Let's talk about Factchecking Trump's State of the Union.... - Belle of the Ranch

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about fact-checking Trump's State of the Union.

Trump's speech was exactly what everybody thought it would be. Too long, grievance filled, Grandpa Simpson playing loose with the facts, and so on. Congressional members refused to come. Some were asked to leave. It was generally what you would expect from a President Trump speech, by which I mean anything but presidential. But he did stretch it into a record setting 1 hour and 47 minutes. So, there's that.

We're going to hit the highlights of his claims and provide a fact check. I'll break them down into categories to make it easier.

Let's start with economic claims. Trump said, “Beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly." False. Ground beef hit a new record high of $6.75 per pound last month according to his Bureau of Labor Statistics.

He also said, "We have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time." False. Even according to his BLS after he fired someone after a bad jobs report, the number from January 2025 to January 2026, 44,000 construction jobs. Keep in mind, people he can't fire at the Fed think there was a “upward bias in the jobs numbers.”

Trump said, "Every service member recently received a warrior dividend of $1,776. They put it on my desk. We got the money from tariffs and other things. A lot of money we have." False. The money came from a supplemental housing fund that was appropriated by Congress, not tariffs.

He said, "Last year, I urged this Congress to begin the mission by passing the largest tax cut in American history, and our Republican majority delivered so beautifully." False. It's not the largest tax cut in history, but according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, his tariffs are the largest tax increase in over 30 years.

His election claims. We'll skip over the obvious ones. When talking about the SAVE Act, he said, "No more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military, or travel." False. The SAVE Act makes voting harder for a lot of Americans, but it doesn't stop mail-in voting. He's asking you to support a bill and he doesn't even know what it does.

He said, "Cheating is rampant in our elections. It's rampant." False. Even the Heritage Foundation of Project 2025 fame only found about 40 cases of voter fraud in Pennsylvania out of a 100 million ballots. Nevada's numbers show it to be literally one in a million.

Moving on to foreign policy. “I ended eight wars.” False. I've got fact checks on this. Of all the things that didn't happen, this didn't happen the most. However, the laughter that erupted from the audience when he said this seemed to be genuine.

He said, "I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe." False. This number is nowhere to be found, even on the White House website.

Some random ones. Trump said, "We have almost no crime anymore in Washington, DC." False. There's been a homicide every six days since New Year's. On the less severe side, there's more than five cars stolen per day.

He also said, "We have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record, off of food stamps." False and insulting. He didn't lift people out of poverty. But this number is real. According to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, 2.4 million people will lose eligibility. It's happening because of that attack on the working class he called the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Here's one that's true, but definitely needs some context. He bragged about an all-time stock market high. What about the Dow? Yeah, that's true. of pretty much every president in the last 50 years. Talk about a participation trophy. Want a cookie?

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.