Trump State of the Union Address falls short factually

Haley Daniels, Section Editor

President Donald Trump walks to his limousine to depart the White House en route to the U.S. Capitol to give the State of the Union Address, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald J. Trump gave the annual State of the Union Address on January 30, 2018, and the speech consisted of Trump congratulating people while also making both false statements and some true.

He started his speech by thanking Ashlee Leppert, Coast Guard Petty Officer; Steve Scalise, a member of the House; and David Dahlberg, a firefighter; according to the transcript published on CNN.  

Later Trump rolled out some questionable facts.  Trump claimed to have “enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history.” This is false, since “… four other tax cuts have been bigger than Trump’s since the 1960s: Those of President John F. Kennedy’s passed in 1964, President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cuts, and the 2010 and 2013 tax cuts under President Barack Obama, which included making permanent earlier tax cuts signed by President George W. Bush,” according to a CNN fact check.

Another one of Trump’s false statements was in regards to rising wages. Trump said, “After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.” There were not multiple years of wage stagnation, considering current wages are rising at a slower rate than they were at the end of President Obama’s second term, according to The New York Times.

Some of Trump’s speech simply didn’t match the facts.  Trump said, “Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States — something we have not seen for decades.” However, according to The New York Times, there has not been a surge in automotive employment; it has actually declined from a year ago.

Also, Trump made an exaggerated claim surrounding jobs. “Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone.”

There have only been 1.8 million jobs created since January of 2017, and it has been the slowest gain in jobs since 2010, according to The Washington Post.  

Following Trump’s speech, Sarah Sanders, White House Press Secretary, told House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to “smile a lot more,” according to CNN.  

Along with the multiple lies told during Trump’s speech, he tweeted, “Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history. @FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!”

According to CNN and NY Daily News, Trump’s State of Union Address was not the most watched, with former President Obama tallying up 48 million, and several others with more, according to Nielson.