President Trump delivered an address to a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol Tuesday night, six weeks into his second term. Since his inauguration, he has worked briskly to try to radically reshape the government and signed dozens of executive orders, many upending policies created by former President Biden. Trump is took stock of what he’s done so far and laid out his vision for the economy, immigration and foreign affairs.

Reporters from across NPR’s newsroom fact-checked the address and offered context as the speech unfolded.

By topic: Immigration | Inflation | Energy | Culture | Spending and tax cuts | Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) | Trade and tariffs |Climate | Foreign policy

Immigration

Unlawful border crossings

TRUMP: “Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the U.S. military and border patrol to repel the invasion of our country, and what a job they’ve done. As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded ever. They heard my words and they chose not to come.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had about 30,000 encounters with migrants attempting to cross the U.S. borders illegally in January, the agency reported. The agency has not reported the numbers for February. numbers for February, however Reuters reported last week the administration is on track to report about 8,500 arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border in the month of February. This could be the lowest number of crossings since Homeland Security started reporting the data in 2000.

CBP has been recording apprehensions since 1925. In 1935, there were only 11,000 apprehensions nationwide for the full year. During President Biden’s administration, unlawful crossings nationwide hit an all-time high in 2022 — CBP reported more than 2.2 million encounters. However, Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, saw about 48,000 encounters.

— Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Immigration Correspondent

Deportations

“I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our Homeland, and complete the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than current record holder Dwight D. Eisenhower—a moderate man but someone who believed very strongly in borders.

In his remarks, Trump referenced 1954’s “Operation Wetback,” — a racist term used to refer to migrants who crossed the Rio Grande River. Government estimates of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s effort showed more than a million Mexican immigrants and some U.S. citizens were rounded up.

Since then, other presidents have carried out large deportation actions throughout their terms. Former President Barack Obama‘s administration, for example, deported over 3 million people. But Trump’s second administration’s own efforts face long-standing logistical and capacity challenges.

– Ximena Bustillo, DHS and Immigration Policy Reporter

Biden allowing migrants into the U.S.

TRUMP: “In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members and people from mental institutions and insane asylums were released into our country. Who would want to do that?”

The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that from 2021 to 2024, the Biden administration allowed more than 5.8 million immigrants into the U.S. They were temporarily allowed into the country through multiple parole and sponsorship programs, many of which have been dramatically curbed or ended by the Trump administration. Migrants who participated in these programs were vetted before being allowed into the country.

— Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Immigration Correspondent

Immigrants and the workforce

TRUMP: “Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody has ever seen before.”

Increased immigration — both legal and illegal — has helped to grow the labor force in recent years. It has allowed employers to keep adding jobs at a rapid clip without putting much upward pressure on prices, even as millions of baby boomers are retiring. From January 2024 to January 2025, for example, the foreign-born workforce grew by 2.1 million people while the larger native-born workforce added just 1.3 million.

Immigration has slowed considerably in recent months, however. Foreign-born workers do not appear to be displacing the native-born workforce. The share of working-age men who were in the workforce in January was 89.4% — higher than all but one month during the first Trump administration. The share of working-age women who were in the workforce hit a record high of 78.4% last summer and has fallen only slightly since.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

“Gold card”

“We have developed in great detail what we are calling the gold card, which goes on sale very, very soon for $5 million it will allow the most successful job creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship.”

Trump recently announced plans to create a so-called “gold card,” which he said will allow “very high-level people” to apply to become a lawful permanent resident. His administration has pitched this as a replacement to the current EB-5 immigrant investor visa.

But the president can’t solely create a new visa. That power lies with Congress. And significantly changing the EB-5 visa program would also require congressional action.

So far, a formal proposal has not been issued by the Trump administration so it is unclear how he might modify the existing visa or lobby Congress to create a new one.

– Ximena Bustillo, DHS and Immigration policy reporter

Trump highlights his first law

TRUMP: “That’s why the very first bill I signed into law as 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public Safety, very strong, powerful act.”

