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Fact-checking Trump's longest ever State of the Union

President Donald Trump said the US "is winning again" - making a series of claims about his record in a speech which lasted almost two hours.

U.S. NewsBy Wire ServicesFebruary 25, 20263 min read

Last updated: April 3, 2026, 11:28 PM

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Fact-checking Trump's longest ever State of the Union

ShareSaveJake Horton, Lucy Gilder & Tom EdgingtonBBC VerifyShareSaveReutersPresident Donald Trump delivered his longest speech to Congress - lasting one hour 47 minutes - and told US lawmakers that the "country is winning again" as he touted his administration's achievements.

The US economy and affordability were key themes in the address - which was the longest in decades. Trump also made claims about illegal immigration as well as ending a series of wars around the world.

BBC Verify has looked into them.

'Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them'

Prices are still rising but the rate of inflation has slowed since Trump took office at the start of last year.

It was 2.4% in the 12 months to January 2026 - down from 3% over President Biden's final year in office.

Prices rose significantly during Biden's first two years in office, peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which contributed to inflation across the globe.

Trump reeled off a list of grocery items including beef, claiming the price of it "which was very high, is starting to come down significantly".

Beef prices did fall slightly last month, but they had increased 15% in the 12 months to January 2026.

He also highlighted egg prices which have fallen by 34% over the past 12 months.

Overall grocery prices increased 2.1% in the 12 months to January 2026.

And some Trump policies have been blamed for adding to inflation - economists at Harvard University have estimated that Trump's tariffs (import taxes) in 2025 lifted the overall US rate of consumer price inflation (relative to where it would otherwise have been) by around 0.92 percentage points in January.

'Gasoline… is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states and in some places $1.99 a gallon'

As of 24 February, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline - or petrol - in the US is $2.95, according to the Automobile Association (AAA).

The only state we could find anywhere near $2.30 a gallon - on the website - is Oklahoma with an average price of $2.37 a gallon. That is the state with the lowest average price listed by the AAA.

During Trump's speech, the website GasBuddy said drivers could buy gasoline at below $2 per gallon - at four stations (out of an estimated 150,000) in the US.

Watch: Partisan divisions and Olympic gold medallists among key moments in Trump address'More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country'That claim is correct but there is additional context.

More than 158 million people were employed as of January 2026, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) - the highest figure on record.

But the population is the biggest on record - at more than 342 million people.

The percentage of people 16 or older employed in the US was 59.8% in January this year, slightly down from 60.1% in January 2025 when Biden left office.

And the unemployment rate is actually slightly up under Trump - from 4.1% in December 2024 (Biden's last full month in office) to 4.3% in January 2026.

'In 12 months I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe'

There is no publicly available evidence to support a figure this big.

A White House website tracks "new investment in U.S. manufacturing, technology, and infrastructure" since Trump returned to office.

Its latest total - updated overnight - is $9.7tn (£7.2tn), still a big figure but much less than the president claims.

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