The president has repeatedly made false or misleading claims in pursuing an aggressive agenda in the first weeks of his second term.
President Trump will address Congress on Tuesday night to sell his vision for his second administration, as he remakes American government and tests the limits of executive power.
The speech comes after a blitz of executive actions seeking to purge a federal bureaucracy he views as disloyal and otherwise reshape domestic and foreign policy. In pursuing his agenda, Mr. Trump has repeatedly made false statements and claims lacking evidence, including that Ukraine started the war with Russia and that diversity programs at the Federal Aviation Administration led to a plane crash this year.
The president’s address is expected to touch on the major cuts that he and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have ordered for federal programs and the government’s work force. He is also expected to trumpet his immigration crackdown and his moves to impose steep tariffs in an effort to bolster domestic manufacturing.
Mr. Trump’s remarks on these issues over the past few weeks offer a preview of possible talking points. Here’s a fact-check:
What Was Said
“We were richest — the richest, relatively — from, think of this, from 1870 to 1913. That was our richest because we collected tariffs from foreign countries that came in and took our jobs and took our money, took our everything, but they charged tariffs.”
— at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 22
False. Mr. Trump is wrong that the United States was richest during the Gilded Age, and he is overstating the impact of tariffs. He is also wrong that the country grew less prosperous in 1913, when a permanent federal income tax was introduced.
A White House spokeswoman noted that wages and the economy grew rapidly during the Gilded Age, but did not provide evidence of unparalleled prosperity in that era. The United States is far richer now than it was during that time, even when accounting for inflation. From 1870 to 1913, the country’s gross domestic product grew to nearly $1 trillion from about $190 billion, and to $10,000 from $4,800 per capita. Those figures have continued to rise precipitously, reaching nearly $20 trillion and more than $58,000 per capita in 2022.