Though Trump repeatedly promoted his 2024 victory as a mandate—to inflate the actual degree of voter support—he failed to receive 50% of the popular vote. His 1.5 percentage point margin of victory in 2024 (shown in chart) place it in only the 20th percentile of presidential elections since 1828.
Though Trump said in September 2025 that "the radicals on the left are the problem" with political violence,[6] cumulatively over decades, most extremist killings in the US have been caused by right-wing perpetrators.[7] From 2022 through 2024, all 61 political killings were committed by right-wing extremists.[8]
Even before Charlie Kirk's shooter's motive was known, US President Trump immediately blamed Kirk's killing on rhetoric from the "radical left".[9] However, various studies have shown that right-wing violence has exceeded that of left-wing violence and Islamist-inspired violence.[9]
On August 11, Trump held a press conference to declare a "public safety emergency", announcing the deployment of the National Guard and other law enforcement agencies to crack down on crime and homelessness in Washington, D.C., following the deployment of hundreds of federal law enforcement officers over the weekend.[10][11][12]
The New York Times noted that a chart Trump held up comparing Washington’s homicide rate to that of eight other "capitals" (Lagos, Nigeria, is not a capital), first appearing on Fox News and shared by JD Vance, cites outdated data and omits other capitals with much higher murder rates. It also pointed out that Jeanine Pirro's statements about her inability to prosecute minors were misleading and inaccurate.[16]
In the press conference, Trump talked about "a man" who quit "because he was asked to do phony numbers on crime (...) But he was asked by the city, I guess, that we don't want to show the real numbers." [11]:min.05:37 In an August 13 post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that "a Precinct Commander was just suspended for allegedly manipulating the Violent Crime Statistics, and the D.C. Police Union, likewise, says the real numbers are much higher."[17]
In July 2025, NBC 4 reported that after an exchange of accusations between Michael Pulliam, the former commander of the 3rd District, an assistant chief, the police union, and the department, the commander, who denies any wrongdoing, was placed on paid administrative leave in mid-May. In the related interview, DC Police Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton stated that high-ranking officers attend felony offense scenes and direct police officers "to take a report for a lesser offense", that it is "a directive from the command staff", and he called the official crime descent numbers "preposterous." As of the publication date, the investigation into the allegations was ongoing.[18]
In an August interview with NBC 4, Chairman Pemberton reiterated his assertions regarding crime numbers' descent, based on the police's day-to-day experience. NBC 4 contextualized his statements, pointing out the notable 2023 crime spike, and that crime and homicides have descended in multiple cities to rates even lower than D.C.'s. Regarding the White House's claim that "Metro Police Department leadership are allegedly cooking the books to make crime statistics appear more favorable",[19] NBC 4 noted that data reporting anomalies were found in just one police district.[20]
Press conference about autism, Tylenol, and vaccines
On September 22, 2025, Trump gave a press conference on the "autism crisis" and findings of the investigation led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in which he claimed that they had found Tylenol (paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen) taken during pregnancy was the cause of autism, and strongly recommended the public not to take Tylenol nor give it to infants.[21] It was also announced that the FDA is approving prescription leucovorin (folinic acid) for the treatment of children on the autism spectrum.
Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, strongly disagreed with Trump's claims as shares of the company fell 7.5% in trading Monday, reducing the company’s market value by about $2.6 billion.[41]
Regarding leucovorin, Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said that it can help treat some autism cases, but it is not a universal remedy: "You can have a perfectly normal folate level in your blood, but it may not be getting into the brain, and so there's a defect in the transport of folate into the brain. Leucovorin works around that", Gounder said. "Not all children with autism have this defect, so there's a test you can do to assess whether that's what's at play. For those kids, leucovorin has been shown to help, particularly with speech, getting kids to be more verbal than they were before."[26]
Trump’s comments on Tylenol seemed to be based on several studies,[42][43] including a 2025 American study that summarized 46 studies[44] that identified a slightly increased risk of autism associated with prenatal paracetamol use, but did not demonstrate causation.[45] During the press conference, the study was cited by Marty Makary, along with two others, as justification for officially advising pregnant women against taking Tylenol.[46] The study itself came under strong scrutiny in the scientific community, with members of the scientific community pointing to its inconsistent methodology, deviation from the cited systematic review and evidence grading protocols, and multiple choices that swayed the interpretation of results, with one professor stating “I’ve never seen any kind of review of any kind or any kind of meta analysis, at any time, in which somebody said, I don’t like the adjusted results, so I’m going to include the unadjusted results".[47] Large, well-controlled studies, including sibling-controlled analyses, find no causal link after adjusting for maternal conditions,[48][49][50][51] while untreated pain and fever is known to harm both mother and fetus.[52][53]
Ann Bauer, who co-authored the 2025 American study, declared herself concerned about the effects Trump's use of it could have: "Bauer worries such statements will cut both ways: People may put themselves at risk to avoid vaccines and Tylenol, the only safe painkiller for use during pregnancy. And she frets that scientists might outright reject her team's measured concerns about Tylenol in a backlash against misleading remarks from Trump and other members of his "Make America Healthy Again" movement."[54] In 2023, Andrea Baccarelli, also a co-author of the analysis and current dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was paid at least $150,000 to provide testimony (together with other experts) for a group of parents and guardians of children diagnosed with autism and ADHD, in a class action lawsuit against Tylenol’s manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson/Kenvue (in that year Kenvue span off from Johnson & Johnson). The plaintiffs paid Baccareli $700 an hour for his expert testimony, according to a 2023 deposition.[55]Denise Cote, the federal judge overseeing the case in the Southern District of New York, dismissed the lawsuit, describing the experts' testimonies as "unreliable" and not in adherence with the Daubert standard. Regarding Baccarelli's, Cote summarized that he "cherry-picked and misrepresented study results and refused to acknowledge the role of genetics in the etiology" of autism and ADHD. "The discussion in his reports is incomplete, unbalanced, and at times misleading. In general, Baccarelli downplays those studies that undercut his causation thesis and emphasises those that align with his thesis." In a statement, Baccarelli confirmed he consulted with the Trump administration ahead of its autism announcement, and that "further research is needed to confirm the association and determine causality." This stands in contrast to his expert report provided in the Johnson & Johnson lawsuit, Baccarelli wrote, "Substantial evidence supports a strong, positive, causal association between acetaminophen and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDDs)."[46][56] Baccarell's his work demonstrated only a correlation and not a causal link, as the Trump administration has asserted.[55]
On October 9, 2025, Trump and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. alleged a link between autism and circumcisions.[57][58] Kennedy cited a 2015 Danish study to justify this claim.[59] The validity of Kennedy's assertion about circumcisions being linked to autism has also been challenged by scientists and medical experts.[58][60] Kennedy Jr appeared to walk back his comments in an October 29, when he spoke with reporters and stated that the causative association between Tylenol use in pregnancy and autism was not definitely proven but instead showed it was very suggestive.[61]
Resulting lawsuits
On October 28, 2025 it was announced that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had sued the makers of Tylenol, Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, alleging that they had deceptively marketed the drug to pregnant women despite the drugs supposed links to autism and other disorders. In a statement Kenvue stated that they were deeply concerned about the "perpetuation of misinformation" being pushed by Paxton.[62]
September 2025 speech at the United Nations
Right About Everything
I'm really good at predicting things. They... had a hat, the best-selling hat, "Trump was right about everything". And I don't say that in a braggadocious way, but it's true. I've been right about everything.