The Laken Riley Act, which was signed into law by President Trump in January, expands the scope of those who can be arrested, detained and deported by federal immigration officers.

The measure directs federal immigration enforcement to detain and deport those without legal status charged with minor theft or shoplifting, assault of a law enforcement officer or crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury of another person.

Several criminal offenses could already be grounds for deportation and supporters of immigration point to research that shows immigrants commit fewer crimes than those born in the U.S.

The legislation passed with bipartisan support from Democrats. Still, questions remain over the ability for federal law enforcement to fully implement the measure due to limited detention resources.

– Ximena Bustillo, DHS and Immigration policy reporter

Inflation

Price of eggs

TRUMP: “Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control – the egg prices out of control — and we are working hard to get it back down.”

Overall, grocery prices have begun to level off, rising less than 2% between January 2024 and January 2025. But many people still experience supermarket sticker shock. Eggs have been a particular sore spot lately, with prices jumping 53% over the last year. That’s largely due to the ongoing challenge of avian flu, which has forced egg farmers to slaughter tens of millions of egg-laying chickens. The shortfall in egg supply has been compounded by panic buying — similar to what happened with toilet paper in 2020 — leading some stores to limit egg purchases. Last week, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a $1 billion effort to combat avian flu, including $500 million for new sanitary precautions at egg farms. The USDA is also exploring vaccination for laying hens and increasing the supply of imported eggs.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Inflation under Biden

TRUMP: “Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief working families, as you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans. They’ve never had anything like it. Suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even the history of our country. They’re not sure, as President, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again.”

Inflation soared to 9.1% in 2022 — the highest rate in 40 years, not 48 — in the wake of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Robust government spending likely added to the price hikes in the U.S., putting more money in people’s pockets. Demand surged, outpacing tangled supply chains. But high inflation was a worldwide problem, even in countries where governments didn’t spend so heavily.

While inflation has since eased, settling at 3% in January, prices are still climbing faster than most people would like.

While high prices are a source of frustration for many Americans, the average worker has more buying power today than she did before the pandemic. Since February 2020, just before the pandemic took hold in the U.S., consumer prices have risen 22.8% while average wages have risen 25.8%. Wages have been climbing faster than prices for the better part of two years.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Energy

Energy production

TRUMP: “The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95%, slowed pipeline construction to a halt, and closed more than 100 power plants. We are opening up many of those power plants right now. And frankly we have never seen anything like it.”

President Trump has promised to boost fossil fuel production, but the U.S. is already producing record amounts of oil and natural gas. Even though lease auctions and pipeline construction slowed during the Biden administration, crude oil production in 2023 reached 12.9 million barrels a day, eclipsing the previous record set in 2019. 2023 was also a record year for domestic production of natural gas. Much of the domestic boom in oil and gas production is the result of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” techniques.

Recent years have also seen rapid growth in solar and wind power, while coal has continued to decline as a source of electricity.

Trump is hostile to wind energy production. On his first day back in the White House, he signed an executive order temporarily blocking federal leases for offshore wind farms and halting permits for wind projects on land and offshore.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Culture

Defining two genders, male and female

TRUMP: “I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

While DNA does indeed encode for two sexes, the way genes express themselves can create individuals who have atypical sexual development, including, in some cases, features of both sexes, such as both ovarian and testicular tissue. These individuals have conditions known as differences in sex development (also called intersex).

Individuals may identify with a gender that differs from their biological sex assigned at birth — and actions taken by the administration have sought to curb the rights of transgender people in the U.S. People who identify as transgender and nonbinary see this executive order as a form of discrimination that erases their identity on official documents.

— Maria Godoy, Health Correspondent

Gender-affirming care for youth

TRUMP: “And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning, criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie, and our message to every child in America is that you are perfect, exactly the way God made you.”

