The Brief

President Donald Trump delivered the first official State of the Union address of his second term on Tuesday night. The speech gave Trump the opportunity to tout accomplishments and outline his agenda for his administration's second year.

It comes at at time when Americans are divided on whether Trump's first year has been a success. A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows that six in 10 believe the country is worse off than last year and that a majority think the state of the union is not strong.

Reporters from across NPR's newsroom are fact checking his speech and offer context — on topics like immigration, the economy, tariffs and trade and foreign policy.

Immigration

Do we have the strongest and most secure border so far?

This is partly true.

It is not true that there have been zero crossings; for example, there were 237,538 in 2025, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But Border Patrol encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico have fallen to their lowest level in more than 50 years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of statistics from the federal government.

While it is true that there were a historic number of crossings during the Biden administration, it is untrue that the border was wide open for people to cross unvetted: in the final year of his administration, President Biden significantly tightened controls.

— Jasmine Garsd, Immigration Correspondent

Did murderers, ex-convicts and mental institution patients emigrate to the U.S. under Biden?

There is no evidence of this.

A historic number of people came across the U.S. border during the Biden administration, however many were vetted. Programs like parole and the CBP One app required entry screenings and interviews.

There has also been extensive research showing that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are less likely to commit crimes than citizens. What's more, although the number of people in immigration detention is at a historic high (near 70,000 as of earlier this month), around 74% have no criminal conviction.

— Jasmine Garsd, Immigration Correspondent

Did members of the Somali community pillage $19 billion?

Almost 100 defendants — many of Somali descent — have been charged by the Department of Justice in connection with alleged fraud connected to federal social safety net and child welfare programs in Minnesota, according to the White House.

In one high-profile case, federal prosecutors charged dozens of people in 2022 connected to a Minnesota nonprofit called Feeding Our Future with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The president has used that controversy to attack the Somali American community at large in Minneapolis, including calling Somali immigrants "garbage" who "contribute nothing."

— Jasmine Garsd, Immigration Correspondent

Foreign policy

Foreign investment 

Trump referenced this figure, but a White House website of total investment at both home and abroad sits at under $10 trillion. And other analyses have found that number inflated as well.

— Saige Miller, Washington Desk Producer

Iran's nuclear program "obliterated"

Trump again repeated his oft-stated claim that the U.S. "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program during one day of bombing in Iran last June. There's a broad consensus that combined U.S. and Israeli strikes inflicted major damage on Iran's nuclear program. However, Iran has not allowed international inspectors to examine their nuclear facilities, making a precise assessment impossible.

In addition, Trump has not explained why he's considering a new round of attacks on Iran's nuclear program if it was 'obliterated' just months ago.

— Greg Myre, national security correspondent

 "I ended eight wars"

President Trump has had diplomatic successes, but his repeated claim that he's ended eight wars is an exaggeration.

Perhaps his biggest success to date was brokering a ceasefire in the Israel and Hamas war in Gaza last October. However, Israel has continued to carry out airstrikes, killing hundreds of Palestinians since the truce was announced. Israel alleges many ceasefire violations by Palestinian militias.

Trump's list also includes Israel and Iran. Israel and the U.S. exchanged airstrikes with Iran for 12 days last June before Trump declared a truce. However, none of the longstanding issues were resolved, and Trump is again threatening to attack Iran.

— Greg Myre, National Security Correspondent

Iranian protesters killed

Iran's security forces unleashed a brutal crackdown against protesters in January. The Human Rights Activist News Agency has put the death toll at more than 7,000, though various human rights groups say the number could be even higher. Iran's government has acknowledged more than 3,000 deaths in clashes, a figure that includes protesters and security force members.

— Greg Myre, National Security Correspondent

Economy

A "turnaround for the ages"

The U.S. economy was in solid shape before President Trump returned to the White House for his second term. In fact, in October 2024, The Economist had labeled the U.S. economy "the envy of the world," because it had bounced back from the pandemic recession in stronger shape than most of its peers. To be sure, many Americans were frustrated with the high cost of living, and that dissatisfaction contributed to Trump's victory the following month. However, costs have continued to climb over the last year, and that dissatisfaction is now weighing on Trump's own approval rating. Nearly six-in-ten Americans say the country is worse off now than it was a year ago, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Inflated claims about inflation

Inflation has cooled in recent months. But the cost of living is still climbing faster than most people would like. A few items have gotten cheaper in the last year, such as gasoline and eggs. But housing, groceries, electricity and natural gas have all gotten more expensive.

Inflation reached a four-decade high of 9.1% in 2022, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent prices soaring around the world. By the time President Joe Biden left office, inflation had fallen to 3%. It dropped as low as 2.3% last April, before rebounding to 3% in September.

