Fact check: Trump's State of the Union address debunked

DW News · Feb 25, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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"Our nation is back, bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before," US President Donald Trump said in his nearly two-hour long State of the Union speechon Tuesday night. Amid sagging poll numbers ahead of the midterm elections, he made false claims about the US economy, international politics and migration. DW Fact check takes a closer look at three claims. Trump didn't end eight wars Claim: "In my first 10 months, I ended eight wars," Trump said. "Cambodia and Thailand, Pakistan and India — would have been a nuclear war, 35 million people said the prime minister of Pakistan would have died if it were not for my involvement — Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Congo and Rwanda. And, of course, the war in Gaza, which proceeds at a very low level." DW Fact check: False It's not the first time Trump has claimed that he's ended several wars. In his speech before the United Nations General Assembly last fall, he stated that he ended seven wars — he has now added ending the war in Gaza to that list. But his claim is false — many of the wars he listed remain unresolved, and his role as the broker of peace is disputed. Cambodia and Thailand In July 2025, Trump threatened to withhold trade deals if no peace deal about the long-running border dispute would be signed. The leaders agreed to a ceasefire on July 28, but it didn't hold. After deadly clashes in December, the agreement was replaced by another ceasefire that Trump was not involved in. According to media reports, the situation is still fragile. Pakistan and India In May 2025, Trump announced that Pakistan and India, both armed with nuclear weapons, had reached a ceasefire due to US-led talks after the countries' worst military confrontation in 25 years. Still, Saudi Arabia and Iran also emerged as key mediators due to their strong economic and diplomatic ties with both India and Pakistan. Back then, Indian defense strategist Brigadier S K Chatterji warned that the deal was no guarantee of future stability. India has repeatedly rejected Trump's claim of ending the war against Pakistan. Kosovo and Serbia Serbia and Kosovo were not in an open state of war. Trump's 2020 agreement focused on economic relations rather than peace. Serbia denied any plans to attack Kosovo, and tensions remain, with sporadic clashes and NATO peacekeepers still stationed in the region. Serbia and Kosovo have never signed a final peace treaty. Israel and Iran Trump brokered a ceasefirebetween Israel and Iran in June 2025, after the US joined Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites.The situation in the region is still fragile, amid the killings of thousands of Iranians by the regime. Trump says the US considers military strikes to pressure Iran to agree to a deal to curb its nuclear program. Egypt and Ethiopia Egypt and Ethiopia were never at war during Trump's presidency. In a dispute about the Grand Renaissance Dam, which Cairo and Khartoum fear will reduce their Nile water share, Trump got involved but talks collapsed in June 2025. Trump publicly sided with Egypt. The dispute continues. Armenia and Azerbaijan In August 2025,the countries signed a peace deal at the White House. Both leaders met again at the World Economic Forum in Davos, praising the peace deal they made. Congo and Rwanda The US was involved in a peace deal signed by both countries in June 2025 but fighting continued after the agreement. In December 2025, the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda agreed to a new peace deal in a meeting in Washington D.C. hosted by Trump. Still, the conflict is ongoing. "The war in Gaza" Since the Hamas-led terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage, Israel killed at least 71,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health officials. In October 2025, Trump signed a Gaza ceasefire document, alongside key mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. Since then, both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire. The conflict is still ongoing. The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been violated several times (pictured: smoke and dust after the Israeli army targeted a building in Gaza City on January 31, 2026)Image: Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/Anadolu/picture alliance Trump exaggerates inflation success Claim: "Inflation is plummeting," Trump said, adding, "the Biden administration and its allies in Congress gave us the worst inflation in the history of our country." DW Fact check: False While inflation has eased a bit, it's by no means a drastic drop as claimed by Trump. In January 2026, the inflation rate in the US stood at 2.4%, compared to 3% when Trump took office in January 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Inflation was around 2.9% in the last month of the Biden administration and had been fluctuating between 3.7 and 2.4 percent since mid-2023. The current inflation rate is still abovethe Federal Reserve's target of 2%. While it is true that the annual inflation rate in the US reached a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022 during the Biden administration, this was more than two years before Trump's return for a second term, and inflation had already fallen sharply before Trump took office. The highest inflation in US history occurred after World War I, when the largest price increase within twelve months was 23.7% between June 1919 and June 1920 — not during the Biden administration.Trump claims millions poured in from prisons and mental institutions Claim: "Under Biden and his corrupt partners in Congress and beyond, it reached a breaking point […], open borders for everyone. They poured in by the millions and millions from prisons, from mental institutions. They were murderers, 11,888 murderers." DW Fact check: Unproven There is no proof that millions of people entered the US from prisons and mental institutions abroad under former US President Joe Biden. Trump made similar claims in 2023, 2024and 2025,citing various different figures. Statisticsfrom the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency show that 10.8 million migrants were "encountered" at the nation's borders from 2021 to 2024 when Biden was president. "Encounters" meanboth apprehensions of migrants illegally crossing the border and those deemed inadmissible at the ports of entry by CBP officers. There is no comprehensive data documenting people's criminal or institutional history in origin countries and it's thus impossible to link millions of migrants to prisons and mental institutions. It is unclear why Trump is quoting the number 11,888. Fact checkers have traced his statements back to noncitizens convicted of murder who were not detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). According to the agency,13,099 non-detained noncitizens were convicted of homicide as of July 2024, along with 277 that were detained. However, the Department of Homeland Security clarified that this data goes back decades and includes individuals entering the country over the past 40 years or more, long before Biden took office. Anwar Ashraf contributed reporting. This article is a collaborative project between ARD-faktenfinder and DW Fact check. Edited by: Sarah Steffen