Research shows that legal efforts that aim to curb the rights of transgender youth are associated with serious negative mental health outcomes. A 2024 study in the journal Nature Human Behavior found that states that passed laws against gender-affirming care and other laws aimed at trans minors saw suicide attempts by transgender and gender nonconforming teenagers increase by as much as 72% in subsequent years.

— Maria Godoy, Health Correspondent

Ending school indoctrination

TRUMP: “I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.”

Earlier in his speech, Trump also mentioned getting critical race theory out of schools. While Trump signed an executive action in late January “ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling,” the federal government, including the U.S. Department of Education, has little control over what is taught in local schools. The Every Student Succeeds Act, passed by Congress in 2015, expressly forbids federal interference in things like curriculum and teaching materials.

— Cory Turner, Education Correspondent

Poll numbers

TRUMP: “Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction. In fact, it’s an astonishing record 27-point swing since Election Day alone.”

More people have said the country has been headed in the wrong direction than the right one for a long time. In an average of the polls compiled by RealClearPolitics it’s been that way every month since June 2009 after former President Obama was sworn in.

And despite improvements in those views since Trump won the election, mostly due to Republican enthusiasm, more people continue to say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

The latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds 54% think the country is headed in the wrong direction, while 45% said it’s headed in the right direction. That is a significant improvement from December when 64% thought the country was headed in the wrong direction, again, largely due to Republicans.

RCP has the average at 51% wrong direction, 43% right direction. It’s an improvement, but not net-positive.

— Domenico Montanaro, Senior Political Editor/Correspondent

Spending and tax cuts

Trump nods to Congress’ role in extending his tax cuts

TRUMP: “The next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts.”

The president is referring to plans to extend tax cuts that were enacted during his first administration. To achieve this, congressional Republicans plan to use a budget tool called reconciliation, which would allow them to pass major legislative items by a simple majority, relying entirely on GOP votes and avoiding the threat of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.

Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, the Senate and the House haven’t yet gotten on the same page in terms of how best to implement President Trump’s agenda.

They have passed competing budget resolutions, which act as the first step in the reconciliation process. The Senate wants to split up some legislative priorities into two bills — tackling getting more resources to the southern border and boosting military spending first, and then dealing with the tax cut element later this year.

The House, concerned that getting its often-fractious conference — which has just a razor thin majority — on board with two bills is difficult, wants to address all the priorities in one large bill.

Reconciliation is only possible if both chambers ultimately get on board with the same plan.

— Barbara Sprunt, Congressional correspondent 

Trump asks Congress to send him funding bill to sign

TRUMP: “I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than current record holder, President Dwight D Eisenhower, a moderate man, but someone who believed very strongly in borders. Americans expect Congress to send me funding without delay so I can sign it into law.”

Trump has met on several occasions with congressional Republicans from both chambers to discuss the legislative path forward to implementing his agenda.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told GOP senators in advance of the chamber passing a budget roadmap that $175 billion to secure the southern border would be enough money to implement Trump’s border agenda for four years.

The House and Senate have not yet gotten on the same page as to how to move forward.

— Barbara Sprunt, Congressional Correspondent 

No tax on tips 

TRUMP: “We’re seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors.”

While popular with many workers in tip-heavy industries like casinos, a big constituency in the swing state of Nevada, the idea has some drawbacks. Unless the lost tax revenue were replaced somehow, it would create an even bigger budget deficit. It would treat one class of workers, tipped employees, differently from all other workers. And it would invite gamesmanship as other workers try to have part of their own income reclassified as tax-free tips. Depending on how the exemption was structured, it could also result in lower retirement benefits for tipped workers.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Balanced budget

TRUMP: “I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget. We’re going to balance.”