— President Donald Trump to the UN General Assembly, September 23, 2025[63]
On September 23, 2025, Trump delivered a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. He spoke for nearly 57 minutes (despite having been asked to confine his remarks to 15 minutes, like all other speakers),[64] addressing a variety of subjects such as inflation in the US, his standing in national opinion polls, immigration and climate policies both in the US and abroad, and his personal role in settling international conflicts.[65][66]
Many of his claims were determined as false by fact-checkers[67][68][69] and the media.[70][71][72] Trump's claims about climate change were specifically addressed,[73][74][69] and some of his political claims elicited backlash and concern abroad.[75][76][77]
Trump's "your countries are going to Hell" speech[66][64] was also described as "colorful",[78] "combative",[66] "meandering",[79] and "inflammatory",[75] analyzed as a sign of changing times,[80][64] and as a sign of the "waning of US influence." As "Trump has moved to slash US funding of the UN, withdrawn from many of its agencies, and ordered a review of America’s interactions with the organisation", this has weakened its capacity to protect human rights, and "creating an opportunity for other nations to step in and attempt to fill the vacuum", with authoritarian nations such as China, Qatar, and Russia already taking initiatives in that regard, and countries like Chile and the Netherlands having their own human rights and cooperation talks.[81]
Demolition of the East Wing for the White House State Ballroom
On July 31, 2025, Trump said the new White House State Ballroom being constructed "won't interfere with the current building', wouldn't be "touching it", and would pay "total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of."[82] Demolition of the entire East Wing began in October 2025[83] without review by the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction.[84]
In Mr. Trump's telling, Ukrainian leaders were at fault for the war for not agreeing to surrender territory and therefore, he suggested, they do not deserve a seat at the table for the peace talks that he has just initiated with Mr. Putin. 'You should have never started it,' Mr. Trump said, referring to Ukrainian leaders who, in fact, did not start it. 'You could have made a deal.'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rebutted that claim and accused Trump of spreading disinformation:[86]
"I would like to have more truth with the Trump team," Mr. Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv during a broader discussion about the administration, which this week opened peace talks with Russia that excluded Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky said that the U.S. president was "living in a disinformation space" and in a "circle of disinformation."
Peter Baker of The New York Times described how Trump has never uttered "one word of reproach for Mr. Putin or for Russia". He also debunked other false claims by Trump:[85]
As he often does, Mr. Trump flavored his comments with multiple false claims. Among them, he said that the United States has contributed three times as much aid to Ukraine since the war started as Europe has. In fact, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Europe has allocated $138 billion compared with $119 billion from the United States.