Trump's tariffs have raised the price of some imported goods, but the effects on the overall cost of living have been limited. Annual inflation dipped to 2.4% in January. (A separate measure of inflation, which is closely watched by the Federal Reserve, shows that prices are still climbing at roughly the same rate that they were a year ago.)

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Stock market 

The stock market has enjoyed big gains over the last year, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average topping 50,000 for the first time earlier this month. In 2025, the S&P 500 index jumped 18%, after a 24% gain in 2024. The stock market rally has given a boost to many people's retirement savings. It's important to remember, however, that stock ownership is very concentrated. The richest 10% of families own 87% of all stock market wealth, while half of all Americans own little or no stock.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Job growth

Job growth slowed sharply in the last year. U.S. employers added just 181,000 jobs in all of 2025, compared to more than 1.4 million in 2024. Hiring picked up in January of this year, but the job gains last month were concentrated in health care — an industry that is typically insulated from the ups and downs of the broader economy. Unemployment has remained low — just 4.3% in January — but that's up from 4% a year ago when Trump returned to the White House.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Tax cuts

Congressional Republicans voted last summer to extend portions of the 2017 tax cut which otherwise would have expired last year. An analysis by the Tax Foundation found the package — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — is the sixth largest tax cut in U.S. history, not the largest. The bill also adds new tax breaks on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. The result will be somewhat higher take-home pay for many workers in 2026. The bill also cut government spending on safety-net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says the bulk of the tax savings will go to the wealthy. Middle-income households will see a smaller benefit, between $500 and $1000 a year. For families making less than $55,000 the loss of government benefits will likely outweigh any tax savings, leaving them worse off. The tax cut is also expected to encourage more business investment, which could boost future economic growth.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Standing by tariffs after rebuke by SCOTUS

The federal government has been collecting about $30 billion every month in tariffs, which is far more than it made from import taxes before Trump returned to the White House last year.

The Supreme Court struck down about half of Trump's tariffs last week, ruling that the president had exceeded his authority. Some of those levies are being replaced with alternative import taxes.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy tariffs — though lawmakers have delegated limited tariff powers to the executive branch.

Economists say the vast majority of tariff bills are being paid by businesses in the U.S. that import products. In some cases, those costs are being passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Tariff revenue, while substantial, has fallen short of what the administration projected. This is partly because some imports have been granted tariff exemptions, and partly because importers have shifted production to countries facing lower tariff rates. Imports from China, for example, made up 12% of total imports in 2024. By last fall that had dropped to about 8%.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Tariffs and manufacturing

President Trump argues that high tariffs will spark a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing. But it hasn't happened yet. Factories have been in a slump for most of the last year, shedding 108,000 jobs in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

No doubt Trump's taxes on foreign imports have allowed some U.S. factories to raise their prices. But the vast majority of factory managers, many of whom rely on foreign components, say tariffs have been a drag on their business. "Morale is very low across manufacturing in general," one unnamed factory manager told the Institute for Supply Management in December.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Energy

Gasoline prices

According to GasBuddy, only the cheapest 10% of stations in the country are seeing prices of $2.31 per gallon or cheaper. And while gasoline was $1.85 a gallon in Iowa in early January, prices have since risen. As for $1.99 gasoline, "only 8 out of roughly 150,000 gas stations nationwide are selling gasoline below $2 per gallon," GasBuddy's Patrick de Haan wrote on Tuesday.

While the specific prices named by President Trump are exceptional rather than representative, gasoline is certainly cheaper now than it was before his inauguration. The national average gasoline price is currently at $2.92 a gallon, according to AAA, or about 22 cents cheaper than this time a year ago.

Those prices are driven by global markets, and a worldwide oversupply of oil is the dominant force keeping prices in check. Presidents do not set gasoline prices. However, politics can be a factor in global markets, and Trump has put pressure on the oil cartel OPEC to keep oil prices down.

— Camila Domonoske, Cars and Energy Correspondent

Data centers and electricity rates

Electricity prices rose 6.3% in the last 12 months – more than double the overall rate of inflation. That's partly due to the high cost of natural gas, which is a major fuel for power plants. It's also due to increased demand, some of which comes from power-hungry data centers. Rising electricity prices were a big theme in last year's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent

Venezuelan oil "received" in the U.S.

Since the U.S. captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro last month, the U.S. government has been helping sell some of Venezuela's oil. The U.S. has worked with two Swiss oil trading companies, Vitol and Trafigura. (Both Vitol and Trafigura have pleaded guilty to bribery and settled cases with the Department of Justice during the Biden administration.)