The federal debt has grown substantially in the last eight years, under both President Trump’s first term and former President Biden’s tenure Biden. While the pandemic accounts for much of that red ink, both presidents oversaw large deficits, including periods before and after the pandemic when the economy was in good shape. Mounting debt, coupled with high interest rates, means that debt service has now become one of the government’s biggest annual expenses. In the most recent fiscal year, the government paid $881 billion in interest — more than it spent on Medicare or national defense .

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Social Security fraud

TRUMP: “We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program that our seniors and that our seniors, people that we love rely on, believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members, people aged 100 to 109 years old.”

Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have both claimed, without evidence, that there is rampant fraud in the Social Security system. In his remarks, Trump asserted that government databases list millions of people aged well over 100 years old, including 1.3 million people between 150 to 159 years old and over 130,000 people aged over 160.

But a 2023 report from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General said that there were nearly 19 million Social Security number-holders aged 100-plus who didn’t have information about their deaths in the system and that “almost none of the 18.9 million number-holders currently receive SSA payments.”

The SSA’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, has also knocked down these claims.

— Shannon Bond, Power and Influence Correspondent

DOGE data

TRUMP: “We found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud. And we’ve taken back the money and reduced our debt to fight inflation and other things, taking back a lot of that money.”

The Department of Government Efficiency effort has made many claims about taxpayer money saved by cutting the federal workforce, terminating contracts and leases and other actions in the last month. Almost all of them are overstated and misleading, including those in Trump’s lengthy monologue tonight.

DOGE’s latest top line savings claim is $105 billion, with a fraction of that amount displayed on a “wall of receipts.” NPR’s review of the “receipts” finds DOGE has deleted errors worth billions from its data, added new errors to its totals and frequently overstates savings. All of the line items Trump mentioned in his speech are real grants or contracts. But they likely offer little “savings” because of termination costs and the fact that many of them have already budgeted and spent to their limit. There’s no evidence that any of these terminations are the result of fraud being discovered.

As for Trump’s claim about debt reduction: As of Jan. 31 the federal government collected $1.6 trillion and spent $2.4 trillion this fiscal year, a deficit of about $840 billion.

— Stephen Fowler, NPR Political Reporter covering the restructuring of the federal government

Trump calls male circumcision foreign aid spending ‘waste’

TRUMP: “Just listen to some of the appalling waste…Millions [of] dollars for male circumcision in Mozambique.”

In 2023, Megan Peck — from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Global Health — wrote along with other experts that male circumcision programs are “a critical component to ending the AIDS epidemic.” It has been shown to dramatically reduce the chance of transmitting HIV from a female to a male.

“If a man is circumcised, it will reduce his chance of acquiring HIV by 60%,” says Mary Mahy, the director for Data for Impact at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. The U.S. supported more than 10 million voluntary male circumcisions in eastern and southern Africa between 2010 and 2021.

— Gabrielle Emanuel, Global Health Correspondent

Trade and tariffs

Cost of tariffs

TRUMP: “Tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs, about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again, and making America great again.”

President Trump has defended tariffs as a way to raise revenue for the government; a way to encourage more domestic manufacturing; and a bargaining chip to induce other countries to lower their own trade barriers. While Trump insists these tariffs are paid by foreign companies, most of the cost is borne by businesses and individuals in the United States.

If tariffs become a significant revenue source for the government, any shift from imports to domestic suppliers would jeopardize that funding stream. Likewise, if tariffs are a bargaining chip, the government revenue could be bargained away.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Reciprocation for trade deficits

TRUMP: “Whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal, back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we tax them. If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. There’s a lot of that too. They don’t even allow us in their market. We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before.”

Earlier today, President Trump imposed stiff new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, two of the United States’ biggest trading partners. Most imported goods from those countries now face a 25% tax, although energy imports from Canada are being taxed at a lower rate of 10%. The president also added an additional 10% tariff today on all imports from China, on top of the 10% tax he imposed last month. While Trump insists these tariffs are paid by foreign companies, most of the cost is borne by businesses and individuals in the United States.