Jeffrey Epstein hoax
On July 12, 2025, during the controversy related to Jeffrey Epstein's client list, Trump posted on Truth Social in defense of Pam Bondi's handling of the case, stating that the file had been "written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 “Intelligence” Agents, “THE LAPTOP FROM HELL;”" he compared the "Epstein Files" to the Steele dossier declaring both as "FAKE", and requested MAGA to "not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about."[87] Trump's post was not well received by his supporters.[88][89][90]
On July 16, he posted again on the subject, declaring it was a "totally fake and made up story" created by Democrats, and stating: "Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax", a label he continued to use thereafter.[91] Trump's labelling of the Jeffrey Epstein case as a hoax made up by Democrats was declared as a falsehood by the media.[92]
On the July 17 episode of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough noted that Trump supporters have been the ones talking about the case "for years", that it has been "almost a foundational belief for MAGA", and that Trump calling it a Democratic hoax, "it's just not true." Willie Geist noted the case existed and asked, "What part of this is a hoax?" Clips of Charlie Kirk, Benny Johnson, and Alex Jones, along with a tweet by Michael Flynn, were featured, calling for transparency regarding the case. Scarborough noted that Trump's false claim makes other claims of his dubious, and it is a baffling strategy.[93]
Uncle's acquaintance with Ted Kaczynski
On July 15, 2025, Trump spoke at an "Energy and Innovation" event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During discussion of artificial intelligence,[94][95] Trump professed to the intelligence of his uncle Prof. John G. Trump with a false anecdote of Prof. Trump teaching Ted Kaczynski (who he commented "very little difference between a madman and a genius")[95] at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and their supposed reaction to Kaczynski's identification as the Unabomber; this is impossible as John Trump died in 1985, a decade before Kaczynski was identified as the Unabomber and arrested in 1996. Kaczynski was an alumnus of Harvard University and the University of Michigan, having never attended MIT, a fact confirmed by MIT in response to Donald Trump's claim. Kaczynski could not contest Trump's claim, having himself died in 2023.[94][95] Trump also miscredited his uncle as having university degrees "in nuclear, chemical, and math"; Prof. Trump actually had a Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Science in electrical engineering, and a Master of Science in physics.[94]
Alleged apology from Tucker Carlson
On June 13, 2025, Tucker Carlson accused Trump of having been "complicit" in Israel's attack on Iran. Five days later, Trump told White House reporters that Carlson "called and apologized the other day because he thought he had said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciate that." However, when (in an interview that aired July 19), a German journalist asked Carlson if this was true, Carlson denied having made any such phone call or apology.[96]
Reducing drug prices
On July 22, 2025, Trump posted to social media: "We’re gonna get the drug prices down. Not 30% or 40% ... we’re gonna get them down 1,000%, 600%, 500%, 1,500%." Reducing the price of something more than 100% would mean that the seller pays the buyer.[97]
On July 31, 2025, Trump issued an executive order imposing tariffs on imports from many of America's trading partners. On August 1, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly report on job creation, indicating that only 73,000 jobs were added in July, significantly below the expected 115,000. Additionally, revisions reduced 258,000 jobs from the May and June reports, increasing the unemployment rate to 4.2%.[98][99]Maria Bartiromo delivered the news live on Mornings with Maria; the panel members elaborated on the likely reasons for those results and possible ways to address the issues.[100]
Officials such as Stephen Miran,[98]Karoline Leavitt,[101] and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer[102] sought to explain the report's results and to reassure the public on the grounds that the weak performance was tied to the fate of Trump's domestic spending legislation and the outcome of the tariff policy. They said that as Congress had passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, deregulations are being enacted, federal expenses are being cut, inflation has decreased, wages have increased, and new tariff deals that will rake in "billions of dollars" have been announced, uncertainty ended; Trump's policies are starting to sort into place, as the numbers still show that jobs for American workers are increasing.
Later on August 1, Trump ordered[103] the firing of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer, stating without evidence, both in posts on Truth Social[104][105] and public statements,[106][107]:min.00:20 that she had "rigged" the numbers, that is, that she had previously inflated the numbers to favor Kamala Harris's presidential bidding, that she had reduced his numbers to make him look bad, and the numbers were "a scam, in my opinion."[108][109] Trump's officials, such as Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer,[110][111][107]:min.00:53 and Kevin Hassett,[112] defended his decision on the grounds that the economy is growing; BLS's massive revisions since Covid make no sense and have been detrimental to the markets; the President has the right to fire the BLS head; the Bureau needs overhauling, to revise its formulas, and to be apolitical; their duty is to support the President, who is doing a great job; and reliable information, and transparency, are important for the economy.
Fact-checkers[113][114] and the media[115] established that Trump's claims were false, based on the way the data are collected and processed, which prevents the Commissioner from tampering with them; releases are regular; revisions are routine due to low response to the surveys, lack of resources, and the firing of the Technical Advisory Committee and Data Users Advisory Committee;[116][117] his timeline doesn't match reality; and Trump has a history of claiming that the BLS data are biased against him.
Trump announced he would soon choose a replacement for Ms. McEntarfer, "somebody who's gonna be honest"[106]:min.05:55 On August 7, Stephen Moore made an impromptu presentation[118] at the Oval Office to defend Trump's decision, showing a series of graphs favorable to him. With the first one, Moore stated that the reports' revisions manifested errors and incompetence, whereas Trump declared it was made purposely. The other graphs showed increasing or larger household income under Trump, "based on unpublished Census Bureau data", mostly by comparing Trump's first term's numbers to Biden's, including the impact of COVID in one graph.[119] The media noted that revisions are usual, the graphs' data were unverifiable, and it was not explained how they were calculated for the graphs.[120][121][122][116] On August 11, Trump named E.J. Antoni as McEntarfer's replacement.[123][124]
↑ Woolley, John T. and Peters, Gerhard, Eds. "Presidential Election Margin of Victory". The American Presidency Project (University of California). November 6, 2024. Archived from the original on March 29, 2025.
↑ Melissa Goldin (January 24, 2025). "FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made by Trump during his first week back in office". Associated Press. Retrieved January 31, 2025. President Donald Trump stepped back into the presidency this week moving quickly to set a new agenda, but from his inaugural address continuing through a flurry of executive actions, press conferences and interviews Trump relied on an array of false and misleading information to support his case. Here's a closer look at the facts.
Check, Reuters Fact (January 20, 2025). "Fact Check: Donald Trump's inaugural speech examined". Reuters. Reuters. Retrieved January 30, 2025. Reuters assessed seven statements made by President Donald Trump during his inaugural address on Monday. While we monitored the speech in its entirety, we did not examine opinions or policy pledges. The statements are listed with timestamps in Eastern Standard Time (ET).{{cite web}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
Zachary B. Wolf, Curt Merrill (January 20, 2025). "Trump's inaugural address, annotated and fact-checked". CNN. Retrieved January 30, 2025. President Donald Trump completed his incredible comeback by delivering his second inaugural address in the rotunda of the US Capitol. Before closing with a pledge to bind the nation and unify Americans, he borrowed lines from his campaign speeches and he promised broad changes in US government, to guard against an invasion at the southern border and to rename the Gulf of Mexico. Here's Trump's second inaugural address with context and with multiple fact checks from CNN's Fact Check team.
