FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made by Trump during
his address to Congress
[March 05, 2025]
By The Associated Press
President Donald Trump 's Tuesday night address to a joint session of
Congress highlighted several of the initiatives he's started in his
first six weeks in office, but many of his comments included false and
misleading information.
Here's a look at the facts.
He overstated the numbers on his immigration crackdown
TRUMP: “Illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever
recorded. Ever."
THE FACTS: Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday that Border
Patrol apprehended 8,326 people on the U.S.-Mexico border last month.
But U.S. government data show that Border Patrol routinely averaged
below that number in the 1960s.
While February marked the lowest arrest total in decades, Border Patrol
averaged less than February 2025 for the first seven years of 1960s. The
government website does not track U.S.-Mexico border totals before 1960.
Border Patrol’s monthly average was 1,752 arrests in 1961.
He inflated the number of people who entered the U.S. illegally under
President Joe Biden
TRUMP: “Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the
United States. Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang
members.”
THE FACTS: That figure, which Trump cites regularly, is highly inflated.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 10.8 million
arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico from January 2021 through
December 2024.
But that’s arrests, not people. Under asylum restrictions during the
COVID-19 pandemic, many people crossed more than once until they
succeeded because there were no legal consequences for getting turned
back to Mexico. So the number of people is lower than the number of
arrests.
There is no evidence other countries are sending their criminals or
people with mental illness across the border, despite this frequent line
from Trump.
Economists differ with Trump on tariffs
TRUMP: “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America
great again. And it’s happening. And it will happen rather quickly.
There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be
much.”
THE FACTS: Trump is banking on the idea that taxing imports is the road
to riches for the United States. Most economists say Trump’s tariffs
would hurt the country, as they’re tax increases that could raise the
costs of goods in ways that could also harm economic growth. Trump
suggests that the impact on inflation would be minimal.
When the Yale University Budget Lab looked at the tariffs that Trump
imposed Tuesday on Canada, Mexico and China, it found that inflation
would increase a full percentage point, growth would fall by half a
percentage point and the average household would lose about $1,600 in
disposable income.
There's no evidence Social Security money is being paid to many
people over age 100
TRUMP: “Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social
Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6
million people from ages 110 to 119. ... 3.47 million people from ages
120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people
from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them, and we
are searching right now.”
THE FACTS: The databases may list those people, but that does not mean
they are getting paid benefits.
Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based
on the COBOL programming language, which doesn’t use a specific format
for dates. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete
birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago.
The news organization Wired first reported on the use of COBOL
programming language at the Social Security Administration.
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President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White
House in Washington, Monday, March 3, 2025. (Pool via AP)
Additionally, a series of reports from the Social Security
Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state
that the agency has not established a new system to properly
annotate death information in its database, which included roughly
18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or
earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean,
however, that these people were receiving benefits.
The agency decided not to update the database because of the cost to
do so, which would run upward of $9 million. As of September 2015,
the agency automatically stops payments to people who are older than
115 years old.
Trump did not inherit an ‘economic catastrophe’
TRUMP: “Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy
and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you
know, we inherited from the last administration an economic
catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.”
THE FACTS: Inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022 under President Joe
Biden, but Trump did not inherit a disastrous economy by any
measure. The unemployment rate ticked down to a low 4% in January,
the month he took office, while the economy expanded a healthy 2.8%
in 2024. Inflation-adjusted incomes have grown steadily since
mid-2023. And inflation, while showing signs of stickiness in recent
months and still elevated at 3% in January, is down from its 2022
peak.
Trump's reference to an ‘EV mandate’ is inaccurate
TRUMP: “We ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle
mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic
destruction.”
THE FACTS: There was no federal mandate to force the purchase of EVs,
as Trump has falsely claimed many times before.
Biden had set up a non-binding goal that EVs make up half of new
cars sold by 2030. Trump issued an executive order on his first day
in office revoking that goal.
Biden's policies tightened restrictions on pollution from
gas-powered cars and trucks in an effort to encourage Americans to
buy EVs and car companies to shift from gas-powered vehicles to
electric cars.
A closer look at Army recruitment numbers
TRUMP: “I am pleased to report that in January, the U.S. Army had
its single best recruiting month in 15 years.”
THE FACTS: Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Army's recruiting
turnaround is tied to his time in office.
In fact, according to Army data, recruiting numbers have been
increasing steadily over the past year, with the highest total
coming in August 2024 — before the November election. Army officials
closely track recruiting numbers.
A significant driver of the recruiting success was the Army’s
decision to launch the Future Soldier Prep Course at Fort Jackson,
South Carolina, in August 2022. That program gives lower-performing
recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help
them meet military standards and move on to basic training.
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Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin in New York, Matt Daly,
Chris Rugaber, Will Weissert, Josh Boak and Rebecca Santana in
Washington, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Elliot Spagat in San
Diego, contributed to this report.
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