Trump's State of the Union address, annotated and fact-checked

There was also verbal jousting with Democrats, some of whom shouted or walked out of the chamber. Trump called them “crazy.”

The State of the Union Address was his chance to recast his unpopular mass deportation effort, explain why US warships are massing for possible military action with Iran, and stare down Supreme Court justices who last week rejected his unprecedented use of tariffs . There were Epstein survivors in the House chamber to push for more transparency and members of the US men’s hockey team to celebrate their victory over Canada at the Olympics. Trump awarded multiple Medals of Honor, two Purple Hearts, a Legion of Merit and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Trump is on defense on multiple fronts. Opinion polls suggest a serious dip in the president’s approval ratings heading into midterm elections later this year when Republicans’ House and Senate majorities will be on the line.

After more than a year of his chaotic second term, President Donald Trump got a prime time chance in a speech at the US Capitol to convince Americans the state of the union is strong.

Well, thank you very much, everybody. It's really an honor. Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, First Lady of the United States. Second lady of the United States. Members of Congress and my fellow Americans, our nation is back, bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.

Less than five months from now, our country will celebrate an epic milestone in American history, the 250th anniversary of our glorious American independence.

Happy 250, America!!! There are many events planned to celebrate, including an IndyCar race through the streets of Washington.

This July 4th, we will mark two and a half centuries of liberty and triumph, progress and freedom, in the most incredible and exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth.

And you've seen nothing yet. We're going to do better and better and better. This is the golden age of America. When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home and wars and chaos all over the world.

Trump didn’t inherit the worst inflation in US history, and Biden never had the worst inflation in US history. The year-over-year inflation rate in December 2024, Biden’s last full month in office, was 2.9%. The rate in January 2025, the month in which Trump took over partway through, was 3.0%; the most recent rate, for January 2026, is 2.4%. The rate did hit a 40-year high, 9.1%, in June 2022, but that was far from the all-time high of 23.7%, which was set in 1920. Regardless, the rate then fell sharply over Biden’s last two-and-a-half years in office. — Daniel Dale, CNN Read more

But tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before and a turnaround for the ages. It is indeed a turnaround for the ages.

Trump probably truly believes this. Opinion polls suggest most Americans do not.

And we will never go back to where we were just a very short time ago. We're not going back today.

CNN’s Manu Raju reports from inside the chamber that Rep. Al Green waved a sign that read, “Black people aren’t apes.” It’s a reference to Trump’s recent sharing, and deleting, of a video that depicted former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as monkeys. Rep. Steve Scalise, the majority leader, tried to snatch the sign from Green’s hands. Green was led out of the chamber.

Today, our border is secure. Thank you. Today our border is secure, our spirit is restored, inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising fast, the roaring economy is roaring like never before and our enemies are scared.

The facts don’t corroborate the suggestion that Trump has presided over a massive economic boom since returning to office in January 2025. The US economy grew 2.2% in 2025, which was lower than in any year of the Biden presidency; there was 2.8% growth in 2024. (The fall 2025 government shutdown likely reduced growth in late 2025.) — Daniel Dale, CNN Read more

Our military and police are stacked and America is respected again, perhaps like never before. After four years in which millions and millions of illegal aliens poured across our borders totally unvetted and unchecked, we now have the strongest and most secure border in American history by far.

It’s not possible to fact check these kinds of statements. Trump says them all the time.

In the past nine months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States. But we will always allow people to come in legally, people that will love our country and will work hard to maintain our country.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez notes: “The reality, though, is far more complicated as many immigrants going through the legal process in the United States have been swept up as part of his immigration enforcement crackdown.”

The flow of deadly fentanyl across our border is down by a record 56 percent in one year. And last year the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history.

This is the biggest decline, think of it, in recorded history — the lowest number in over 125 years. Year 1900, in fact substantially before my wonderful father — I had a wonderful father, Fred — before he was born, substantially before he was born. That's a long time ago. He wouldn't like me to say that.

But that's a long time ago.

Cities across the country have seen steep declines in their murder rates, continuing a post-Covid trend.