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright says that U.S.-facilitated oil sales total more than $1 billion. However the Venezuelan government has said it has only received $300 million. In a Senate hearing last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said $200 million is in a bank account in Qatar. It's unclear where the rest of the money is and if and when it will get to the Venezuelan people.

The U.S. is the biggest producer of oil in the world and the world is currently oversupplied with oil.

– Julia Simon, Climate Solutions Correspondent

Oil and natural gas production

The U.S. set an annual crude oil production record last year, rising about 400,000 barrels a day from 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration. That was not a new trend initiated by Trump — crude output rose for four years in a row. However, it's expected to drop by about 100,000 barrels a day in 2026, thanks in large part to low oil prices. Globally, the world is currently oversupplied with oil.

It is true that natural gas production is up; the EIA forecasts record natural gas production in 2026 and 2027. Natural gas prices were low in 2024 but jumped sharply last year, due in part to massive exports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to other countries, mostly in Europe and Asia.

Oil companies have not been on a drilling spree, as Trump's "drill, baby, drill" phrasing would suggest. According to Baker Hughes, a firm that monitors the energy industry, the number of active drilling rigs in the U.S. this week is down about 7% from this time a year ago. Low oil prices and skeptical investors have kept companies cautious. However, technological improvements have helped make U.S. oil production more efficient, squeezing more oil and natural gas out of existing wells, which has helped keep production high anyway.

— Camila Domonoske, Cars and Energy Correspondent

Government

DHS and terrorism prevention

Since Trump took office for his second term in January 2025, there have been mounting concerns among former federal employees and field experts about a diminished capacity to counter violent extremism. Many seasoned counterterrorism officials left government service, and budget cuts have fundamentally shifted the core infrastructure that had been devoted to community-based prevention programs, data-gathering and analysis. In the case of one of these programs, the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, the administration replaced an outgoing head with a 22-year-old without experience in law enforcement or counterterrorism. Outside of DHS, other agencies that have traditionally played a role in countering violent extremism, such as the FBI, have seen manpower diverted to immigration enforcement.

— Odette Yousef, Domestic Extremism Correspondent

Congressional stock trading ban faces tough odds for passage

Congress has unsuccessfully pursued a stock trading ban for their members for years. Members of both sides of the aisle have put forth proposals that have drawn broad, bipartisan support. However, those efforts have fallen short of becoming law.

Those failures have spanned several House speakers, including former Speakers Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy. Pelosi's husband, Paul, has drawn attention as a venture capitalist who has been active in trading.

This time around, the GOP-led Stop Insider Trading Act has little chance of passage, currently without much bipartisan support.

— Claudia Grisales, Congressional Correspondent

Voter fraud is already incredibly rare

Trump has been claiming that noncitizens are voting en masse in American elections for more than a decade.

But it's illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal races, and they have never been found to vote in anything but microscopic numbers. In the rare cases they do vote, research has found it's often due to misunderstandings about the rules, as opposed to an attempt to influence election results, as Trump often claims.

Still, since Trump took office for his second term, his government has put more resources than ever before toward trying to find these voters. They've found very little.

"Even states that are looking everywhere to try to amplify the numbers of noncitizens … when they actually look, they find a surprisingly, shockingly small number," said David Becker, an election expert who runs a nonprofit that has been tracking noncitizen voting audits across the country.

In Michigan, an audit after the 2024 election found 16 alleged noncitizen votes out of the state's roughly 5.7 million cast. In Iowa, it was 35 votes out of 1.67 million cast.

Experts often note that for immigrants without legal status, it doesn't make sense to risk prison, deportation and family separation to cast one ballot — especially because the inherent paper trail of voting makes it very easy to get caught.

Trump correctly noted that not every state requires voters to show photo ID at the time they cast a ballot. But he oversimplified the dozen or so states that don't have such a requirement in implying that anyone can easily vote without being verified by officials first.

Federal law already requires identity verification for all voters at registration, by mandating they provide a valid driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. People who don't register in person are also required to provide ID the first time they vote, regardless of the state they live in.

The SAVE America Act that Trump referenced tonight isn't expected to garner the requisite 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome a legislative filibuster, but you can still read a breakdown of what's in the proposed Republican election overhaul here.

— Miles Parks, Voting Correspondent

Warrior dividend 

Trump announced military service members would receive a $1,776 "warrior dividend" during his prime time address in December.

The money was allocated to service members in the massive omnibus budget bill known as "One Big Beautiful Bill." Congress — which has the power of the purse and is solely responsible for taxation and appropriation — approved $2.9 billion to subsidize housing for military members. Trump rebranded those funds as the "warrior dividend."

