Trump State Of The Union claims face sustained factchecks on jobs, gas and crime
The president delivered the longest State of the Union address in history on Tuesday night, lasting more than an hour and 41 minutes, and fact-checkers flagged a string of inflated, misleading or false claims in the speech; the transcript and coverage of the trump state of the union show the gaps between assertions and the underlying data.
Big economic boasts and the 2025 jobs tally
The address included sweeping economic boasts — the president said “we are the hottest country anywhere in the world” and that “we have more jobs, more people working today than ever before in the history of our country. ” Revised data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month shows the US gained just 181, 000 jobs in 2025, and observers note that job gains under the president slowed in 2025 and were far smaller than any other non-pandemic year. PolitiFact described that 181, 000 figure as “well below the 1. 5 million to 2. 5 million typical under both Trump during his first term and former President Joe Biden. ”
Investment claims vs. pledged totals
The president told lawmakers the US had secured $18tn in investments “pouring in from all over the globe. ” A review from last year found the White House was counting pledges — vague amounts promised — rather than actual investments, and the White House website on investments lists total US and Foreign Investments at $9. 7tn.
Fact-checks on crime and the Zarutska case
During the speech the president introduced the mother of Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian woman killed on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina last year, and said the man who stabbed Zarutska was “a hardened criminal set free to kill in America came in through open borders. ” The man arrested and charged with killing Zarutska is DeCarlos Brown Jr, who is not an immigrant. The speech also echoed a broader claim the president has long made that non-citizens are responsible for violent crime; data cited alongside that point shows US-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes and 2. 5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes relative to undocumented immigrants.
Energy claims and rising household bills
The president suggested energy prices are falling, saying, “When they see energy going down to numbers like that, they cannot believe it. ” In contrast, the average household energy bill rose by 6. 7% from 2024 to 2025 in the US. Since the president retook the White House, utility companies have raised or sought to raise rates by at least $92bn, affecting 112 million electric customers and 52 million gas customers, an analysis found. Analysts also estimate attacks on clean energy expansion could push electricity rates up by as much as 18% by 2035. The administration eliminated tax credits for home energy-efficiency upgrades last year and attempted to eliminate the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps 6 million low-income Americans with their energy bills each year; the program survived but was significantly hindered after the administration laid off the program’s entire staff. text ends with the fragment "The cuts and a government sh" — unclear in the provided context.
Politics of the speech and faltering approval ratings
One transcript begins with the line "This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. " The president headed into Tuesday night’s address projecting confidence in his personal power to “Make America Great Again, ” even as coverage noted he was in a precarious position: facing some of his lowest approval ratings ever, plummeting support on immigration, unrelenting pressure from the slow rollout of the Epstein files, a sluggish economy, mounting international tensions and looming midterm elections in which Democrats appear poised to make gains, possibly even retaking control of Congress.
What allies, critics and polls say about strength and vulnerabilities
Allies remain vocally supportive: Paul Dans, former head of Project 2025, said, “This is what ‘America first’ looks like, ” and added, “The last year has been phenomenal. He has done more in one year than most presidents would accomplish in a whole term. ” But political observers warned of vulnerability heading into the 2026 elections. Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant in California, said that a president in year six “is probably past his peak of power. ” Bob Shrum, director of the Dornsife Center for the Political Future at USC, said the president is in “about as weak a position” as any recent president entering a State of the Union and observed, “I don’t think the country sees Trump as the solution to anything at this point. ” Shrum also argued the president is not retreating from unpopular policies on immigration and the economy and quoted, “We have a president who by all traditional standards has been weakened seriously, but who acts as though he had maximum strength, ” and “We have a president who is deeply unpopular, who by every measure should see his party do very poorly in the midterms, but who seems determined to interfere in the midterm elections in any possible way that he can. ”
Poll numbers underline the challenge
A Washington Post-Ipsos poll released Sunday showed 60% of Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance and 39% approve, a level last seen shortly after Jan. 6, 2021. A poll by SSRS released Monday put his job approval at 36%, with a 19-point drop in approval among Latinos in the last year, an 18-point drop among Americans younger than 45, and a 15-point drop to just 26% approval among political independents — the lowest it has been during either of his terms. Shrum said such sharp declines among Latino and independent voters do not bode well for the president or other Republicans on the ballot; the final line of that piece in the provided context ends with "i" — unclear in the provided context.
The transcript and fact checks leave a measurable record: the longest State of the Union — more than an hour and 41 minutes — produced claims that fact-checkers and polls tested against hard numbers, and the broader political contest will move next toward the 2026 midterm cycle that observers named as the looming test.
