Six weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump is addressing Congress and the nation Tuesday night, laying out his targets for the following 4 years.
ABC Information, together with PolitiFact, is dwell fact-checking Trump’s speech statements which are exaggerated, want extra context or are false.
The president teased on Monday it will be a “large evening” and Home Speaker Mike Johnson instructed Fox Information over the weekend to count on “fireworks.”
TRUMP CLAIM: Joe Biden particularly let the value of eggs get uncontrolled—and we’re working exhausting to get it again down.
FACT-CHECK: Missing context
Although egg costs did enhance beneath President Joe Biden, they’ve lately surged beneath Trump too — and that is due to hen flu, which has led to the deaths of 136 million birds since 2022, in accordance with the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Whereas the value of eggs was constantly rising as a consequence of inflation beneath Biden’s administration, the primary vital worth hike occurred in 2022, when hen flu started infecting flocks of birds within the U.S. Egg costs rose from $1.93 per dozen to $4.82 per dozen over the course of simply that one yr, in accordance with information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The costs moderated once more, again all the way down to the $2-$3 vary throughout the remainder of Biden’s presidency — however have shot again as much as a record-high $4.95 this January, once more as a consequence of hen flu.
-ABC Information’ Cheyenne Haslett
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump received a mandate within the election
FACT-CHECK: That is within the eye of the beholder.
Trump’s victory was clear, however by historic requirements, it was no landslide.
Trump has motive to have fun successful each the Electoral School and the favored vote. In truth, he grew to become solely the second Republican to win the favored vote since 1988, after George W. Bush in his 2004 reelection win. Trump received every of the seven battleground states that political analysts stated would resolve the election.
As well as, the overwhelming majority of U.S. counties noticed their margins shift in Trump’s course, each in locations the place Republicans traditionally do effectively and locations the place Democrats typically have an edge.Then again, Trump’s margins of victory — each in uncooked votes and in percentages — had been small by historic requirements, even for the previous quarter century, when shut elections have been the rule, together with the 2000 Florida recount election and Trump’s earlier two races in 2016 and 2020.
Trump’s victory additionally got here and not using a large increase for down-ballot Republicans. Republicans misplaced a little bit floor within the Home, which was already narrowly divided, and whereas Republicans flipped the Senate, Democrats received 4 Senate races in key battleground states at the same time as former Vice President Kamala Harris was shedding these states to Trump.
-PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman
TRUMP CLAIM: “We ended the final administration’s insane electrical car mandate, saving our auto staff and firms from financial destruction.”
FACT-CHECK: Wants context.
There was no electrical car mandate put in place by the Biden administration. The Biden Environmental Safety Company carried out tailpipe emissions requirements final March that established a median of allowed emissions throughout a car producer’s complete fleet of supplied autos.
The requirements would have solely impacted automobiles from mannequin years 2027 to 2032. The requirements allowed for a variety of useable applied sciences, together with totally electrical automobiles, hybrids and improved inside combustion engines. Trump did signal an government order on his first day in workplace to revoke these new requirements.
-ABC Information’ Kelly Livingston
TRUMP CLAIM: The Paris Local weather Accord was costing the U.S. “trillions”
FACT-CHECK: False.
Trump defended his determination to drag out of the Paris local weather settlement, saying the pact was costing the U.S. “trillions of {dollars}.”
That is unfaithful.
The Trump administration defended the choice to withdraw from the local weather settlement, partially, based mostly on projections by guide NERA Financial Consulting. It concluded that restrictions on fossil gasoline emissions would lead to a better value of manufacturing, and a better value of manufacturing would translate into the closure of uncompetitive manufacturing companies. These closures, in flip, would imply fewer manufacturing jobs.
The guide estimated that these losses and their knock-on results past the manufacturing sector would quantity to 1.1 million jobs misplaced by 2025 and 6.5 million by 2040. The lack of jobs ends in a corresponding decline in gross home product, with a lack of $250 billion by 2025 that accelerates to $3 trillion by 2040.
So the local weather settlement wasn’t costing the U.S. trillions of {dollars}. It hypothetically might.
However even when it did, the examine says that the long-term projections didn’t consider the entire offsetting job features and GDP development related to a clear tech transition.
-PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman
TRUMP CLAIM: Elon Musk discovered individuals within the Social Safety system as outdated as 369FACT-CHECK: That is deceptive.
Elon Musk shared a chart on X and stated he discovered tens of millions of individuals in a Social Safety database over the age of 110, together with 1 who was within the 360-369 age bracket.
The performing Social Safety commissioner stated that individuals older than 100 who shouldn’t have a date of dying related to their Social Safety report “should not essentially receiving advantages.” Latest Social Safety Administration information reveals that about 89,000 individuals aged 99 and older obtain Social Safety funds.
Authorities databases could classify somebody as 150 years outdated for causes peculiar to the complicated Social Safety database or due to lacking information, however that doesn’t imply that tens of millions of funds are delivered fraudulently to individuals with implausible ages.
-PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman
