\n Inflation hasn\u2019t \u201cstopped.\u201d Consumer prices are up during this presidential term, not \u201cdown.\u201d Grocery prices are rising, not starting to fall \u201crapidly.\u201d US businesses and consumers, not China, pay US tariffs on Chinese imports. It\u2019s impossible to reduce prescription drug prices by \u201cthousands\u201d of percentage points, since this would mean Americans would be getting paid to acquire their medicines.\n <\/p>\n
\n President Donald Trump made numerous false claims about inflation in a Tuesday speech to the Detroit Economic Club. He also delivered a bunch of falsehoods about broader economic subjects and about a variety of other issues he abandoned his teleprompter to discuss, including elections and immigration.\n <\/p>\n
\n Here is a fact check of some of his remarks.\n <\/p>\n
Economy, \u202fprices \u202fand taxes<\/p>\n
\n The state of inflation: Trump falsely claimed, \u201cInflation is stopped.\u201d Inflation very much continues.\u202fThe new Consumer Price Index report,\u202freleased the morning of Trump\u2019s speech,\u202fshowed<\/a>\u202fthat average consumer prices were 2.7% higher in December than they were a year prior and 0.3% higher than they were in November. (At another moment in the speech, Trump made a vaguer claim that there is now \u201calmost no inflation.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n \n Prices under Trump: In his conclusion to the speech, Trump falsely claimed, \u201cPrices are down.\u201d Earlier, he scoffed at Democrats who say the midterms would be about affordability, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s\u202fan election about\u202fhigh prices, that was caused by the Democrats, and\u202fthat I brought down a lot.\u201d While it\u2019s fair for Trump to point out there was high inflation under Biden\u2019s Democratic administration \u2013 though economists debate how much was caused by Democrats\u2019 policies \u2013 overall consumer prices are up, not down, during Trump\u2019s second presidency. As of December, average consumer prices were about 2.2% higher<\/a>, on a seasonally adjusted basis, than they were in January 2025, the month Trump returned to office. Some products got cheaper during that period, but far more products got more expensive.\n <\/p>\n \n Grocery prices: Trump falsely claimed, \u201cGrocery\u202fprices are starting to go rapidly down.\u201d The new\u202fConsumer Price Index inflation report<\/a>\u202freleased earlier on Tuesday showed grocery prices spiked from November to December at the fastest month-to-month rate, 0.7%,\u202fin more than three years<\/a>; they were 2.4% higher in December than they were a year prior. It\u2019s possible that these figures were affected by how the fall government shutdown affected the government\u2019s data collection efforts, but regardless, there is no basis for Trump\u2019s claim that overall grocery prices are beginning to fall quickly. (Trump repeatedly made<\/a> such claims in 2025 even as data repeatedly showed grocery prices continued to rise.)\n <\/p>\n \n Prescription drug prices: Trump repeated his false claim that prescription drug prices are \u201cgoing to be coming down thousands of percents\u201d because of his \u201cMost Favored Nation<\/a>\u201d policy, adding, \u201cWe\u2019re standing up to special interests and slashing prescription drug prices by 300, 400, 500 and even 600%, and more.\u201d\u202fThese claims are debunked by\u202fmath itself<\/a>; if the president magically got drug companies to reduce the prices of\u202fall of\u202ftheir drugs to $0, that would be a 100% cut, while a decline of more than 100 percentage points would mean that Americans would\u202fget paid\u202fto acquire their medications, which is not happening. You can read a longer fact check\u202fhere<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Biden and inflation:\u202fTrump repeated his false claims that the Biden administration had \u201cthe worst inflation in the history of our country\u201d and that \u201cwe inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country\u201d \u2013 then, in an unusual acknowledgment of fact checks, noted that the media has corrected this claim and \u201cwould say 49 years.