Fact-checking Trump’s economy speechpublished at 15:12 GMT
15:12 GMT
Tom Edgington
BBC Verify senior journalist
Image source, Getty Images
President Donald Trump gave a speech yesterday focusing on the US economy and what he sees as his administration’s key achievements over the past 12 months, including claiming that “inflation is defeated”.
That is despite newly-released official figures, external showing prices rose by 2.7% in the 12 months ending December, unchanged from the previous month. While annual inflation is down from 3% when Trump took office last January, it remains above the 2% target set by the Federal Reserve, the US central bank.
He also claimed that former President Joe Biden oversaw “the worst inflation in the history of our country”. Prices did rise significantly during Biden’s first two years in office, peaking at 9.1% in June 2022 shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – which contributed to inflation in other countries.
However, this was not the “worst” on record in the US. This occurred in 1920, when inflation reached 23.7%. It was also higher at points in the 1970s and 1980s.
Trump also boasted that “growth is exploding” and “at all-time high”.
It is true the US economy has picked up, according to the most recent data. In the three months to September 2025, the economy grew at an annual rate of 4.3%, external, up from 3.8% in the second quarter. This followed a contraction of 0.6% in the three months to March.
However, while the latest quarter was better than analysts expected and marked the strongest annualised growth in two years, it was not an all-time high.
Trump also spoke about falling petrol prices during his speech: a claim we looked at yesterday.