Glenn Kessler (January 20, 2025). "Fact-checking President Trump's 2025 inaugural address. Trump relies on many claims debunked during the election campaign". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 30, 2025. Inaugural addresses, with their emphasis on lofty rhetoric, are generally not fertile ground for fact-checking. But President Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration speech was more akin to a State of the Union address, with a laundry list of proposals and plans — and a hefty dose of false claims that we've fact-checked before. Here's a quick rundown of what was inaccurate or misleading in Trump's address, in the order in which he made the claims. We'll ignore rhetoric that is expressed more as an opinion — "for many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens" — even though the factual basis for such statements is thin.
Farley, Robert; Gore, D'Angelo; McDonald, Jessica; Jaramillo, Catalina; Robertson, Lori; Jaffe, Alan; Spencer, Saranac Hale; Cohen, Ben; Fox, Ian; Chapman, Logan (January 20, 2025). "FactChecking Trump's Inaugural Address". FactCheck.org. Retrieved March 18, 2025. Summary. In a half-hour inaugural address, newly sworn-in President Donald Trump twisted some facts while painting the last few years under his predecessor, Joe Biden, as a time of "decline" and promising that "the golden age of America begins right now." We also flagged a few falsehoods in Trump's subsequent remarks to supporters in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol.
Daniel Dale (January 20, 2025). "Fact check: Trump made more than 20 false claims in his Inauguration Day remarks". CNN. Retrieved January 30, 2025. President Donald Trump made only a smattering of false claims in his inaugural address on Monday, mostly sticking to vague rhetoric, subjective assertions and uncheckable promises of action. But then he embarked on a lying spree. In an unscripted second speech on Monday, to supporters who had gathered in the US Capitol Visitor Center's Emancipation Hall, Trump made false claims about elections, immigration and the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, among other subjects. He then made additional false claims in a freewheeling third speech at Washington's Capital One Arena and again while speaking to reporters as he signed executive orders in the Oval Office. Here is a fact check of some of his Monday claims.
The Associated Press (January 21, 2025). "FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims Trump made at inaugural events". Associated Press. Retrieved January 30, 2025. In his first address after being sworn in on Monday, President Donald Trump repeated several false and misleading statements that he made during his campaign. They included claims about immigration, the economy, electric vehicles and the Panama Canal. In remarks later at the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, he issued a number of other false claims, including one that distorts pardons made by President Joe Biden as he left office. Here's a look at the facts.
NPR Staff (March 4, 2025). "Read NPR's annotated fact check of President Trump's address to Congress". NPR. NPR. Retrieved March 28, 2025. President Trump delivered an address to a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night, six weeks into his second term. Since his inauguration, he has worked briskly to try to radically reshape the government and has signed dozens of executive orders, many upending policies created by former President Joe Biden. Trump took stock of what he's done so far and laid out his vision for the economy, immigration and foreign affairs. Reporters from across NPR's newsroom fact-checked the address and offered context as the speech unfolded.
PolitiFact (March 4, 2025). "Live fact checks of President Donald Trump's speech to Congress". Poynter Institute. Retrieved March 28, 2025. PolitiFact is live fact-checking President Donald Trump's speech to Congress at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, March 4. PolitiFact has fact-checked Trump 1,078 times since 2011. Tonight, we'll draw on that deep archive to check the accuracy of his statements.
Laura Doan, Emily Pandise, Alexander Tin (March 5, 2025). "Trump speech fact check for his 2025 joint address to Congress". CBS News. Retrieved March 28, 2025. CBS News' Confirmed team is fact checking President Trump's 2025 joint address to Congress on Tuesday night, his first speech to both chambers of Congress since he won the presidential election in November. He spoke about his domestic and foreign policy agenda, as well as the economy.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
"Fact-checking Trump's address to Congress". CNN. March 5, 2025. Retrieved March 28, 2025. President Donald Trump made numerous false and misleading claims in his Tuesday speech to a joint session of Congress. The falsehoods spanned a variety of topics, including the economy, climate, immigration and more. In his speech, just under one hour and 40 minutes, Trump also made a number of false claims about his predecessor, Joe Biden. Here is a fact check of some of Trump's statements.
"FactChecking Trump's Address to Congress". FactCheck.org. March 5, 2025. Retrieved March 28, 2025. [Multiple authors.] Summary. In his first address to a joint session of Congress in his second term, President Donald Trump distorted the facts on fraud, immigration, aid to Ukraine, the economy, autism and more.
Riley Hoffman (March 5, 2025). "Fact-checking Trump's speech to Congress". ABC News. Retrieved March 28, 2025. Six weeks into his presidency, Donald Trump addressed Congress and the nation Tuesday evening, laying out his goals for the next four years. ABC News, along with PolitiFact, live fact-checked Trump's speech statements that were exaggerated, needed more context or were false. [Includes contextual videos]
The New York Times (March 5, 2025). "Fact-Checking Trump's Address to Congress". The New York Times. Retrieved March 28, 2025. President Trump, in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, ticked off a list of purported accomplishments and justifications for his many executive actions that have upended domestic and foreign policy. The speech, the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history, clocked in at over an hour and 40 minutes and was replete with familiar exaggerations and falsehoods. Mr. Trump overstated the amount of what he called fraud uncovered by the Department of Government Efficiency, misled about energy and environmental policy, and justified sweeping tariffs with hyperbolic claims about world trade, among other statements. Here's a fact check.
Adam Edelman, Jane C. Timm (March 5, 2025). "Fact-checking Trump's speech to Congress". NBC News. Retrieved March 28, 2025. President Donald Trump delivered his first speech to Congress of his second term Tuesday night, celebrating the big spending cuts, crackdown on migration and economic vision from the opening weeks of his administration. In his remarks, Trump bent the facts on issues including Social Security, immigration, fentanyl and the Russia-Ukraine war. Here's what Trump got right — and wrong — during his 100-minute address. [Includes highlights videos.]