The Biden administration and its allies in Congress gave us the worst inflation in the history of our country. But in 12 months, my administration has driven core inflation down to the lowest level in more than five years. And in the last three months of 2025, it was down to 1.7 percent.

Gasoline, which reached a peak of over $6 a gallon in some states. Under my predecessor, it was quite honestly a disaster; it is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states and in some places $1.99 a gallon. And when I visited the great state of Iowa just a few weeks ago, I even saw $1.85 a gallon for gasoline.

No state had an average gas price on Tuesday below $2.37 per gallon, according to AAA; only two states had an average below $2.50 per gallon. And while there are some individual gas stations selling gas for below $2 per gallon, they are scarce; Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for the firm GasBuddy, said during the speech that the firm found just four stations across the country below $2 (aside from special discounts) out of the roughly 150,000 stations the firm tracks, so about 0.003% of the total. Trump could fairly say gas prices have fallen during this presidency. They have declined from a national average of $3.12 per gallon on his inauguration day in January 2025, according to AAA, to a national average of $2.95 per gallon on Tuesday. — Daniel Dale, CNN Read more

Mortgage rates are the lowest in four years and falling fast, and the annual cost of a typical new mortgage is down almost $5,000 just since I took office, one year. And low interest rates will solve the Biden created housing problem, while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives.

We want to protect those values; we want to keep those values up. We're going to do both. And we are going to keep it that way.

This is a great conundrum of housing. Mortgage rates have dropped, but are nowhere near the Covid-era lows. Americans who don’t own still feel locked out of the market.

The stock market has set 53 all-time record highs since the election. Think of that, one year — boosting pensions, 401(k)s and retirement accounts for the millions and millions of Americans are all gaining. Everybody's up, way up.

Not all Americans are in the stock market and not all Americans have 401ks. But those who do have watched their balances rise and may be more likely to approve of Trump’s presidency.

In four long years, the last administration got less than $1 trillion in new investment in the United States. And when I say less, substantially less. In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe. Think of it, much less than $1 trillion for four years versus much more than $18 trillion for one year.

What a difference a president makes.

The $18 trillion figure is fiction. As of the night of Trump’s address, the White House’s own website said the figure for “major investment announcements” during this Trump term was “$9.7 trillion,” and even that is a major exaggeration; a detailed CNN review in October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the US and vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges. — Daniel Dale, CNN Read more

A short time ago we were a dead country, now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world, the hottest.

Trump loves this line and he wants people to believe it.

As thousands of new businesses are forming and factories, plants and laboratories are being built, we have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time.

It's getting bigger and bigger and stronger. Nobody can believe what they're watching. American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day and we just received from our new friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80 million barrels of oil.

This phrasing is bad news for anyone who hoped regime change in Venezuela would mean an opening for a more democratic government. The Trump administration is working with the remnants of former leader Nicolas Maduro’s repressive government rather than backing Maria Corina Machado, who gave Trump her Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has been working to secure more of Venezuela’s oil.

American natural gas production is at an all-time high because I kept my promise to drill baby drill.

More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country. Think about that, any time in the history of our country, more working today and 100 percent of all jobs created under my administration have been in the private sector.

Well, except for the large number of immigration agents the Trump administration is hiring with $75 billion in new funding from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

We ended DEI in America.

The Trump administration effectively ended diversity efforts at the federal level and is working to pressure businesses, states and schools to end theirs as well.

We cut a record number of job killing regulations and, in one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record, off of food stamps.

And for all of these reasons, I say tonight, members of Congress, the state of our Union is strong. Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much.

We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country. Until you came along, we were just always losing, but now we're winning too much.

Trump was all but yelling into the microphone during this portion, building up to the big reveal.

And I say no, no, no, you're going to win again. You're going to win big; you're going to win bigger than ever. And to prove that point — to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud.

The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team, come on in. Go ahead.

What a moment. The hockey players, fresh from their overtime win over Canada, streamed into the balcony where reporters watch the speech. The women’s team, which also won an overtime thriller against Canada, declined the invitation to the State of the Union.