\u201d The \u201c49 years\u201d figure is closer to the truth, but even that is an exaggeration. The year-over-year US\u202finflation rate<\/a>\u202fhit about a 40-year high during the Biden administration in June 2022, when it was 9.1%. That was not close to the all-time\u202frecord\u202f<\/a>of\u202f23.7%, set in 1920<\/a>\u202f\u2013 and it occurred more than two years before Trump returned. Inflation had plummeted before Trump returned to office in January 2025, when it\u202fwas 3.0%<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Investment in the US: Trump repeated his regular false claim that \u201cwe\u2019ve got\u202f$18 trillion\u202fbeing invested in our country,\u201d boasting at another point in the speech that he had\u202fsupposedly secured\u202fthese investments in less than a year back in office. The\u202f$18 trillion\u202ffigure is fiction. At the time Trump spoke, the White House\u2019s\u202fown website<\/a>\u202fsaid the figure for \u201cmajor investment announcements\u201d during this Trump term was \u201c$9.6 trillion,\u201d\u202fand even that is a major exaggeration; a\u202fdetailed CNN review<\/a>\u202fin October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges, pledges that were about \u201cbilateral trade\u201d or \u201ceconomic exchange\u201d rather than investment in the US, and vague statements that didn\u2019t even rise to the level of pledges.\n <\/p>\n \n Economic growth: Trump falsely claimed, \u201cWe have the highest growth we have ever had.\u201d The economy did post robust growth in the third quarter of 2025, the most recent period for which the data is available \u2013 gross domestic product increased<\/a>\u202fby an inflation-adjusted annualized rate of 4.3% \u2013 but that was the fastest rate since 2023, not close to the fastest of all time. The economy grew much faster in the third quarter of 2020<\/a>\u202fand in 2021<\/a>, for example, as it emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic. Aside from the pandemic era, there was much faster growth than there was in 2025 on various <\/a>previous occasions<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Gas prices:\u202fTrump claimed that gas prices are \u201cunder $2 in many places,\u201d saying, \u201cWe have some states, it is $1.95, $1.99, $1.97.\u201d This needs context. On Tuesday, there was no state with an average gas price below $2 per gallon; the lowest average in any state was about\u202f$2.23 per gallon, in Oklahoma<\/a>. There were some individual gas stations below $2 per gallon, but a tiny percentage of the total. The firm GasBuddy told CNN that it found about 464 stations across the country below $2 on Tuesday (aside from\u202fspecial discounts), about 0.3% of the\u202froughly 150,000 stations\u202fthe firm tracks.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump could fairly say gas prices have fallen during this presidency, declining from a national average of $3.08 per gallon on his inauguration day in January 2025 to a national average of $2.82 per gallon on Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n \n Who pays tariffs: Talking about how he believes his tariff policy is succeeding, Trump falsely claimed, \u201cChina\u202fis one of our\u202fbiggest\u202ftaxpayers\u202fright now.\u202fChina, would you ever believe you would hear that?\u201d\u202fTariff payments on products imported from China are made by US importers, not China itself, and importers often pass on some or all of the added costs to the final consumer.\n <\/p>\n \n Taxes on Social Security: Trump repeated his inaccurate claim that he had achieved \u201cno tax on Social Security\u202ffor our seniors.\u201d The big domestic policy bill Trump signed in 2025 did create an additional, temporary $6,000-per-year tax deduction for individuals age 65 and older (with a smaller deduction for individuals earning $75,000 per year or more), but the White House itself has implicitly acknowledged<\/a>\u202fthat millions of\u202fSocial Security\u202frecipients age 65 and older will continue to pay taxes on their benefits \u2013\u202fand that new deduction, which expires in 2028, doesn\u2019t even apply to the Social Security recipients who are younger than 65<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Fraud and the federal budget: Trump baselessly claimed that eliminating fraud in federal programs would balance the federal budget, saying, \u201cIf we stop this fraud, this massive fraud, we\u2019re going to have a balanced budget.