How many lies did Donald Trump tell during his address to Congress? Let’s do a little fact check

Donald Trump‘s orange hue has always left him looking like he’s made of wood, but our very own President Pinocchio was lucky his nose didn’t grow as tall as Trump Tower during his big address to Congress. In an elephantine speech given to a joint session of Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday night, the POTUS appeared to not only confuse the occasion with the State of the Union, but also confuse fiction with fact.

While Trump is obviously no stranger to telling the odd porkie or two hundred, the sheer number of incorrect statements, bare-faced falsities, and long-debunked claims he espoused in the address surprised even his biggest critics. So how many lies did the perfidious president squeeze into his interminably long 90-minute speech? There are almost too many to keep track of, but we’ll do our best. So, let’s sort the Trump from the truth.

Every lie Trump told in his address to Congress

• Trump: He stopped “$45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma.”
• Truth: While blasting the previous administration’s alleged overspending in foreign aid projects, Trump claimed that he had put a stop to almost half a billion dollars’ worth of diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarships in Burma. In actual fact, there is no evidence whatsoever that such scholarships existed. At best guess, he is referring to USAid’s Lincoln Scholarships, which help Burmese youth struggling for freedom amid the country’s military dictatorship.

• Trump: Biden is to blame for the price of eggs soaring, Trump is bringing it back down.
• Truth: I mean, the only fact-check you need for this one is for somebody to point at a shelf in Walmart and sigh. The price of eggs did increase under Biden’s tenure, but this was due to an outbreak of bird flu that saw costs surge in 2022 (two years into Biden’s term). Likewise, Trump neglected to mention prices ratcheted up again this January for the same reason.

• Trump: The U.S. has sent $350 billion to Ukraine since 2022, while Europe has only given $100b.
• Truth: We knew he was going to parrot this one again. In actual fact, the figure the U.S. has spent on aiding Ukraine since the Russian invasion began is roughly $120 billion. Not only is that vastly below the number Trump keeps trotting out but it’s also less than the total sum European nations have spent. The EU and individual member states have poured $138 billion in funds to Ukraine’s cause.

• Trump: Florida middle school “socially transitioned” 13-year-old without parent’s consent.
• Truth: Trump alleged that January Littlejohn, a mother based in Tallahassee, had found out that her 13-year-old’s middle school had socially transitioned her child from female to non-binary in secret. This is something that Littlejohn claimed in a lawsuit, but the case was quickly dismissed when emails proved Littlejohn had worked with her child’s teachers about their desire to change pronouns.

• Trump: Most Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction.
• Truth: It looks like Trump is referencing a poll published three weeks ago from (heavily Republican-leaning) polling firm Rassmussen, showing that 47% of Americans believed the U.S. was heading in the right direction versus 46% believing it’s going down the wrong path. What Trump has apparently missed is that Rassmussen has since updated its poll and now only 45% are feeling positive while a full 50% feel the country is headed down the toilet.

• Trump: Elon Musk’s DOGE has “found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.”
• Truth: This one’s nice and easy to clear up — nope, it hasn’t. Try again. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has repeatedly claimed to have uncovered evidence of fraud, only for every single one to be proven either false or fictional. See DOGE’s claim that the government was going to send $50 million in condoms to Gaza, which ended up being entirely bogus.

• Trump: Millions of dead people are receiving social security payments.
• Truth: This might be the most eyebrow-raising of Trump’s claims. Another supposed DOGE find, Musk n’ Trump allege that the Social Security Administration database include millions over the age of 110, including one who was older than 369. This is actually more of a flaw in the bureaucratic system than evidence of fraud, and it’s not even news. A 2015 report discovered that the agency didn’t have death records for about 6.5 million people. There was also no indication anyone, at least not a sizeable amount, were still getting paid. At the time, just 13 people over the age of 112 were still receiving payments. And one of those was certainly still alive because they had an active Twitter account!

And that’s still not all. Other things Trump fibbed about include his claim that he won a mandate in the election (it’s not so clear cut), that he ended Biden’s push for electric cars (no such governmental mandate existed), that the Paris Climate Accord was costing the U.S. “trillions” (this is a rough estimate that could occur by 2040 and doesn’t acknowledge all the financial benefits). More tall tales from Magatron, leader of the Decepticons? Gold cards don’t need congressional approval, countries such as India, China, and South Korea charge higher tariffs than the U.S., and the laughable lie that his tariffs will hardly have an impact on everyday Americans.

So, how many untruths did Trump dump on Congress’ lap during his address? There were undoubtedly more, but at our count his speech consisted of at least 13 big whoppers. The number 13 — unlucky for some… like the millions that will suffer from Trump’s continued deceit.