Jobs, gas prices and ending wars: factchecking Trump’s State of the Union claims | Donald Trump
Donald Trump officially delivered the longest State of the Union address in history on Tuesday evening, with broad statements about the successes achieved in the first year of his second term.
But the speech that lasted more than an hour and 41 minutes was filled with strong statements, many of which were exaggerated, misleading or just plain false.
Here are some of the assertions made by the president during his speech:
Factcheck: economy, jobs and investments
Trump has repeatedly touted his economy, claiming that “we are the hottest country in the world” and asserting that “we have more jobs and more people working today than ever before in the history of our country.”
But data shows that job gains under Trump slowed in 2025 and were much lower than any other non-pandemic year.
The United States added just 181,000 jobs in 2025, according to revised data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month.
That number, PolitiFact notes, is “much lower than the typical 1.5 to 2.5 million under Trump in his first term and under former President Joe Biden.”
Trump also said the United States had, under his leadership, secured $18 trillion in investment “from all over the world.” But a CNN study last year found that the White House was counting pledges — vague promised amounts — rather than actual investments. The White House investment website lists total U.S. and foreign investments at $9.7 billion.
Factcheck: Iryna Zarutska’s killer was not an immigrant
When Trump introduced the mother of Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian woman killed on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina last year, he falsely claimed that the man who stabbed Zarutska was “a hardened criminal, free to kill in America, entered through open borders.”
However, DeCarlos Brown Jr., the man arrested and charged with Zarutska’s murder, is not an immigrant. Trump has long insisted that non-citizens are responsible for violent crimes across the United States. Data shows that, compared to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes and 2.5 times as likely to be arrested for drug crimes.
Factcheck: energy prices in the United States
Trump suggested energy prices were falling. “When they see energy dropping to numbers like that, they can’t believe it,” he said.
But the average household energy bill increased by 6.7% between 2024 and 2025 in the United States. This is despite Trump’s oft-repeated promise to cut electricity costs in half during his first year in office.
Since Trump took over the White House, utility companies have raised or sought to raise rates on American families by at least $92 billion, raising bills for 112 million electric customers and 52 million gas customers, according to an analysis by the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. The president’s attacks on clean energy expansion are also expected to cause electricity rates to rise as much as 18% by 2035, according to data from energy research group Energy Innovation.
The Trump administration also cut energy aid to American families. Last year, the administration eliminated tax credits for cost-effective home energy efficiency improvements. He also attempted to eliminate the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program, which helps 6 million low-income Americans pay their energy bills each year. The program survived, but was significantly hampered after the administration fired the entire program staff. Budget cuts and government shutdowns have caused unprecedented delays in aid disbursement.
Factcheck: gas prices
Trump touted low gas prices during his State of the Union address, saying they are “now below $2.30 per gallon in most states and, in some places, $1.99 per gallon.” But a major environmental measure passed by his administration two weeks ago could send gas prices higher.
Repealing the hazard statement – the legal basis for all greenhouse gas regulations in the US – is expected to lead to higher gas prices, as the Guardian explained in an analysis last week. That’s according to the administration’s own data. Check it out here.
Gas prices are also higher than the president claims. According to AAA, which tracks prices nationwide, Oklahoma is the only state to offer gas at $2.30 per gallon — or $2.374, to be precise. Prices in some states exceed $4.60.
Factcheck: war and peace
The president claimed to have ended eight wars in his first ten months, a bold exaggeration. The United States has signed six peace accords and several of them do not specifically credit Trump. Others were not initially considered wars.
While involved in efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel has continued to kill Palestinian civilians and carry out airstrikes since the truce was announced last October.
The century-long border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia is one of the conflicts Trump claims to have resolved. Trump presided over the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the two sides in October, calling it a “monumental step.”
He had pressured the leaders of the two countries to reach a deal by warning that trade negotiations with the United States would otherwise be suspended. However, the underlying causes of the conflict, which originated in long-standing disagreements over colonial-era maps, have never been resolved. The ceasefire broke down a few weeks later in November, and fighting resumed in December, forcing half a million people to flee their homes.
