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Just over a year into his second term, President Donald Trump is delivering the State of the Union address\u00a0Tuesday, making his case for sweeping policy changes and executive actions that have come to define America’s current moment.<\/p>\n
From steep global tariffs that were recently struck down by the Supreme Court<\/a> to an overhaul of domestic immigration enforcement<\/a> and mounting tensions with Iran<\/a>, all eyes are on the president speaking before Congress at the Capitol.<\/p>\n An\u00a0ABC News\/Washington Post\/Ipsos poll released Sunday<\/a>\u00a0found that Trump’s overall disapproval rating is at 60% — a high for his second term.\u00a0<\/p>\n With midterm elections in November looming, where control of Congress is at stake, Trump is expected to roll out several new measures to address affordability and tout his administration’s efforts to boost the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n Throughout Trump’s remarks Tuesday night, ABC News is live fact-checking some of the president’s statements that may be exaggerated, need more context or are false.<\/p>\n This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.<\/em><\/p>\n TRUMP CLAIM: <\/strong>“In the past nine months,\u00a0zero\u00a0illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States.”<\/p>\n FACT CHECK:<\/strong> False, but crossings are down drastically<\/p>\n After using executive authority to enforce a series of restrictive policy measures at the southern border, the Trump administration has severely decreased the number of people who crossed the border illegally, down from the record highs of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n According to the data collected by Customs and Border Protection, in 2024, the last full year of Biden\u2019s presidency, there were over 1.5 million encounters with migrants attempting to illegally cross the border. In 2025, the first full year of Trump\u2019s second term in office, that number dropped to just under 28,000.<\/p>\n Those low trends continue in 2026, but have never been at \u201czero\u201d as the president has often suggested. The numbers suggest migrants are still attempting to cross the border, and it would be impossible to know if any had gone through unnoticed.<\/p>\n -ABC News’ Luke Barr and Justin Fishel<\/em><\/p>\n TRUMP CLAIM:<\/strong> “My\u00a0administration has driven core\u00a0inflation\u00a0down\u00a0to the lowest level in more than five years.”\u00a0<\/p>\n FACT CHECK:<\/strong> Yes and No<\/p>\n While it\u2019s a positive development that inflation has come down in recent months, this hasn\u2019t led to reduced prices across the board. The state of play is more complicated.<\/p>\n The facts are that when Trump took office, inflation was at 3% and today it’s down to 2.4%<\/p>\n The most recent inflation report was positive.<\/p>\n But prices for everyday products for Americans are impacted by more than just inflation.\u00a0<\/p>\n The president\u2019s tariffs have impacted the cost of fresh produce, beef and coffee. Ground coffee prices are up 34% in the past year. And even those increased costs aren\u2019t all due to tariffs.<\/p>\n Bureau of Labor and Statistics data also show Americans are paying more for energy (in many cases due to the data centers needed to power AI technology), up 6.3 percent from January 2025 to January 2026.<\/p>\n -ABC News’ <\/em>Zunaira Zaki<\/em><\/p>\n TRUMP CLAIM:<\/strong> “In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.”<\/p>\n FACT CHECK:<\/strong> <\/em>Lacks evidence\u00a0<\/p>\n It is unclear where the $18 trillion number is coming from. It is a huge number. US GDP is $31 trillion. On their\u00a0website<\/u><\/a>, the White House says they have secured $9.6 trillion in domestic and foreign investments since Trump took office for his second term. A White House official confirmed that this figure includes \u201cinvestments that have materialized or committed,\u201d but they did not answer ABC\u2019s questions about where the president\u2019s $18 trillion number is coming from.<\/p>\n The White House\u2019s $9.6 trillion in investments also appears to be inflated, as other sums are included in their calculations. For example, the website lists a $1.2 trillion \u201cforeign investment\u201d from Qatar. But according to a White House\u00a0fact sheet<\/u><\/a>\u00a0distributed when the deal was made, the U.S. and Qatar had agreed to \u201cgenerate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion” — not an explicit investment.<\/p>\n -ABC NEWS’ <\/em>Zunaira Zaki<\/em><\/p>\n TRUMP CLAIM:<\/strong> “I took prescription drugs, a very big part of health care, from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest.”<\/p>\n FACT CHECK: <\/strong>Needs more context<\/p>\n Trump has pointed to lower prescription drug prices, citing discount arrangements such as his new website, which provides manufacturer discount prices, TrumpRX and direct negotiations with manufacturers. Some targeted reductions have occurred for people paying the cash price without any insurance, but overall drug prices in the United States remain high, and many patients still face significant out-of-pocket costs.<\/p>\n The administration secured lower cash prices for certain high-profile medications, including weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound, largely for uninsured patients or those paying outside of traditional insurance coverage. Ben Jolley, the senior fellow for healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project, noted that manufacturers were already under competitive and political pressure to reduce prices in that category as more products enter the market. In addition, those discounts applied to specific purchasing channels and did not necessarily translate into broad reductions in insured patients\u2019 costs or overall list prices.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, some of the most substantial recent price cuts are the result of policies enacted before Trump returned to office. For example, at the start of this year, Bristol Myers Squibb reduced the price of the popular blood thinner Eliquis by more than 50%; Eli Lilly and their manufacturing partners dropped the price of diabetes drug Jardiance by 66%. Jolley said that those changes largely reflect the Medicare drug price negotiation.<\/p>\n -ABC News’ Liz Neporent<\/em><\/p>\n TRUMP CLAIM:<\/strong> \u201cI want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care.\u201d<\/p>\n FACT CHECK:<\/strong> Lacks evidence<\/p>\n Last month, with tax breaks for the Affordable Care Act marketplace expiring and premiums increasing by 100% for some — Trump\u00a0unveiled his idea for a health care\u00a0<\/a>unveiled his idea for a health care plan<\/a>\u00a0that he claimed could replace the ACA. The so-called “The Great Healthcare Plan” proposes to shift government insurance subsidies directly to consumers and take advantage of its “most favored nation<\/a>” drug price initiative.<\/p>\n During his speech, Trump said the health care plan would \u201cstop all payments to big insurance\u00a0companies, and\u00a0instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the\u00a0video message<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0one-page fact sheet<\/a>\u00a0posted by the White House were light on specifics about how much money would actually go directly to Americans, how much funding the plan would require or how the funds would be distributed. Some health policy experts\u00a0previously told ABC News<\/a>\u00a0that there’s no way to tell how impactful these ideas could be and if they will expand on the plans already in existence through the ACA.<\/p>\n Additionally, the original ACA included cost-sharing reduction payments, which are federal reimbursements that compensate insurers for reducing out-of-pocket costs. The first Trump administration halted direct federal payments, but \u201cThe Great Healthcare Plan\u201d appears to reinstate the payments to insurers.<\/p>\n -ABC News’ <\/em>Mary Kekatos<\/em><\/p>\n TRUMP CLAIM:<\/strong> “<\/em>In many cases, drug\u00a0lords,\u00a0murderers all over our country.\u00a0They’re\u00a0blocking the removal of these people out of our country,” Trump said of illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities.<\/p>\n