FactChecking Trump’s ‘Fact Check’ of the State of the Union

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Former President Donald Trump promised to provide a live “play by play” via Truth Social to “correct, in rapid response, any and all inaccurate Statements” made by President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address. But we found many of Trump’s alleged corrections were … factually incorrect.

• Under Biden, Trump claimed, “Migrant Violence is leading to the Worst Crime Wave in History!” But homicides and violent crime in general have been trending down the last two years and are nowhere near historic levels.

• Trump alleged that Biden “wants to take away everyone’s gun.” Biden has called for a ban on so-called assault-style weapons and large-capacity magazines, but he proposed a voluntary buyback for those already legally owned. He has never proposed banning or confiscating all guns.

• Trump said the bipartisan border security bill that failed in the Senate would have “let at least 5,000 Migrants in a day.” That’s not accurate.

• Trump claimed that he “got the NATO Nations to pay up,” and that before he got involved, “NATO was BROKE.” NATO was not “broke” and countries don’t owe money to anyone else if they spend less on defense than other member countries.

• Trump claimed that he “took away Nord Stream 2” — the Russian pipeline that would double the export of Russian natural gas to Germany — from Russia and Biden “gave it to them.” Neither of those statements is true.

• The former president said that “Biden’s All Electric Car Mandate is a disaster for our Country.” But there is no such mandate.

• He claimed that the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters “had no guns” on them. At least five people were charged with or sentenced for carrying a gun on Capitol grounds.

• Trump claimed that “Republicans have no plan to cut Social Security,” but some Republicans have proposed raising the retirement age for some future beneficiaries. That would reduce scheduled benefits for those affected.

• Trump claimed, “We are stronger on IVF than the Democrats!” Most Republicans have said they support in vitro fertilization, or IVF, but some want to leave the issue to the states and have rejected consideration of a federal law to protect access to IVF.

For our article on Biden’s speech, see “FactChecking Biden’s State of the Union.”

‘Migrant Violence’

When Biden referred to the country’s falling violent on Truth Social, “He’s talking about Violence, but Migrant Violence is leading to the Worst Crime Wave in History!”