Donald Trump has given a 100-minute address to Congress – but many of his comments included false or misleading information.
Fact-checkers have been combing through his remarks to see whether his statements tally up with official data.
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Image: Democrat Melanie Stansbury held up a sign that said ‘This is not normal’. Pic: Reuters
Autism
The president claimed there has been a substantial rise in the number of young people diagnosed with autism.
Mr Trump said: “Not long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, one in 10,000 children had autism. One in 10,000, and now it’s one in 36. There’s something wrong.”
Sky’s US partner network NBC News says this statistic is often used to justify opposition to vaccines – with figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggesting this ratio is incorrect.
While it is true that one in 36 children are diagnosed with autism, estimates suggest this stood at about one in 150 back in 2000.
Scientific studies clearly show that vaccines do not cause autism – and much of this recent rise can be linked to increasing awareness of the condition, changing definitions of autism, and advances in diagnostic technology.
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0:55
‘Ukraine is ready for peace’
Ukraine
Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Trump said America has spent more on the war in Ukraine than Europe.
While the US is by far the biggest provider of aid to Ukraine as a country, Europe as a whole has allocated more.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the US has provided £94.6bn in overall aid – and Europe, £109bn.
Not all countries fully disclose the aid they have committed to Ukraine, making it difficult to calculate the complete amount of funding provided.
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Trump’s longest speech to Congress – what happened?
Benefits
The president told Congress that millions of Americans over 100 years old – including some older than 160 – are receiving Social Security payments.
Mr Trump pointed to records that suggested more than 20 million people well past life expectancy are getting cheques – including several people above the age of 220.
But these numbers refer to a known problem with government data – and an official report from 2023 confirmed that while these citizens are in the database, “almost none” are receiving payments.
NBC News says inspectors general at the agency have repeatedly identified the database issue, but the Social Security Administration has argued that updating old records is costly and unnecessary.
Payments are automatically stopped to all those who are older than 115.
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Congressman ejected during Trump speech
Borders
According to the president, 21 million people “poured into the United States” over the past four years.
“Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world because of Joe Biden’s insane and very dangerous open border policies,” Mr Trump said.
NBC News says this is misleading. Customs and Border Protection data suggests the Biden administration had about 14 million “migrant encounters” – and of those, approximately 118,000 with criminal backgrounds were apprehended.
Mr Trump went on to say his administration has “quickly achieved the lowest number of illegal border crossers ever recorded”.
Official figures from 21 to 31 January do show that US Border Patrol apprehensions fell 85% year on year.
It’s the word “ever” that gets the president into difficulty here. Mr Trump recently posted on Truth Social that 8,326 people were arrested on the US-Mexico border last month, but the Border Patrol’s monthly average was 1,752 back in 1961.
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0:53
‘Whatever they tariff us, we will tariff them’
Tariffs
The president also insisted his controversial tariffs “are about making America rich again”.
He told Congress: “There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that. It won’t be much.”
Most economists disagree – and argue the tariffs will hurt the country because they are effectively tax increases that will likely lead to a rise in the cost of everyday items.
According to The Yale Budget Lab, the newly unveiled tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China could cost US households up to £2,000 (£1,562) a year.
Its estimates suggest inflation could rise by a full percentage point – with economic growth falling by half a percentage point.
