United States President Donald Trump has made a range of claims about the state of the US economy.
In a long and meandering address to the media on Tuesday, the first year anniversary of his second term as president, Trump’s claims ranged from there being “no inflation” in the US to drug prices being slashed by as much as 600 percent. Most claims were factually inaccurate.
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Al Jazeera examined some of his statements on the economy:
Core inflation has been at 1.6 percent for the past three months, and there is “no inflation”.
Both claims are false. Core inflation in November and December stood at 2.6 percent year over year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
A core consumer price index (CPI) report was not released for the month before due to the federal government shutdown, the longest in US history.
Overall, inflation rose by 2.7 percent compared with the same period last year.
Drug prices under Trump’s “most favored nation” programme are down by “300, 400, 500, 600 percent”.
This is incorrect. While the programme is intended to lower drug prices, reductions beyond 100 percent are mathematically impossible.
A 100 percent price reduction would mean a product is free. Anything beyond that would require pharmaceutical companies to pay consumers to take their products.
Pending Supreme Court ruling on tariffs:
Trump addressed a pending Supreme Court case that will rule on the legality of his use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs. He claimed the US would have to return money if the court rules against his administration.
This is partially accurate but unclear. If the court rules against the administration, the US would need to refund some of the money importers paid in tariffs. In September, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said the government could be required to refund roughly half of the tariffs it collected.
The White House’s economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, has said the administration is exploring alternative legal avenues to impose tariffs if the court blocks the current plan.
Former President Joe Biden “did not do tariffs”.
This is false. Biden imposed multiple tariffs during his administration. In 2022, he imposed 35 percent tariffs on Russian imports as part of sanctions following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In 2024, Biden raised tariffs on Canadian lumber to 14.5 percent from 8.5 percent, continuing a Trump-era policy.
That year, he also imposed tariffs on China, including 100 percent on electric vehicles, 25 percent on steel and aluminium, and 50 percent on semiconductor chips.
Trump administration removed more than 270,000 bureaucrats from the federal government, but they are going to the private sector.
The federal government has cut 277,000 jobs since January 2025, according to the BLS. But data shows limited growth in the private sector, especially in tariff-exposed industries.
In the most recent jobs report, the US economy added 50,000 jobs. The biggest gains were in food service, which added 27,000 jobs, and healthcare, which added 34,000 jobs.
The US economy added 584,000 jobs in 2025. This is significantly lower than the two million created the year before, under Biden.
Gas prices are at $1.99 per gallon in some states
This is inaccurate. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks gas prices, the average price for a gallon of gas is $2.82. The cheapest gas prices are in the state of Oklahoma, at $2.31.
More car factories are being built in the US now than ever before.
Oxford Economics tracks private construction spending on transportation equipment factories. In 2025, nominal spending on manufacturing structures related to transportation equipment was down from its peak in 2024, it said.
Trump has been making claims like this for close to a year. Auto industry experts have long said they are exaggerated, because while companies, including Hyundai and Stellantis, have increased investments in US manufacturing, these are additions to existing plants.
Oxford Economics, which tracks private construction on transportation equipment, found that “nominal spending” in 2025 was trending downwards after hitting a peak during the final year of the Biden administration. It peaked at $16.6bn annualised in April 2024 and is now at $14.4bn annualised, Bernard Yaros, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, told Al Jazeera.