Amna Nawaz, Laura Barrón-López (March 5, 2025). Fact-checking Trump's claims during his address to Congress (Internet video). PBS News Hour. Retrieved March 28, 2025. Many of President Trump's statements during his address to Congress on Tuesday on a multitude of issues have been called into question. PBS News Hour's White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López joins Amna Nawaz for a deeper dive and fact check. [05:23 min., includes transcript.]
Glenn Kessler (March 5, 2025). "Fact-checking 26 suspect claims in Trump's address to Congress". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 5, 2025. Retrieved March 28, 2025. President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday was vintage Trump: long, rambling and chock-full of stretched facts and dubious figures. Many of these claims have been fact-checked repeatedly, yet the president persists in using them. Here, in the order in which he made them, are 26 statements by the president that were untrue, misleading or lacked context. As is our practice, we do not award Pinocchios in speech roundups.
1 2 "Is "radical-left" violence really on the rise in America?". The Economist. September 12, 2025. Archived from the original on September 12, 2025. (Based on chart: "Might is right" / United States, criminal cases* involving political violence, by ideology / Source: The Prosecution Project / *Resulting in a guilty verdict)
↑ David Klepper (August 11, 2025). "FACT FOCUS: Trump exaggerates, misstates facts on Washington crime". Associated Press. Retrieved August 13, 2025. Overall crime in D.C. down from a year ago Statistics rebut Trump's claims about violent crime in Washington Murders in 2023 in Washington were high, but not the highest ever Washington murder rate compared to international capitals Trump blames cashless bail for crime without evidence.
↑ Alan Jaffe, Lori Robertson (August 12, 2025). "Trump Distorts Violent Crime Statistics in Ordering Takeover and Troops to D.C."FactCheck.org. Retrieved August 13, 2025. (...) Statistics released by the Metropolitan Police Department on the same day as Trump's remarks showed the number of homicides had decreased by 32% from 2023 to 2024 and by 12% so far from 2024 to 2025. In addition, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia reported in January that violent crime overall for 2024 was down 35% from the previous year and was "the lowest it has been in over 30 years." (...) There are a few aspects to Trump's actions regarding policing in Washington, D.C. He took control of the Metropolitan Police Department, boosted federal law enforcement officers' presence in the city and activated the D.C. National Guard. (...)
↑ "FACT: Yes, D.C. Crime Is Out of Control". The White House. August 11, 2025. Retrieved August 16, 2025. Washington, D.C. should be a symbol of pride and patriotism for the American people — and a safe location for tourists, residents, and public servants. Unfortunately, while Fake News journalists and politicians go out of their way to claim otherwise, the reality is that our nation's capital is anything but safe.
↑ Ted Oberg, Rick Yarborough (August 12, 2025). "DC police union head tells why he doubts city crime statistics". NBC 4. Retrieved August 16, 2025. [The article includes two videos: Interview to Chairman Pemberton with contextualization, 03:27 min. Fact-checking of Jeanine Pirro's claims on juvenile crime, 3:21 min.]
↑ Jessica McDonald, Lori Robertson, Robert Farley (September 23, 2025). "Repeated Falsehoods at Autism Press Conference". FactCheck.org. Retrieved September 24, 2025. An hourlong press conference about autism was filled with false and misleading claims about the condition and vaccines from President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., many of which we have written about before. [Content:] Misleading Autism Rate Comparison / Kennedy Selectively Cites Research on Autism Rise / Autism Exists in People Over 50 / Kennedy Misleads on Autism/Vaccine Research / False Claim About Amish / Hepatitis B Vaccine / Mercury and Aluminum / 'Too Much Liquid' / No Need to 'Break Up' MMR Vaccine.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Lauran Neergaard (September 23, 2025). "FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made by Trump about autism, Tylenol and pregnancy". Associated Press. Retrieved September 24, 2025. [Contents:] Are autism rates increasing? / Does maternal Tylenol use increase the baby's chances of autism? / The risks of not treating a fever / Autism has been gaining in visibility in Cuba / Autism is found in Amish communities / Trump overstates childhood vaccinations / Why infants should get a hepatitis B vaccine / The issue with up MMR vaccines / Would it be safer for parents to break up vaccines for infants? / Trump touts an unproven treatment for autism.
1 2 Sara Moniuszko, Kathryn Watson (September 22, 2025). "Trump and RFK Jr. make autism announcement as Tylenol maker and medical experts push back". CBS News. Retrieved September 24, 2025. (...) However, in a major study published last year, researchers followed nearly 2.5 million children in Sweden over 25 years and found that acetaminophen use during pregnancy did not increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children. (...)
↑ Will Weissert (September 23, 2025). "Trump again dispenses unproven medical advice, reminiscent of his COVID claims". PBS. Retrieved September 24, 2025. (...) The presentation recalled the early days of the coronavirus pandemic during Trump's first term, when the president stood for daily White House briefings and tossed out grossly inaccurate claims — including famously suggesting that injecting disinfectants could help people. (...)
↑ "AAP Statement on White House Autism Announcement". AAP. September 22, 2025. Retrieved September 24, 2025. Today's White House event on autism was filled with dangerous claims and misleading information that sends a confusing message to parents and expecting parents and does a disservice to autistic individuals. / Studies have repeatedly found no credible link between life-saving childhood vaccines and autism. This research, in many countries, involving thousands of individuals, has spanned multiple decades. Any effort to misrepresent sound, strong science poses a threat to the health of children. [Includes links to fac-checking articles on related matters.]
↑ Steven J. Fleischman (September 22, 2025). "ACOG Affirms Safety and Benefits of Acetaminophen during Pregnancy". ACOG. Retrieved September 24, 2025. In more than two decades of research on the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy, not a single reputable study has successfully concluded that the use of acetaminophen in any trimester of pregnancy causes neurodevelopmental disorders in children. In fact, the two highest-quality studies on this subject—one of which was published in JAMA last year—found no significant associations between use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and children's risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability.
