Fact checking Donald Trump’s record-breaking State of the Union address | News US

Donald Trump delivered the longest-ever State of the Union address to the American public last night, rambling for 108 minutes.

Bragging about the ‘many wars’ he settled, his historic tariffs and heckling Democrats, the US leader made many far-fetched claims in his almost two hours at the podium.

Describing the US as ‘bigger, better, richer than ever before’, he said: ‘This is the golden age of America.’

Metro has fact-checked many of the claims Trump made during his address, from Somali fraud to stopping drug flow into America.

The US has ‘virtually stopped’ sea drug trafficking

This is false.

Trump claimed that illegal drugs being trafficked into the US by sea have been ‘virtually stopped’ through Operation Southern Spear.

He appears to be referencing the campaign, which saw dozens of boats struck in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Despite this claim, there is no solid evidence that the amount of drugs entering the US has dropped.

Customs and Border Protection stats from July to November 2025 show that there’s been a 98% drop in pounds of drugs seized through marine operations.

One point these statistics don’t include is the amount of drugs still entering the US – with Carnegie Mellon drug policy researcher Jonathan Caulkins telling Politifact: ‘Trump is making a claim about something that is unknowable.’

‘The Somali community has pillaged $19 billion from taxpayers’

Trump was called a liar by a Congresswoman as he told the country that members of the Somali community have ‘pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer’.

He added: ‘The Somali pirates who ransack Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception.’

Investigations into alleged money fraud in Somali communities in Minnesota are still underway, but the numbers Trump cited have no basis in fact.

Politifact reports that Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said in December that state-run Medicaid programs being audited had billed $18 billion since 2019.

Of these, ‘half or more’ were possibly fraudulent, but not all $18 billion.

‘More people are working today than ever before’

This is not true. Recent statistics from the Bureau of Labour Statistics show that job growth under Trump in the past year was smaller than in any year since 2020.

181,000 jobs were created in the past year, compared to more than 1.5 million each under Joe Biden’s four years as President from 2020 to 2024.

Iryna Zarutska’s killer was an immigrant

The murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, 23, in August last year has been a major talking point when it comes to crime under Trump’s administration.

Trump falsely claimed that the man who killed her, DeCarlos Brown Jr, was a ‘a hardened criminal set free to kill in America came in through open borders’.

This is false.

Brown was a US citizen, who had an extensive criminal record, but he was not an immigrant.

Gas prices are ‘below $2.30 a gallon in most states’

This is false.

The only state that has gas at $2.30 a gallon is Oklahoma – the latest numbers show that in some states, prices are still above $4.30.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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