— Saige Miller, Washington Desk Producer

Health

Prescription drug prices

This claim is not true. Americans still pay several times more money for prescription drugs than people in peer countries. The Trump administration has taken aim at drug prices in various ways, but how helpful those efforts will ultimately be — and for how many people — is not yet clear.

His biggest move so far has been to use tariffs as leverage to negotiate deals with more than a dozen drugmakers, and then launch a direct-to-consumer website called TrumpRx where people can buy brand-named drugs at a discount. There are only about 40 drugs currently available on the site, and those same companies Trump struck deals with raised prices on hundreds of other drugs they sell. For most people, using insurance and paying a copay for their medications will be cheaper than TrumpRx, according to an analysis by KFF.

What many peer countries do to keep the prices of prescription drugs down is to regulate those prices. President Trump and congressional Republicans have generally rejected that approach, branding it as "government price setting."

— Selena Simmons-Duffin & Sydney Lupkin, health correspondents

Payments to insurance companies

At this point, Trump's "Great Health Care Plan" isn't a comprehensive health policy, but an articulation of policy priorities that Trump has asked Congress to develop into legislation. He supports loosening rules around mandatory benefits required by the Affordable Care Act and promoting health savings accounts, which allow people to set aside pre-tax funds to pay for certain health-related expenses. Under current law, HSA funds can't be used for health insurance costs like premiums.

Even the "catastrophic" or skinny plans preferred by Trump are private insurance plans, and the money paid for them goes to big insurance companies. The only way to stop payments to health insurance companies would be to bolster public health insurance options like Medicaid and Medicare.

A recent poll from KFF found Americans are more worried about health costs than any other household expenses. It also found that people plan to vote based on whether they think a candidate will help with health costs.

This year, ACA premiums have doubled on average, and in some cases, have increased much more, because Republicans did not vote with Democrats to extend extra ACA tax credits. Since then, more than a million people have dropped their coverage.

— Selena Simmons-Duffin, Health Policy Correspondent

Transgender youth

For the second year in a row, President Trump has brought as a guest a parent with a story about a child who began a gender transition in secret. The children mentioned in both speeches seem to have done some version of "social transition," which involves changing a name, pronouns, clothes, haircuts and the like. All of those things are reversible.

This is a topic he brought up frequently during his presidential campaign, in which he and Republicans spent millions on anti-trans ads.

So far, the Trump administration's efforts to ban trangender care has focused on medical interventions for youth. Using threats of withheld federal funding, investigations, proposed regulations, and subpoenas, the White House has succeeded in shutting down many gender clinics for youth at hospitals across the country. There are also many lawsuits challenging these actions.

— Selena Simmons-Duffin, Health Policy Correspondent

Crime

Declining murder rates 

Murders have been on a steep decline following a pandemic-era surge.

The homicide rate in 35 studied cities dropped 21% in 2025, compared with 2024, according to data from the Council on Criminal Justice.

The FBI hasn't released 2025 homicide data for all jurisdictions nationwide yet. However, the Council on Criminal Justice states "there is a strong possibility" that the murder rate will be roughly 4 per 100,000 residents. That, according to the council, would be the lowest rate ever recorded, going back to 1900. It would also mark the largest single-year percentage drop in homicides on record.

Murders and violent crime were already declining under the Biden administration. In 2024, President Joe Biden's final year in office, violent crime dropped to a 20-year low.

— Saige Miller, Washington Desk Producer

Was Iryna Zarutska killed by an immigrant?

Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on August 22, 2025 while riding the light rail line in Charlotte, N.C. Zarutska, who was 23, was stabbed by 34-year-old DeCarlos Brown Jr., who has a reported history of mental health issues.

In tonight's address, Trump claimed Brown was an immigrant released into America thanks to an open border policy. There is no evidence of this. Local media has reported that Brown was born and raised in Charlotte and had spent time in and out of North Carolina jails.

— Jasmine Garsd Immigration Correspondent

Drug cartels as FTOs

Under Trump, the State Department has designated a number of drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, or FTOs. This is a novel use of the designation, which has traditionally been used to go after overseas entities that have threatened the security interests of the U.S., such as al-Qaida or ISIS. This pivot in definition of FTO has raised some concern among those who were previously involved in the designation process and other counterterrorism experts. They say that responding to criminal narcotics enterprises that operate from a profit motive is fundamentally different from disrupting networks that sow ideological and violent opposition to the U.S. government.

— Odette Yousef, Domestic Extremism Correspondent 

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Four million acres of California’s wildest backcountry could soon be opened to paving roads and logging.