↑ Ahlqvist, Viktor H.; Sjöqvist, Hugo; Dalman, Christina (April 9, 2024). "Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Children's Risk of Autism, ADHD, and Intellectual Disability". JAMA. 331 (14): 1205–1214. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.3172. PMC11004836. PMID38592388. Findings In this population-based study, models without sibling controls identified marginally increased risks of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) associated with acetaminophen use during pregnancy. However, analyses of matched full sibling pairs found no evidence of increased risk of autism (hazard ratio, 0.98), ADHD (hazard ratio, 0.98), or intellectual disability (hazard ratio, 1.01) associated with acetaminophen use. (...) Conclusions and Relevance Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children's risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability in sibling control analysis. This suggests that associations observed in other models may have been attributable to familial confounding.
↑ "APA Statement on White House Announcement on Autism". APA. September 22, 2025. Retrieved September 24, 2025. Vaccines do not cause autism. Claims of any such association have been repeatedly discredited in peer reviewed studies. / Autism is a complex disorder, and it is incorrect to imply that a handful of studies have established causation. A strong base of evidence shows that acetaminophen, when taken as directed, is safe for use during pregnancy. / Leucovorin (folinic acid) has not been a recommended treatment for autism. It will require many more years of research before we know if leucovorin is an appropriate treatment for individuals with autism.
↑ Stephanie Soucheray (September 23, 2025). "Experts push back on Trump's tying autism to childhood vaccines, Tylenol". CIDRAP. Retrieved September 24, 2025. The announcements were not based on any new evidence or research on the relationship between Tylenol use and autism or between vaccines and autism and was immediately discredited by scientists, researchers, and professional organizations around the globe.
↑ "WHO statement on autism-related issues". September 24, 2025. Retrieved September 24, 2025. The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence confirming a possible link between autism and use of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) during pregnancy. (...) When immunization schedules are delayed or disrupted, or altered without evidence review, there is a sharp increase in the risk of infection not only for the child, but also for the wider community. Infants too young to be vaccinated and people with weakened immune systems or underlying health conditions are at greatest risk.(...)
↑ "White House: No Single Cause of Autism, Calls for More Research. Today's announcement focusing on acetaminophen presented no new data, creating confusion across medical and consumer communities". CHPA. September 22, 2025. Retrieved September 26, 2025. (...) "The troubling claims made in today's announcement, suggesting that acetaminophen use during pregnancy or infancy can be associated with an increased risk of autism, are misleading, lacking broad support in the scientific community, and risk harming American families and the public," said CHPA President & CEO Scott Melville. (...) "By suggesting links not backed by strong peer-reviewed science, announcements like today's may discourage expectant mothers from consulting with their doctors about treating a fever, a concern made even greater when considering the limited self-treatment options available during pregnancy. The result is to expose both mother and baby to serious, well-documented health risks, including dehydration, infection progression, miscarriage, neural tube defects, congenital heart problems, and preterm birth."
↑ "ASF Statement on White House Announcement on Autism". ASF. September 22, 2025. Retrieved September 25, 2025. Today's announcement distracts from the urgent scientific work needed to understand the true causes of autism and to develop better supports and interventions for autistic people and their families. Autism doesn't have a single cause. It is the result of a complex mix of genetics and environmental factors. We know that genetic factors play the biggest role; hundreds of genes have been linked to autism, and inherited or spontaneous changes in these genes can alter brain development. Environmental factors also matter, especially during pregnancy, such as advanced parental age at conception, prematurity or low birth weight, and exposures that affect brain development, like fever or illness during pregnancy. The best current science shows autism arises from the complex interaction of genetic susceptibility with environmental influences during brain development.
↑ "ASAN Condemns Administration's Rampant Misinformation about Autism, Acetaminophen, and Vaccines; Calls for Respectful, Fact-Based Approach". ASAN. September 23, 2025. Retrieved September 25, 2025. There is no cure-all for autism, but there are measures we can take to empower autistic people to have good lives. Autistic people require self-directed, individualized supports and services informed by our needs. Using cherrypicked, poorly collected, and out-of-date data to justify anything besides that is irresponsible. Using such data to enact sweeping policy change and make new medical recommendations is dangerous. (...) We are horrified by comments that call for "ending" autism, a crude, yet plain, endorsement of eugenics demonstrating a callous lack of understanding of what autism is.
↑ "Tylenol maker says it 'strongly disagrees' with Trump's claims about acetaminophen". PBS. Associated Press. September 22, 2025. Retrieved September 24, 2025. Kenvue said in a statement that "sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism." The company pointed to scientific reviews by multiple government regulators worldwide, including those previously published by the FDA.
1 2 Samuel Lovett (September 23, 2025). "Scientist behind Trump's Tylenol claims was paid $150K to give evidence against drug maker". The Times. Retrieved September 25, 2025. Professor David Mandell, associate director for the Centre for Autism Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Baccarelli's methodology did not provide a "rigorous review of evidence". He added that one of the studies examined by Baccarelli's paper explored the autism-acetaminophen link without providing any measure of autism symptoms. "The statements in the discussion suggesting that the link is strong, rather than somewhat equivocal, combined with the unorthodox methods, raise serious concerns about bias," he told The Times.
↑ Okubo Y, Hayakawa I, Sugitate R, Nariai H (September 2025). "Maternal Acetaminophen Use and Offspring's Neurodevelopmental Outcome: A Nationwide Birth Cohort Study". Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology ppe.70071. doi:10.1111/ppe.70071. PMID40898607.
1 2 3 David Curran (September 24, 2025). Este, Jonathan (ed.). "'Your countries are going to hell': Trump's UN speech explained by an expert". The Conversation. doi:10.64628/AB.4agungxrv. Retrieved September 27, 2025. (...) In between, having been asked to confine his remarks to 15 minutes (like all other speakers), the US president gave the room a lengthy address that lasted 57 minutes. It veered from the many shortcomings of the previous US administrations, to why UN migration policies were ruining the world, to the climate change "con job", to a warning to the assembled leaders that "your countries are going to hell". (...) The US president's disdain for multilateralism and the UN system may mean other members reprioritise their budgets, cutting funding still further. This would further fracture a UN system which is already seriously under pressure.