\u201d The annual budget deficit far exceeds the estimated amount of money the federal government loses to fraud each year \u2013 an estimate Trump cited earlier in the Tuesday speech.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump correctly said that the government loses about half a trillion dollars to fraud. That\u2019s the high side of a first-of-its-kind\u202festimate<\/a>\u202fthe federal Government Accountability Office released in 2024, which found that $233 billion to $521 billion is lost to fraud annually. But the federal budget deficit came in at\u202fjust under $1.8 trillion<\/a>\u202ffor the most recent fiscal year, which ended in September, \u202faccording to the Treasury Department \u2013 more than triple the estimated fraud total.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump and Michigan: Trump claimed, \u201cWe did good in Michigan,\u201d then falsely added, \u201cWe won the whole thing in Michigan, didn\u2019t we, huh? Three times we won. You know that, right? They\u202fdidn\u2019t\u202fgive us credit the second time, but we won the second time.\u201d Trump won Michigan in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections but lost to Joe Biden,\u202ffair and square, in the 2020 election \u2013 by 154,188 votes, about 2.8 percentage points. There is no basis for Trump\u2019s suggestions that the 2020 result was fraudulent; in 2021, an investigation led by Republican state senators\u202fin Michigan\u202ffound<\/a>\u202fthere was \u201cno evidence of widespread or systematic fraud\u201d in Michigan\u2019s 2020 election.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump and the popular vote: Trump falsely claimed, \u201cI\u202fwon the popular\u202fall three times too,\u201d adding, \u201cBut\u202fwe\u2019re\u202fnot gonna\u202fget into that.\u201d Trump\u202fwon the US popular vote in the 2024 election<\/a>\u202fbut lost it in the two\u202fprevious\u202felections \u2013\u202fby roughly 2.9 million votes<\/a>\u202fin the 2016 election and by\u202froughly 7.1 million votes<\/a>\u202fin the 2020 election.\n <\/p>\n Immigration and foreign affairs<\/p>\n \n Migration under Biden: Trump criticized former Biden for \u201cletting in 25 million people\u201d as migrants. The \u201c25 million\u201d figure is false; even Trump\u2019s\u202fprevious\u202f\u201c21 million\u201d\u202ffigure was a\u202fwild exaggeration<\/a>. Through December\u202f2024, the last full month under the Biden administration, the federal government had\u202frecorded<\/a>\u202funder 11 million nationwide \u201cencounters\u201d with migrants during that administration, including millions who were rapidly expelled from the country. Even adding in the so-called\u202fgotaways\u202fwho evaded detection,\u202festimated<\/a>\u202fby House Republicans as being\u202froughly 2.2\u202fmillion,\u202fthere\u2019s\u202fno way the total was even close to what Trump has said.\n <\/p>\n \n Migration and murder: Trump also repeated a claim that Biden allowed in \u201c11,888\u201d murderers as migrants. He was inaccurately describing federal data.\n <\/p>\n \n The Department of Homeland Security and independent experts have previously noted<\/a> the figure it appears Trump was referring to when he uses the \u201c11,888\u201d number is about non-citizens who entered the US not just under Biden but over the course of multiple decades, including during Trump\u2019s own first administration; were convicted of homicide at some point, usually in the US after their arrival; and are still in the country while being listed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s \u201cnon-detained docket.\u201d The figure \u2013 which was around 13,000 when ICE released it last year \u2013 includes people who are currently serving their prison sentences, not roaming free as Trump has also claimed. And it includes people who entered the country legally as well as people who entered illegally. You can read more\u202fhere<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Venezuela, migration and prisons: Trump repeated a claim that is a staple of his public remarks but that he has never proven: \u201cOne of the reasons I was so angry at\u202fVenezuela, they\u202femptied their prisons\u202falmost entirely\u202finto the United States\u202fof America.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n There\u202fwas\u202flarge-scale emigration<\/a>\u202ffrom\u202fVenezuela\u202famid economic problems,\u202fviolence\u202fand political turmoil during the Maduro era.