of Iowa’s 2.3 million voters revealed 87 cases the place people solid ballots and later self-reported as noncitizens.

In line with analysis from the non-partisan nonprofit Heart for Election Innovation & Analysis, allegations of sweeping and coordinated voter fraud usually come up from “misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about advanced voter information,” and most cases of voting fraud are uncommon and swiftly prosecuted by authorities. 

-ABC Information’ Peter Charalambous

TRUMP CLAIM: “Crime in Washington is now on the lowest degree ever recorded, and murders in D.C. this January have been down near 100% from a yr in the past.”

FACT CHECK: Exaggerated

Though President Donald Trump claimed Washington, D.C., is on the “lowest degree ever recorded” for crime, he didn’t outline “crime” or cite information to assist his declare that it’s at an “all-time-low.”

The Metropolitan Police Division’s year-to-date figures present violent crime down 29% and murder down 67% as of Feb. 24, reflecting a major decline. Whereas this can be a important discount in crime, it isn’t clear how he concludes that is an all-time low.

Trump additionally mentioned, “murders in DC this January have been down near 100% from a yr in the past.” Homicides have been extraordinarily low in January. D.C. police reported two homicides in January, considered one of which stemmed from a 2025 demise that was later dominated a murder. That could be a sharp drop, however not a drop to zero.

There have been 9 homicides within the Nation’s capital this yr in comparison with 27 murders on the similar time final yr.

Violent crime and homicides have been already declining earlier than President Trump surged federal regulation enforcement and the Nationwide Guard final August. On the finish of 2024, the Justice Division mentioned violent crime in Washington fell in 2024 to its lowest degree in additional than 30 years. MPD year-end totals present homicides fell 32% from 2024 into 2025. 

-ABC Information’ Beatrice Peterson

TRUMP CLAIM: “We wiped it out and so they need to start out another time,” Trump mentioned of Iran’s nuclear program.

FACT CHECK: Principally false

Iran’s nuclear program was severely broken final June after the U.S. army struck three key nuclear websites with bunker-busting bombs. However, analysts and worldwide inspectors say it was not completely destroyed.

Rafael Grossi, head of the UN’s Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, mentioned in a latest interview with the French tv community TFI that a lot of Iran’s stockpile of extremely enriched uranium possible stays at these websites. Analysts additionally level to satellite tv for pc imagery displaying Iran rebuilding.  

In line with a translation, Grossi mentioned, “A few of it [the enriched uranium] could also be much less accessible, however the materials continues to be there.” 

The IAEA estimates some 972 kilos of extremely enriched uranium stay unaccounted for. 

Trump has threatened to strike Iran if it doesn’t comply with new curbs on its program. 

This weekend, U.S. Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff, who’s main negotiations with Iran on Trump’s behalf, instructed there was a newfound urgency. 

“They’re most likely per week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making materials, and that is actually harmful. So, [we] cannot have that,” mentioned Witkoff in a pre-taped interview with Lara Trump that aired on Fox Information on Saturday.

-ABC Information’ Anne Flaherty

TRUMP CLAIM: Trump says Iran hasn’t mentioned “we won’t ever have a nuclear weapon.”

FACT CHECK: False

When referencing latest diplomatic talks with Iran, Trump claimed that the U.S. hasn’t “heard these secret phrases, ‘we won’t ever have a nuclear weapon.'” That is false.  

Iran has plainly acknowledged on a number of events that the nation doesn’t have or intend to have nuclear weapons.

Hours earlier than Trump’s speech on Feb. 24, Iran’s Overseas Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi posted on social media, “Our basic convictions are crystal clear: Iran will on no account ever develop a nuclear weapon.”

Earlier, in a speech to the United Nations, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian mentioned, “I hereby declare as soon as extra earlier than this Meeting that Iran has by no means sought and can by no means search to construct a nuclear bomb.”

On Sep. 21, 2022, former President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi mentioned, “I explicitly declare that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not be in search of to develop nuclear weapons and such weapons haven’t any place in our protection doctrine.”

Iran has maintained a place that it’s cooperating with the UN’s expectations for denuclearization, although UN watchdogs and the President have instructed the alternative.  

-ABC Information’ Nathan Lee

TRUMP CLAIM: “My first ten months, I ended eight wars.”

FACT CHECK: Principally false

Trump has claimed he has ended eight wars, that he’s a “president of peace” and that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize due to it.

He mentioned he ended conflicts in “Cambodia and Thailand, Pakistan and India, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Congo and Rwanda, and naturally, the struggle in Gaza.”

Whereas Trump has helped to dealer ceasefires amongst varied nations, battle in a few of these areas has largely continued; there have been no long-term treaties ratified amongst these nations; and a few nations even dispute that Trump did something to assist. Lengthy-term, unresolved tensions nonetheless exist amongst most of the nations.

Within the battle between Cambodia and Thailand, for instance, Trump began working the telephones quickly after combating broke out final yr, and on the time, Trump efficiently inspired Thailand to affix ceasefire talks orchestrated by Malaysia and China. The president additionally put strain on the nations to finish the battle by saying he wouldn’t halt commerce negotiations till the combating ended. Nonetheless, combating broke out once more in December 2025, and 100 folks have been reported useless earlier than one other ceasefire was reached. Tensions stay excessive.

The leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda signed a peace deal brokered by the Trump administration in Washington in late June 2025. Although the settlement was broadly celebrated, the prospects for peace have been shortly questioned as a result of the deal didn’t embody all warring factions. In latest days, U.S. Senior Adviser for Africa Massad Boulos acknowledged ongoing violence within the Congo, blaming M23 rebels and Rwanda — calling it a “critical breach” of the Washington accord signed in 2025.

With India and Pakistan, a ceasefire between the 2 warring nations exists, however solely Pakistan has given the president credit score for bringing it about. In reality, Pakistan formally nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump claims to have personally spoken to Indian Prime Minister Modi throughout the battle, however India has denied that the Trump administration performed a job.

The battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a extra clear-cut diplomatic win for the president. The leaders of each nations have each credited Trump for his position in setting the nations on the trail to peace, and an array of European leaders have additionally praised the administration for the diplomatic developments.

-ABC Information’ Mariam Khan

TRUMP CLAIM: “The Somali group have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer.”

FACT CHECK: Lacks proof

There isn’t any proof to again the president’s claims that the Somali group has defrauded taxpayers of $19 billion. It is unclear the place he will get that determine. It seems to be a misinterpretation of a press release by Assistant U.S. Lawyer Joe Thompson in a press convention in December 2025.

He acknowledged that half or extra of the $18 billion in federal funds that assist quite a lot of Minnesota social providers packages could have been stolen. He didn’t present proof for that declare. In reality, the Justice Division has introduced expenses alleging about $300 million in fraudulent funds associated to a meals help program in Minnesota throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The investigation started throughout the Biden administration and has since expanded. Ninety-two folks have been charged in that case, together with 82 Somali People. The 82 Somali People in that case symbolize a small fraction of the estimated 100,000 Somali People residing in Minnesota, most of whom are U.S. residents.

-ABC Information’ Diana Paulsen