1 2 3 Gram Slattery, Steve Holland (September 23, 2025). "Trump tells world leaders their countries are 'going to hell' in combative UN speech". Reuters. Reuters. Retrieved September 27, 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump argued for lower levels of global migration and urged a turn away from climate change policies on Tuesday in a combative, wide-ranging speech to the U.N. General Assembly that leveled scathing criticism of world leaders. The 56-minute speech was a rebuke to the world body and a return to form for Trump, who routinely bashed the U.N. during his first term as president. Leaders gave him polite applause when he exited the chamber.
↑ PolitiFact Staff (September 22, 2025). "Fact-checking President Donald Trump's speech to UN General Assembly". PolitiFact. Retrieved September 27, 2025. President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23, 2025, in a broad speech touching on foreign policy, immigration, climate change and more. PolitiFact fact-checked the speech on our live blog, found below. [The live fact-checking touches on over 20 statements by Trump, and 2 by Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, who spoke immediately before Trump.]
↑ Louis Jacobson, Maria Ramirez Uribe (September 23, 2025). "Fact-check: Trump misleads about ending 7 wars, US economy, renewable energy in UN speech". PolitiFact. Retrieved September 27, 2025. [Contents:] Trump misleadingly said he ended 7 wars, obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities / Trump touted efforts to thwart Venezuelan drug trafficking, repeats misleading statement about migrant children / Trump overstates U.S. economic gains on his watch / Trump takes aim at renewable energy, claims cheaper electricity bills / London is not looking to impose Shariah /
1 2 D'Angelo Gore, Robert Farley (September 25, 2025). "Trump Misleads on Climate Change and Renewables at U.N."FactCheck.org. Retrieved September 27, 2025. [Contents:] Wind Farms in China / Global Warming Not a 'Hoax' / Using the Phrase 'Climate Change' / Paris Agreement Funding / Coal Not So 'Clean.'
↑ Melina Walling, Seth Borenstein (September 25, 2025). "Trump called climate change a 'con job' at the United Nations. Here are the facts and context". PBS. Retrieved September 27, 2025. Some countries' leaders are watching rising seas threaten to swallow their homes. Others are watching their citizens die in floods, hurricanes and heat waves, all exacerbated by climate change.< But the world U.S. President Donald Trump described in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday didn't match the one many world leaders in the audience are contending with. Nor did it align with what scientists have long been observing. (...)
↑ John Irish (September 26, 2025). "Trump's UN speech sparks European anxiety over shared global commitments". Reuters. Reuters. Retrieved September 27, 2025. European officials are uneasily digesting U.S. President Donald Trump's speech at the United Nations this week, where he blasted the world body and attacked Europe's immigration policies, energy transition and commitment to climate action.< Unlike his last appearance in 2020, when China dominated his speech, his European allies were the focus of some of his harshest criticism, getting mentioned twice as often as Beijing. (...)
↑ Zachary B. Wolf (September 23, 2025). "Trump's 'your countries are going to hell' speech, annotated". CNN. Retrieved September 27, 2025. In a just-about hourlong address to the UN General Assembly, US President Donald Trump insulted the organization repeatedly.< He mocked the UN headquarters building, questioned the entire purpose of the organization, bragged about his own accomplishments and called the concept of climate change a "con job."< Here are some of the more colorful moments, along with some context.
↑ Kevin Liptak (September 23, 2025). "Trump was once laughed at on the UN stage. Now, world leaders are courting him". CNN. Retrieved September 27, 2025. (...) Instead of laughing in his face, world leaders are now devising ever-more-lavish displays of flattery to enter Trump's good graces. And rather than a novice in a shrine to multilateralism, Trump is now the president who has rocked global arrangements on trade and security, all while hollowing out the post-World War II international system that his predecessors built and worked to uphold. (...)
↑ Donald Judd, Kristen Holmes (July 13, 2025). "Trump defends Bondi amid MAGA fallout over her handling of Epstein investigation". CNN. Retrieved July 17, 2025. Privately, Trump has also doubled down on his support for Bondi. The president called some of the attorney general's most vocal critics over the weekend in an effort to stem the bleeding over the Epstein files, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump's calls included one with conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Saturday to express his support for Bondi. The call came as prominent MAGA supporters repeatedly criticized the attorney general at Kirk's Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, a Florida event aimed at mobilizing young conservatives.
Deepa Shivaram (July 16, 2025). "As Republicans call for transparency into Epstein probe, Trump lashes out". NPR. NPR. Retrieved July 17, 2025. (...) On Wednesday he assailed members of his own party who have been calling for more transparency into the DOJ's investigation of the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, whose death by suicide in prison in 2019 has sparked numerous conspiracy theories. And he, without evidence, claimed the case was a "hoax."
Nikki McCann Ramirez (July 17, 2025). "The White House's Epstein 'Hoax' Explanation Makes Zero Sense. Karoline Leavitt is bashing Democrats for not releasing the Epstein files ... which Trump says Democrats "made up" to make him look bad". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 18, 2025. (...) Trump has already fallen back to absurdist claims that the lingering questions about Epstein's alleged sex trafficking operations and the circumstances surrounding his death are a "hoax" engineered by former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — one his supporters were "stupid" for believing. (...) So the "hoax" is that Democrats didn't release the Epstein files while they were in power? This makes zero sense considering Trump has been saying Democrats "made up" the files in the first place as part of a ploy to make him look bad, a la the Russia investigation. Meanwhile, the Trump's administration is actively attempting to bury the situation and demanding that their supporters simply look the other way.