Canada and China have already retaliated with tariffs of their own on U.S. exports, and Mexico has vowed to do the same in the coming days. Many exporters suffered from the trade wars during Trump’s first term in the White House — especially farmers and manufacturers. Trump is also considering additional tariffs on steel, aluminum imports and other products.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Auto industry investments

TRUMP: “By the way, we’re gonna have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen. Plants are opening up all over the place. Deals are being made, never seen. That’s a combination of the election win and tariffs. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it, that, along with our other policies, will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom. It’s going to boom. Spoke to the majors today, all three top people, and they’re so excited. In fact, already, numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in Indiana, one of the largest anywhere in the world.”

The last few years have seen a boom in new investments in auto manufacturing in the U.S., driven in large part by a shift toward electrification. Those investments were also boosted by tax credits that the Trump administration has signaled it would like to roll back, something that would require congressional action.

Tariffs certainly can incentivize companies to move production from overseas. However, auto executives have emphasized that they cannot make billion-dollar, multi-year decisions to open new factories based on tariffs that are subject to change in the near-term depending on what other countries do about border enforcement, fentanyl policies or other Trump administration priorities.

Reuters has reported that Honda is planning to produce its next-generation Civic in Indiana instead of Mexico in response to tariffs. Honda has not confirmed this, and because Honda already has a plant in Indiana that currently makes the Civic, such a move likely would not involve opening a new plant.

— Camila Domonoske, Cars and Energy Correspondent

Trump links tariffs and fentanyl

TRUMP: “So much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada. We have very large deficits with both of them, but even more importantly, they’ve allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and very young, beautiful people, destroying families. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.”

President Trump continues to falsely link tariffs against Canada to fentanyl smuggling and fatal drug overdoses. Experts agree that the U.S.-Canada border plays almost no role in America’s overdose crisis. Mexican drug cartels have contributed to tens of thousands of fentanyl deaths in the U.S., but fatal overdoses have fallen dramatically since 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Customs and Border Protection data also shows fentanyl smuggling from Mexico has dropped over the last year.

— Brian Mann, NPR Addiction Correspondent

Climate

Climate change 

TRUMP: “I terminated the ridiculous Green New Scam.”

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order “terminating the Green New Deal.” There is no Green New Deal that has been enacted by the U.S. government. The broad slogan encompasses an array of climate policy proposals advocated for by some Democratic lawmakers and progressive activists.

Under Trump’s executive order, the administration froze grant payments for a broad array of climate and environmental projects under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Those laws were signed by former President Joe Biden and authorize hundreds of billions of dollars aimed at protecting the environment and spurring investment in clean energy and new infrastructure. Republican-led states have been big beneficiaries of that spending. Federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the funding.

— Michael Copley, Climate Correspondent

Foreign Policy

Paris Climate Accord

TRUMP: “I withdrew from the unfair Paris climate accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying.”

The Paris Agreement, which was agreed to in 2015, requires countries to periodically submit goals or plans to reduce heat-trapping pollution. There is no punishment for countries that fail to deliver on their objectives. The goal of the agreement is to cut emissions in order to limit global warming and avoid the worst impact from things like more extreme storms, heat waves and floods. The agreement also reaffirmed that industrialized countries like the U.S., which built their wealth producing and using fossil fuels, should provide funding to help poorer nations deal with global warming. However, wealthy countries have been slow to deliver on their financial commitments.

— Michael Copley, climate correspondent

Ukraine aid

TRUMP: “The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense.”

The most widely used tracker of Ukraine aid shows the U.S. has provided $114 billion since the full-scale Russian invasion three years ago — though Trump often talks about $350 billion. It is not clear where he gets that figure. Over half of the aid the U.S. has provided is military aid, while the rest is financial and humanitarian. Additionally, Europe collectively has provided $132 billion.

— Greg Myre, National Security Correspondent

Watch NPR’s full special coverage of the speech and the Democratic response from Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan: