Donald Trump’s first speech as 47th US President: What’s fact and what’s fiction?

Here’s a breakdown of Trump’s caller claims and however they stack up against facts.

Claim 1: Trump pledged to instrumentality backmost the Panama Canal and claimed 38,000 Americans died gathering it.

• What Trump Said:
  “A abbreviated clip from now, we are going to be… taking backmost the Panama Canal. The U.S. spent much wealth connected the task than ever earlier and mislaid 38,000 lives. China is present operating the canal, and American ships are being severely overcharged.”
• The Facts:
  The existent fig of deaths from the American operation effort for the Panama Canal stands astatine astir 5,600, not 38,000, according to The Guardian. Most of those who died were workers from the Caribbean, including Antigua, Barbados, and Jamaica. Additionally, the assertion that China controls the canal is false. While a Hong Kong consortium won a larboard operations bid successful 1997, US and Taiwanese companies run different ports on the canal.

Claim 2: Trump blamed grounds inflation connected ‘massive overspending’ and vigor prices.

• What Trump said:
  “The ostentation situation was caused by monolithic overspending and escalating vigor prices. I volition nonstop my furniture to decision this grounds inflation.”
• The Facts:
  Inflation peaked astatine a four-decade precocious of 9.1% successful the summertime of 2022, but this was not the highest successful US history. Inflation reached 23.7% successful June 1920. As of December 2024, ostentation had fallen to 2.9%, contradicting claims of ongoing “record inflation.”

Claim 3: The US protects unsafe criminals who entered illegally from prisons and intelligence institutions abroad.

• What Trump Said:
  “Our authorities fails to support law-abiding citizens but gives sanctuary to unsafe criminals, galore of whom came from prisons and intelligence institutions and entered the US illegally.”
• The Facts:
  There is nary grounds to enactment this claim. Research shows that immigrants, including those seeking asylum oregon with enactment permits, are little apt to perpetrate crimes than US-born citizens. Multiple studies, including from the blimpish Cato Institute, amusement that immigrants are not driving transgression rates successful the U.S., contrary to Trump’s assertion.