Well, I can’t sleep after watching that. Maybe you can’t, either? I’m not sure if you knew, or whether you could have guessed, but that was the longest speech of its kind. Ever.

This evening, Donald Trump, the 47th President of the United States, delivered a 100-minute speech to a joint session of the United States Congress. Like a State of the Union Address, he delivered it in the Chamber of the House of Representatives in the United States Capitol.

Since his inauguration, Mr. Trump has worked briskly to radically reshape the government and signed dozens of executive orders. While the address didn’t quite discuss key topics facing the union, like rising inflation costs and concerns over cutting Medicaid and Social Security benefits, the President highlighted drastic cuts to the federal work force and the eradication of diversity initiatives.

Mr. Trump offered many statistics and anecdotes to the crowd, which were often met with eerie applause by his base. Meanwhile, the Democratic side of the chamber sneered, booed, hissed, and even raised a sign or two in protest.

Instead of regurgitating the speech word for word and wasting both my time and yours, I decided to spend the time providing a few quick highlights and then fact-checking Mr. Trump’s speech, for our joint edification.

Highlights

President Trump proclaimed “wokeness” dead during the speech. He noted his executive orders to ban transgender athletes from college sports and his recognition of only two genders (male and female). He also referenced an order to make English the United States’ official language, which he signed a few days ago.

During the foreign policy part of his speech, Trump suggested Greenland would be welcomed into the United States “if you choose.” Moments later, he added, “I think we’re going to get it, one way or the other. We’re going to get it.”

To add to his expansionist rhetoric, the President said his administration will be “reclaiming the Panama Canal,” and added that it has “already started doing it.” Earlier today, a consortium that includes BlackRock, a U.S. asset manager, announced its plans to buy a controlling stake in the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the canal from Hong Kong company CK Hutchinson.

President Trump touted the tariffs he imposed on Canada, Mexico and China this week and acknowledged Americans might feel “a little disturbance.” He also said he plans to initiate a second round of global tariffs on April 2.

Trump also defended his handling of the Russia-Ukraine conflict after his contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week. Earlier today, he ordered the suspension of all US military aid to Ukraine.

A Little Fact-Finding Mission

“We’re going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen. Plants are opening up all over the place.”

Actually, no automaker has announced a new plant since Trump took office and began instituting new tariffs. Reuters reported that Honda planned to produce 210,000 Civics in Indiana, rather than Mexico, but the company has not made a public announcement.

It’s also unclear whether Honda will expand its operations in Indiana, open a new plant, or simple move production of the new Civic to the plant and reduce production of other vehicles there, too. Honda’s Indiana plant currently produces 250,000 vehicles annually.

Plus, Trump’s 25% tariff on all imports coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico could add thousands of dollars to the cost of each new vehicle. Since most cars are assembled with supply chain parts from around the globe, most vehicles in North America are estimated to increase by $4,000 to $10,000.

“As an example, not long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, 1 in 10,000 children had autism. One in 10,000, and now it’s 1 in 36. There’s something wrong. One in 36, think of that, so we’re going to find out what it is.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this ratio is correct. However, this statistic is often used to justify opposition to vaccination. However, the science is clear that vaccines don’t cause autism.

In fact, much of the increase in autism is due to increasing awareness and screening for the condition, changing definitions of autism to include milder conditions on the spectrum that weren’t previously recognized, and advances in diagnostic technology.

While determining the root cause of autism isn’t straightforward, since it’s not caused by a single disorder, it typically stems from a combination of genetic vulnerability and environmental exposures.

“They’ve allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.”

In fiscal year 2024, fentanyl seizures at the northern border (the one we share with “America’s hat,” as Jon Stewart termed it) were just 43 pounds, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Alternatively, more than 21,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the southern border during the same time period.

“Joe Biden didn’t just open our borders. He flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals, and communities throughout the country. Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio, buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody has ever seen before. Beautiful towns destroyed.”

Mr. Trump often targets Springfield and Aurora when he describes cities “overrun by migrants,” although he often misrepresents the situations there.

For example, during a debate in 2024, Trump repeated a baseless claim about Haitian immigrants in Springfield eating dogs and other pets. However, the story turned out to be false; the culprit turned out to be a non-migrant woman in a nearby town.

Additionally, Trump alleged Aurora had been taken over by a Venezuelan prison gang - Tren de Aragua - after a social media clip went viral. Both Aurora police and Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican, called Trump’s descriptions “not accurate.”

“1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159, and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are over 160 years old.”

This claim is false. Trump alleged in his speech that millions of senior citizens over the age 100 - including some he maintained were older than 160 - were collecting Social Security checks, according to the Social Security Administration.

The alleged fraud that Trump and DOGE Chief Elon Musk pointed to doesn’t exist. In fact, the numbers they refer to are products of a known problem with the government’s data and record keeping systems.

Although there are millions of people over age 100 in the Social Security Administration’s database, the vast majority are not receiving benefits.

Inspectors General at the agency repeatedly identified this issue in the past, but the SSA argued that updating the old records is costly and unnecessary. An SSA IG’s report from 2023 showed 18.9 million people listed as 100 years or older, but not dead, in the database. However, “almost none” current receive SSA payments.

“Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine, by far… And we’ve spent perhaps $350 billion, and they’ve spent $100 billion. And we have an ocean separating us, they don’t. And Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent.”

This claim is mostly false. From the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 to December 2024, the United States allocated $114.1 billion in aid to Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute, which tracks aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, European nations allocated $132.3 billion, with plans to allocate more.

However, Trump is correct in pointing out that European countries have spent more in oil and gas than on military assistance in 2024, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

“For the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction.”

This claim is false and appears to be based on cherry-picked data from a single poll. Although Mr. Trump did not cite his source, he appears to reference a recent Rasmussen Reports poll showing 47% of Americans believe our country is on the “right track.”

Rasmussen is a right-wing poll that regularly partners with conservative authors and outlets to sponsor its polling. The polling aggregation site FiveThirtyEight removed the poll from its averages last year over concerns about partisanship and its methodology.

Response

Following President Trump’s speech, Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan provided the Democratic response. Additionally, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont delivered responses on Instagram and other social media platforms.

Senator Slotkin accused Trump of pursuing an “unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends and said President Ronald Reagan would be “rolling in his grave” over Trump’s stance on Russia.

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