1 2 Max Zahn (August 1, 2025). "What do Trump's new tariffs mean for the economy? Experts weigh in". ABC News. Retrieved August 3, 2025. U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday in the immediate aftermath of sweeping new tariffs issued by President Donald Trump. A weak jobs report intensified the selloff, as a downward revision of prior estimates indicated a hiring slowdown had begun in May as initial tariffs took hold. [Includes video]
↑ Maria Bartiromo, Stephanie Pomboy, Stephen Moore, Joanie Bily, Joel Shulman, Charles Payne, John Lonski (August 1, 2025). July jobs report comes in lower than expected (Internet video). Fox Business Clips. Event occurs at 01:49 min. Retrieved August 3, 2025.
↑ Nicole Baker, Donald Trump, Zak Hudak, Kelly O'Grady (August 1, 2025). White House reacts to alarming jobs report as Trump's tariffs roll out (Internet video). CBS News. Retrieved August 3, 2025. Analysis of the causes for the weak jobs report. At 02:04 min., Karoline Leavitt's statement: "Inflation has cooled, wages have increased, unemployment is stable, and the private sector is growing. President Trump's America First agenda has ensured new jobs go to American citizens, instead of illegals or foreign-born workers. The tariffs are raking in billions of dollars to make our country wealthy again. Jerome 'Too Late' Powell needs to cut rates so our economy can continue to boom."At 08:45 min., Kelly O'Grady explains that the jobs report may prompt the Federal Reserve to cut rates.
↑ Christopher Rugaber, Josh Boak (August 1, 2025). "Trump removes official overseeing jobs data after dismal employment report". Associated Press. Retrieved August 4, 2025. (...) Trump, in a post on his social media platform, alleged that the figures were manipulated for political reasons and said that Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, should be fired. He provided no evidence for the charge. (...)
↑ Louis Jacobson (August 1, 2025). "Trump's baseless 'manipulated' data claim in firing BLS chief Erika McEntarfer follows long history". PolitiFact. Retrieved August 5, 2025. (...) PolitiFact has fact-checked Trump's complaints about employment reports and accusations that officials have cooked the books against him, such as his August 2024 statement, rated Pants on Fire, that the Harris-Biden administration had been fraudulently manipulating job statistics. Trump's distrust of economic data goes back to his June 2015 campaign debut. (...)
↑ Lori Robertson (August 4, 2025). "No Evidence for Trump's Claims of 'Rigged' or 'Phony' Job Numbers". FactCheck.org. Retrieved August 5, 2025. Hours after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released employment data showing slow job growth for July and prior months, President Donald Trump fired the BLS commissioner, claiming the job numbers were "phony" and that the commissioner had "faked" other job figures to help Democrats. There's no evidence the commissioner, or others at BLS, manipulated the data, and Trump hasn't provided any. The president's timeline on past BLS announcements supposedly attempting to aid Democrats in the 2024 election is also incorrect.
David Goldman (August 4, 2025). "Trump says the Bureau of Labor Statistics orchestrated a 'scam.' Here's how the jobs report really works". CNN. Retrieved August 6, 2025. [Updated August 6, 2025] (...) The July report, issued Friday, included revisions for May and June that were historically large, but they were not unprecedented. (...) Trump has complained about a preliminary annual revision that was issued in August 2024, that showed the US economy had added 818,000 fewer jobs over the past year than previously reported. Trump in a Truth Social post on Friday incorrectly called that revision a "record": A 902,000-job revision in 2009 was larger. And the final 2024 revision, issued in February, showed that the 2024 data was overestimated by 589,000 jobs. The BLS said the difference between the initial and final annual revisions was due to information received in US tax returns. Trump also correctly noted on Friday the BLS revised lower initial jobs totals in August and September 2024 by a combined 112,000 positions before last year's presidential election. But that revision was not out of the ordinary – several revisions were larger earlier in the year and in previous years. And October's jobs numbers, reported just days before the election, constituted the worst month for jobs since the pandemic.
Eva Roytburg (August 5, 2025). "Former Trump advisor criticizes Trump's timing on ousting America's data czar: 'Like firing the referee'". Fortune. Retrieved August 12, 2025. (...) Moore, while disagreeing that the numbers were manipulated, concurred with Trump that the BLS needs a new "Mr. Fix-It" to head the bureau. He said that in his 40 years of working in economic research, he had never seen the jobs numbers become so unreliable. (...) "The procedures the BLS is using are 75 years old," Moore added. "They need to be completely revamped." The pandemic appears to have accelerated the trend of people ignoring pollers' calls. Before 2020, response rates to the Current Employment Statistics surveys—which the BLS uses to compile the monthly jobs report—hovered around 60%. It has since declined to 45%. Days before Trump fired McEntarfer, a bipartisan group of economists—including Nobel Laureate Paul Romer—wrote a letter to Congress asking for funding to modernize the data-collection process.
↑ Josh Boak (August 7, 2025). "Trump defends the US economy with charts after job reports showed warning signs". Associated Press. Retrieved August 12, 2025. (...) Revisions are a standard component of jobs reports and tend to be larger during periods of economic disruption. (...) Moore said that through the first five months of Trump's second term in office that "the average median household income adjusted for inflation and for the average family in America, is already up $1,174." Moore said his numbers are based on unpublished Census Bureau data, which can make them difficult to independently verify.
↑ Jacob Bogage (August 7, 2025). "Trump's Oval Office 'session' on the economy? Charts about Biden". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 12, 2025. (...) Moore and his team at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a nonpartisan advocacy group for conservative economic ideas, had devised a new model to use Census Bureau monthly data surveys to predict future releases of national income data with a 3 percent error rate, Moore told The Washington Post. (...) The charts, five of them, indicated that they showed revisions of Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs data, median household income and net change in household income. The Post was unable to immediately verify the data. The White House and Moore did not immediately share the charts or the underlying figures used to produce them. (...)
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