President Donald Trump made false claims in his speech to a joint session of Congress, touching on various topics such as the Department of Government Efficiency, inflation, and immigration. One claim involved the DOGE initiative led by Elon Musk, where Trump stated that it found hundreds of billions of dollars in waste, a figure lacking corroboration. The DOGE website claimed to have saved an estimated $105 billion for taxpayers but failed to provide evidence for such high figures. Additionally, there were discrepancies in the claimed savings from canceled contracts and grants, casting doubt on DOGE’s public tally accuracy.
Trump also falsely claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency identified government spending of $8 million for making mice transgender, misrepresenting research projects involving hormone therapy for monkeys. Furthermore, his statement about tariffs generating trillions of dollars for the US lacked context, as tariffs are paid by US importers, potentially impacting consumers.
Regarding small-business optimism, Trump mentioned a 41-point gain but failed to clarify that it was specific to one component of the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index. His assertion about terminating the “Green New Scam” was inaccurate, as he referred to policies not passed by Biden. Moreover, Trump’s claims on inflation, illegal border crossings, migrants from mental institutions, and weaponizing the Justice Department were found to be false or misleading, highlighting the importance of fact-checking presidential statements.