The Trump administration announced last week that it’s pushing forward with a proposal to scrap a 2001 rule that blocks logging, road building and other construction in parts of national forests. The administration argues repealing the so-called “roadless rule” is key to managing vegetation to better prevent wildfires on public lands.

Environmental advocates and other groups worry rescinding the rule would harm pristine habitat and the wildlife it supports, and open up more public land to industrial activities and human access that can cause more wildfires.

And locals are worried about losing access to some of the last protected natural lands in the region.

“What we're dealing with here in the roadless rule is the protection of the backcountry,” said David Browning, president of the Orange County Mountain Bike Association, “where you can actually go out and be having an experience where you don't hear traffic, where you don't see buildings, where you actually remember what it was like before all of us got here.”

In Southern California, large swaths of the Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland national forests would lose protections.

Browning, who spoke with All Things Considered host Julia Paskin on Monday, said he’s particularly concerned about the Santa Ana Mountains, where much of Orange County’s backcountry biking trails exist within a roadless area that could be opened to construction.

“Our mission is to protect and expand trail access, and so our entire agenda is to make sure that in a highly populated county, like Orange, that we have available the outdoors to be able to go and enjoy,” he said.

Browning takes issue with the wildfire argument — he pointed to the 2024 Airport Fire, which was sparked when heavy equipment operated by Orange County employees struck a rock. They were moving large boulders that day to, in part, block vehicles from getting into a dry brush area and potentially starting a fire. Browning said the “roadless rule” prevents such access that could increase the risk of fire. A recent peer-reviewed study supports that, finding that although roads are important for managing a fire once it ignites, they’re also more likely to be a place where a fire starts.

Though addressing wildfires and protecting public lands have become heavily politicized under the Trump administration, Browning thinks most locals probably aren’t as divided.

“ I don't think this is a party issue,” he said. “We want to hold onto the outdoors and protect them as best we can.”

There unfortunately isn’t much respite in sight for heat-weary Southern Californians.

Forecasters say this week’s heat wave is likely to be the hottest so far this summer. Extreme heat warnings will be in effect from the National Weather Service for almost the entire region from Tuesday morning through Friday evening.

Temperatures will peak between Tuesday and Thursday.

Highs in downtown Los Angeles are expected to reach around 100 degrees, and the warmest inland valleys will get up to 112. L.A. County beaches will hit the high 80s.

Forecasters have also issued Red Flag Warnings for the interior mountains and foothills of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Gusty winds and low humidity at higher elevations mean fires could spark and spread quickly.

At lower elevations, humidity continues to make the heat feel more sweltering and make it harder to cool down, especially at night. Nighttime temperatures will only get down to the 70s in most places, including along the coast.

A slight cooldown is expected this weekend, though forecasters say temperatures will stay above normal into next week.

The extreme heat this week poses an especially high risk of heat-related illness for people over 65, young children, people who work or spend a lot of time outside and those without access to air conditioning.

Driving the heat

Several factors are behind this week’s heat wave, many of which have also been behind the rest of this summer’s consistently hot weather.

The main driver is a high pressure air system hovering over the southwestern U.S., trapping warm air, compressing it and warming it further, and blocking cooler air from entering the region.

Offshore winds are also pushing warm inland air toward the coast, preventing cooler onshore winds from blowing inland.

“That blocks our natural air conditioning off the ocean from coming in as early as it normally does,” said Weather Service meteorologist Mike Wofford. “So as long as that cool air stays offshore, it heats up on land.”

The offshore winds are not strong enough, however, to significantly dry out the air in the L.A. Basin and cut down on the humidity.

“That's probably going to be around for the whole summer because you’ve got all this warm ocean water that's feeding into that,” Wofford said.

Warmer seawater evaporates faster, adding to moisture in the air and increasing humidity across the region, especially along the coasts.

Air quality warnings

Along with the heat this week, many Southern Californians also have smog to worry about.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued an ozone advisory on Monday for inland areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties, much of Riverside County and parts of San Bernardino County. It will remain in effect through Friday evening.

The multi-day smog event is in part driven by the heatwave.

Officials say ozone pollution may reach unhealthy levels or higher in the Santa Clarita Valley, parts of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino valleys, and portions of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Under unhealthy levels, it’s possible for anyone to experience adverse health effects like difficulty breathing and throat irritation. Sensitive populations could experience more serious effects.

Levels are expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups in the San Fernando Valley, Perris Valley, Mission Viejo, Lake Elsinore, Corona, Hemet, Riverside and Pasadena.

Officials advise certain vulnerable groups — including people with heart or lung disease, those with asthma, pregnant women, children and people over 65 — to limit their time outdoors.

Officials predict that ozone levels will be lower along the coast.