(EDITOR’S NOTE:Defense Secretary Hegseth at a cabinet meeting in the White House on Dec. 2 pledged to continue attacking boats and killing those on board when those boats are carrying drugs to the U.S. However, he offered no proof that boats that have been struck by the U.S.military to date actually were carrying drugs nor did he offer details on how those targets were selected.)
When he was speaking, President Trump made numerous false claims and, as usual, most of them had previously been debunked.
Trump repeated familiar false claims about consumer prices, investment in the US, foreign affairs, public safety, the 2020 election, and his signature domestic policy legislation, among other topics.
Grocery prices: Trump repeated his false claim that “grocery prices are down.” They’re up. The most recent available Consumer Price Index figures, for September, show average grocery prices were up about 2.7% from September 2024; about 1.4% from January 2025, the month Trump returned to office; and about 0.3% from August to September.
Prescription drug prices: Trump repeated his false claim that an executive order he issued on prescription drug prices will “slash drug prices by 200%, 300%, 400%, 500%, 600%, 700%, 800%,” adding, “Nobody’s ever heard of it before”; later in the meeting, he used a “900%” figure. Nobody has heard of such reductions because they are mathematically impossible; if the president magically got the companies to reduce the prices of all of their drugs to $0, that would be a 100% cut.
Inflation under Trump: Trump falsely claimed, “Since last January, we’ve stopped inflation in its tracks.” That’s a vague phrase, but it’s not true by any reasonable definition of “stopped in its tracks.” Inflation hasn’t been stopped at all; the year-over-year inflation rate in September, 3.0%, was the same as the rate in January – in fact, if you go to multiple decimal places, the September rate was a tiny bit higher – and September was the fifth consecutive month the year-over-year rate had increased. (In fairness, Trump did add Tuesday: “And there’s still more to do, there’s always more to do, but we have it down to a very good level.”)
Inflation under President Joe Biden: Trump repeated his false claim that “I inherited the worst inflation in history.” He added, “They say it’s the worst inflation that we’ve had in 48 years, I say ever.” Again, Trump inherited a 3.0% inflation rate, same as the most recent rate. He could have fairly said the year-over-year US inflation rate hit a 40-year high under Biden in June 2022, when it was 9.1%, but that was not close to the all-time record of 23.7%, set in 1920. Trump was also wrong if he was claiming there was record cumulative inflation over the course of Biden’s presidency; it was much higher during the Jimmy Carter administration.
Investment in the US: After referring to “new investments in the United States,” Trump repeated his false claim that “we’ve secured commitments of over $18 trillion.” This figure is fiction. At the time he spoke on Tuesday, the White House’s own website said the figure was “$9.6 trillion,” and even that is a major exaggeration; a detailed CNN review in October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the US, or vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges.
Gas prices: Talking about gas prices, Trump claimed, “We’re now at about $2.50 a gallon.” This claim isn’t false, since AAA found seven states had Tuesday average gas prices below $2.60 per gallon (and Oklahoma was under $2.50, at about $2.40 per gallon), but it’s worth noting that the national average remains well above $2.50 per gallon – almost exactly $3.00 per gallon, according to AAA.
Foreign affairs
US aid to Ukraine: Trump repeated his false claim that “Biden gave away $350 billion” in aid to Ukraine, adding, “That’s a massive amount of money.” Trump’s figure isn’t close to accurate. The US government inspector general overseeing the federal Ukraine response says the US had disbursed about $94 billion as of the end of June 2025 (and had appropriated about $93 billion more), including money that was spent in the US and in broader Europe rather than Ukraine itself. And a German think tank that has closely tracked wartime aid to Ukraine says the US allocated about $133 billion to Ukraine (and had committed about $5 billion more) through August, at current exchange rates.
Trump and wars: Trump repeated his false claim that “we ended eight wars” and “I’ve settled eight wars.” While Trump has played a role in resolving some conflicts (at least temporarily), the “eight” figure is a clear exaggeration.
Trump has explained that his list of supposed wars settled includes a war between Egypt and Ethiopia, but that wasn’t actually a war; it is a long-running diplomatic dispute about a major Ethiopian dam project on a tributary of the Nile River, a dispute that is unresolved. Trump’s list includes another supposed war that didn’t actually occur during his presidency, between Serbia and Kosovo. (He has sometimes claimed to have prevented the eruption of a new war between those two entities, providing few details about what he meant, but that is different than settling an actual war.) And his list includes a supposed success in ending a war involving the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, but that war has continued despite a peace agreement brokered by the Trump administration this year – which was never signed by the leading rebel coalition doing the fighting.
One can debate the importance of Trump’s role in having ended the other conflicts on his list, or fairly question whether some of them have truly ended. For example, killing continued in Gaza in November after the October ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Regardless, Trump’s “eight” figure is too big.
Strikes on alleged drug boats: Defending his military strikes on alleged drug boats in international waters, Trump repeated his false claim that “every boat that you see get blown up, we save 25,000 – on average – lives; 25,000 lives.”
Aside from the fact that the Trump administration has not presented public proof for his repeated claims that the boats carried deadly fentanyl – the Caribbean, where most of the strikes have occurred, is not known to be a significant fentanyl-smuggling route – his “25,000” number does not make sense. The total number of US overdose deaths from all drugs in 2024 was about 82,000, according to provisional federal data.
The president’s figure is “absurd,” Carl Latkin, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University school of public health with a joint appointment at its medical school, said in October. Y
Miscellaneous
The 2020 election: Trump repeated his lies that the 2020 election was “a fake election” and “a rigged election.” Trump legitimately lost a free and fair election to Biden.
Crime in Washington, DC: Trump falsely claimed that Washington, DC, now has “no murders,” though he also discussed last week’s deadly attack on National Guard troops. Even before that attack, there continued to be homicides in Washington after Trump deployed the Guard there in August; here are some examples from November alone. Trump made a similar remark last week, falsely claiming the capital hadn’t had a single murder “in six months.”
Trump’s bill and Social Security: Trump repeated his false claim that the big domestic policy bill he signed earlier this year includes “no tax on Social Security.” The legislation did create an additional, temporary $6,000-per-year tax deduction for individuals age 65 and older (with a smaller deduction for individuals earning $75,000 per year or more), but the White House itself has implicitly acknowledged that millions of Social Security recipients age 65 and older will continue to pay taxes on their benefits – and that new deduction, which expires in 2028, doesn’t even apply to the Social Security recipients who are younger than 65.
The-CNN-Wire
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