Mark Niquette, The Washington Post

President Donald Trump spoke Tuesday before a joint session of Congress to outline his vision for a second term that started only six weeks ago and has already resulted in an upheaval of the federal workforce, disintegration of relationships with allies and a trade war.

With his party controlling both chambers of Congress and Democrats largely on the sidelines and divided in their approach, Trump is poised to drive home his agenda of tariffs, tax breaks and spending cuts. Earlier Tuesday, his administration slapped 25% levies on goods from Mexico and Canada and layered another 10% duty on China on top of an identical hike a month before.

Here are the president’s key economic statements from the address, fact-checked and contextualized.

EGG PRICES

TRUMP: “Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg price is out of control. And we are working hard to get it back down.”

FACT CHECK: This needs context. While the cost of eggs rose under the former Democratic president and has become a symbol of high prices, interest rates and other economic woes, it’s largely due to the outbreak of avian flu.

Millions of birds have been killed just since December as the outbreak hit egg-laying farms from Iowa to California to North Carolina, prompting grocery stores to limit purchases and restaurants to add surcharges. A dozen large white eggs in the US reached a record of over $8 in February, from $2.97 a year ago, according to the benchmark indicator from price-reporting service Expana.

INFLATION

TRUMP: “We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country – they’re not sure.”

FACT CHECK: This is false. The cumulative increase in consumer prices during Biden’s term was higher than any other president in the past 40 years, not of all time.

And Trump’s policies – including pumping in $3.5 trillion for stimulus checks and other pandemic relief – and supply chain constraints when the US roared back to life also played an important part in annual US inflation hitting a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022 before falling to 2.7% in November when Trump was elected. It was 3% in January.

TARIFFS

TRUMP: “We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before,” Trump said of his tariff plans.

FACT CHECK: This needs context. While tariffs do generate revenue for the US, China and other foreign nations aren’t paying them. US importers are responsible for the duties, and ultimately US businesses and consumers pay through higher costs.

One academic study in 2019 concluded that consumers and US companies paid most of the costs of Trump’s tariffs in his first administration, and that after factoring in the retaliation, the main victims of the trade wars were farmers and blue-collar workers in areas that supported Trump in 2016.

TRUMP: “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again and it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”

FACT CHECK: This needs context. Trump also sees tariffs as a way to help pay for the $4.5 trillion in expiring 2017 tax cuts and even replace the $2 trillion the US government raised in individual and corporate income taxes. But since the Second World War, tariffs have never generated much more than 2% of total federal revenue, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in January. And even a US tariff rate approaching 50% would only result in $780 billion in revenue and harm economic growth, economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics calculated last year.

Consumers and companies are worried. A Harris Poll taken for Bloomberg News found that almost 60% of US adults expect Trump’s tariffs will lead to higher prices, and that 44% believe the levies are likely to be bad for the US economy. Tariffs also have come up a record 700 times during quarterly earnings calls for S&P 500 companies, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of transcripts.

Indeed, the tariffs that Trump has already imposed on China, Canada and Mexico would cost the typical US family more than $1,200 per year, the Peterson Institute said.

AUTO INDUSTRY

TRUMP: “We’re going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen,” Trump said, adding that he’d spoken with excited car executives. He also claimed new plants are being built.

FACT CHECK: This needs context. The CEO of Ford Motor Co. has warned taxing imports from Canada and Mexico will “blow a hole” in the US auto industry, while Jeep maker Stellantis NV has said Trump’s levies will put the company at a disadvantage versus overseas competitors. The cost to build a crossover utility vehicle will rise by at least $4,000, while the increase would be three times that for an electric vehicle, according to a new study from Anderson Economic Group.

Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. denied making any announcement about expanding its presence in Indiana, where Trump suggested the company was building a new factory. Honda already has been manufacturing Civics at a plant between Indianapolis and Cincinnati since 2008.

IMMIGRATION

TRUMP: “Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the country. Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members, and other criminals.”

FACT CHECK: This is false. There’s no evidence other nations were sending their prisoners and mental patients to the US to join the migrants, many fleeing violence and poverty. Trump has specifically cited 13,000 murderers allowed in the country based on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement data released during the campaign.

That included 13,099 people who were found guilty of homicide and hundreds of thousands of convicted criminals. But those numbers span decades, including during Trump’s first administration.

Trump and Republicans also accuse migrants of being responsible for crime. But study after study has shown that undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes compared to other immigrants – and even fewer compared to US-born citizens.

Gabrielle Coppola contributed to this report.