Fact-checkers delivered a mixed verdict on President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. (Kenny Holston /Pool via Reuters)
"Encounters with people trying to illegally cross the U.S. southern border have dropped significantly during Trump’s second term," PolitiFact noted, adding that authorities encountered about 10,000 migrants in January compared to more than 60,000 in January 2025.
Trump's comments about illegal immigrants committing crimes were more disputed, fact-checkers found, noting that the Department of Homeland Security’s figures did not reflect that the Biden administration allowed nearly 12,000 murderers to enter the country illegally, as Trump claimed during his speech.
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NPR noted that Trump called Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska’s killer an immigrant, despite lacking evidence of that. The outlet noted that local media have reported that the suspect, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., was born in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Brown was seen in grisly surveillance footage repeatedly stabbing Zarutska, 23, while she was riding the light rail home from work in August 2025. Her murder has become a national example of local prosecutors’ lax policies toward repeat offenders.
When Trump said more broadly that the nation’s murder rate is the lowest it has been in 125 years, fact-checkers found that was true.
Several fact-checkers took issue with Trump touting that he ended "eight wars."
Trump gained widespread praise for brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that led to a return of Israeli hostages, and the president has been credited with establishing a truce between Israel and Iran after carrying out damaging airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Empty envelopes of opened vote-by-mail ballots for the presidential primary are stacked on a table at King County Elections in Renton, Washington on March 10, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)
NPR pointed to observations by election expert David Becker, who runs the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research.
"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," Becker said.
The New York Times said the number of noncitizens casting ballots is "infinitesimally small," noting a Trump DHS study that found up to 0.2% of registered voters could potentially be noncitizens.
Fact-checkers labeled Trump’s assertion that more Americans were working than ever before as true, but they said the president’s claim about job growth was misleading.
Job growth remained steady under Trump while the population was the largest it has ever been, meaning labor force participation has not kept up with the population, the New York Times noted.
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Fact-checkers swatted down Trump’s claim that he would "always" protect Medicaid, noting that the "big, beautiful bill," his signature tax and spending plan enacted in July 2025, cut nearly $1 trillion from the program by changing its eligibility requirements.
"With fewer people on Medicaid, the program costs less," FactCheck.org noted.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fact-checkers-challenge-trumps-eight-wars-claim-back-him-crime