President Trump delivered his third State of the Union address Tuesday night, the day before his senate impeachment trial was scheduled to wrap up.
Oil and Gas
Trump: “Thanks to our bold regulatory reduction campaign, the United States has become the number one producer of oil and natural gas, anywhere in the world, by far.”
Facts: Trump is taking credit for a U.S. oil and gas production boom that started under Obama. The U.S. Energy Information administration says the U.S. has been the world’s top natural gas producer since 2009, top petroleum hydrocarbon producer since 2013, and top crude oil producer since 2018.
Drug Prices
Trump: “For the first time in 51 years, the cost of prescription drugs actually went down.”
Facts: Prices for prescription drugs have edged down, but that is driven by declines for generics. Prices for brand-name medications are still going up, although more moderately. The Department of Health and Human Services said the last time retail prescription drug prices declined was in 1973, when they went down by 0.2%.
Healthcare
Trump: “We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions.”
Facts: That’s a promise not a guarantee. Trump and congressional Republicans have vowed they will protect people with pre-existing conditions, but they have not specified how they would do that.
The Economy
Trump: “The years of economic decay are over, in just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline.”
Facts: Obama spearheaded an economic stimulus that’s credited with helping dig the nation out of recession. The economy grew an average 2.2% a year during Obama’s tenure. That’s a bit less than the 2.5% average under Trump. Growth is expected to slip below 2% the next two years.
Trump: “Since my election, we have created seven million new jobs.”
Facts: The president is counting jobs created after he was elected but before he took office. About 6.7 million jobs have been added since his term began in late January 2017. But the Labor Department’s preliminary revision has tentatively lowered that figure by 501,000 to 6.2 million. A final total is scheduled to be released with the January employment report Friday.
Unemployment
Trump: “Incredibly, the average unemployment rate under my administration is lower than any administration in the history of our country.”
Facts: True, but that’s at least partly because unemployment was already low, at 4.7%, when he took office. The rate fell more sharply in the final 35 months under Obama, to 4.7% from 6.7%.
Household Wealth
Trump: “Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners has increased by 47%, three times faster than the increase for the top 1%.”
Facts: He’s correct, but the bottom half still has a tiny portion of household wealth—just 1.6%, up from 1.1% when Trump took office, Federal Reserve figures show.
Wages
Trump: “After decades of flat and falling incomes, wages are rising fast and wonderfully, they are rising fastest for low-income workers, who have seen a 16% pay increase since my election. This is a blue-collar boom.”
Facts: It’s difficult to fact-check this claim since Trump isn’t being specific about what he means by low-income workers pay lagging. Workers in the 10th percentile of income saw an average pay rise of 5.8% last year, compared with a 6.9% gain for workers in the 90th percentile.
Household Income
Trump: “Real median household income is now at the highest level ever recorded.”
Facts: Inflation-adjusted median household income reached $63,476 in 1999, according to Census Bureau figures.
Manufacturing Jobs
Trump: “Companies are not leaving they are coming back.”
Facts: Nearly 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been created under Trump, but employment stagnated last year amid Trump’s trade fight with China and sluggish growth overseas.
Factories
Trump: “After losing 60,000 factories under the previous two administrations America has now gained 12,000 new factories under my administration.”
Facts: Trump is correct about the factory losses. In fact, the U.S. lost a net 90,000 factories from 1998 to 2016, accoridng to Census Bureau figures. But the latest census data shows the U.S. lost 607 factories in 2017, Trump’s first year in office. No public data is available for the last two years.
The President likes to take credit for things that others accomplished or for Trump era accomplishments that are now out of date.