\u202fBut despite multiple requests for comment from CNN and other outlets, Trump and his aides have not proven that Venezuela emptied its prisons (or mental health facilities, as Trump has also claimed) to somehow send undesirable citizens into the US.\n <\/p>\n \n Roberto\u202fBrice\u00f1o-Le\u00f3n, founder and director of the\u202fVenezuelan Observatory of Violence<\/a>, an independent organization that tracks violence, said in an email to CNN in June\u202f2024: \u201cWe have no evidence that the\u202fVenezuelan government is emptying its prisons or mental health institutions to send them outside the country, in other words, to the U.S. or any other country.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Helen Fair<\/a>, an expert on global prisons at Birkbeck, University of London, told CNN in 2024 that she had \u201cseen absolutely no evidence\u201d that any country had emptied prisons to send prisoners to the US, let alone that numerous countries had done so as Trump has claimed.\n <\/p>\n \n Panama Canal construction deaths: Chastising former President Jimmy Carter for handing control of the Panama Canal to Panama, Trump said, \u201cEven though we lost\u202f36,000\u202fpeople\u202fto the mosquito, you know that, right? To the mosquito and a certain snake, which was not\u202fa very nice\u202freptile.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The US\u202fdidn\u2019t\u202flose even close to\u202f36,000 people\u202fbuilding the canal. While the century-old records are imprecise,\u202fthey show<\/a>\u202fabout 5,600 people died<\/a>\u202fduring the canal\u2019s American construction phase between 1903 and 1914 \u2013 and \u201cof those, the vast majority were Afro-Caribbeans,\u201d such as\u202fworkers from Barbados and Jamaica<\/a>,\u202fJulie Greene<\/a>, a history professor at the University of Maryland and author of the book \u201cThe Canal Builders: Making America\u2019s Empire at the Panama Canal,\u201d told CNN after\u202fTrump made such claims in 2025.\n <\/p>\n \n The late historian David McCullough, author of another book on the building of the canal,\u202ffound<\/a>\u202fthat \u201cthe number of white Americans who died was about 350.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Thousands of\u202fadditional\u202fworkers,\u202fperhaps around 22,000<\/a>, died during the French construction phase that preceded the American phase. But Trump has\u202fexplicitly<\/a>\u202fsaid<\/a>\u202fon\u202fprevious\u202foccasions that he is talking about US\u202fdeaths in particular, and\u202fhe used the phrase \u201cwe\u201d this time.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump and wars: Trump repeated a familiar false claim about his role in foreign affairs: \u201cI ended eight wars.\u201d While Trump has played a role in resolving some conflicts (at least temporarily), the \u201ceight\u201d figure is a\u202fclear exaggeration<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump has\u202fpreviously\u202fexplained<\/a>\u202fthat his list of\u202fsupposed wars\u202fsettled includes a war between\u202fEgypt\u202fand Ethiopia, but that\u202fwasn\u2019t\u202factually a\u202fwar; it is a long-running diplomatic dispute about a\u202fmajor Ethiopian dam project<\/a>\u202fon a tributary of the Nile River. Trump\u2019s list includes\u202fanother supposed war that didn\u2019t actually occur<\/a>\u202fduring his presidency, between Serbia and Kosovo. (He has sometimes\u202fclaimed<\/a>\u202fto have prevented the eruption of a new war between those two entities, providing few details about what he meant, but that is different than settling an actual war.) And his list includes a\u202fsupposed success\u202fin ending a war involving the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, but that war\u202fhas continued<\/a>\u202fdespite a peace agreement brokered by the Trump administration this year \u2013 which was never signed by the leading rebel coalition doing the fighting.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s list also includes an armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, where fighting\u202ferupted again<\/a>\u202fin December despite a peace agreement brokered by the Trump administration\u202fearlier in the year<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n