FACT CHECK: 3 false claims Trump made about the economy at his State of the Union address
Claim 1: “I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been.”
Claim 2: "Since my election, we have created 7 million new jobs, 5 million more than government experts projected during the previous administration … The average unemployment rate under my administration is lower than any administration in the history of our country."
This claim is false. The labor market has been expanding for a record 111 months. About 6.7 million jobs have been created since Trump took office in 2017, an amount that is solid but not unprecedented. In the 36 months before the 2016 election, the US economy added more than 8 million jobs.
It isn't clear how the White House came to its conclusion on the average unemployment rate, since past presidents have scored lower and a president in the third year of his term isn't comparable to those of four- to eight-year terms.
Claim 3: “We are restoring our nation's manufacturing might, even though predictions were that this could never be done.”
This claim is misleading. The Trump administration has long emphasized an "America First" approach that it said would bring back manufacturing jobs. While there was an uptick in factory activity in 2017, it was short-lived.
US manufacturing has been in a technical recession since mid-2019. The sector has declined largely because of a broader slowdown across the globe and tit-for-tat tariff fights that drove up prices and disrupted supply chains.
Trump was correct that 12,000 new factories have been built during his term, but Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the vast majority of those consist of five or fewer people. In December, about 12,000 factory jobs were lost.
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