President Donald Trump’s rambling tackle at the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner on Friday was full of far more insults than assertions of reality.
Even a few of these insults have been patently inaccurate, however we’ll go away them apart right here as jokes or hyperbole. We will tackle a few of the false claims with which Trump littered the speech’s occasional substantive remarks.
After joking about asserting a run for a “fourth term,” Trump lied that he has “won three times” as a result of the 2020 presidential election was a “rigged election.” Trump has gained twice, in 2016 and 2024, however he misplaced legitimately to Joe Biden in a free and truthful 2020 election. Approaching six years after Trump started claiming that election was rigged, he has by no means supplied something near substantiating proof.
Trump repeated his normal false declare that “we have $19.2 trillion being spent in our country.” That determine is fiction, as we have repeatedly noted.
At the time Trump stated it on Friday, the White House’s own website claimed there had been “$10.7 trillion” in “major investment announcements” this time period, not that $19.2 trillion is definitely being spent, and even the White House determine was a significant exaggeration of precise funding. A detailed NCS review in October discovered the White House was counting trillions of {dollars} in imprecise funding pledges – pledges that have been about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” somewhat than funding in the US – and imprecise statements that didn’t even rise to the stage of pledges.
The White House determine contains pledges from US-based firms in addition to overseas entities. Federal data revealed final month reveals that new overseas direct funding in the US was about $232 billion in 2025.
Trump once more overstated the decline in crime that the nation’s capital has skilled since his federal takeover of legislation enforcement there final yr, describing it as “almost a crime-free city.” It isn’t, as a fast look at native crime data, latest police press releases and native media experiences makes clear. A WUSA9 article only one week previous to the Friday speech was headlined, “Fatal shooting marks fifth homicide in D.C. in seven days”; it famous native police had recorded 56 homicides in the capital in 2026. The quantity was as much as 57 homicides as of Friday – down 38% from 2025 by the similar date, however removed from nothing.
Similarly, whereas the capital’s general crime is certainly down thus far this yr, police have nonetheless recorded greater than 11,000 complete crimes thus far – a discount of about 20% from final yr, not “88%” as Trump claimed Friday. Even with the latest enchancment, specialists have said there’s no foundation for Trump’s description of Washington as “one of the safest cities in the United States.”
Early in the speech, which happened at the Waldorf Astoria resort in Washington, Trump stated, “It’s great to be back at a place that I know very well – because I built it. And I’m very proud of it because I built it for $2.9 billion less than the Federal Reserve building.”
The value of the Fed’s renovation of two buildings in the capital has run well over its preliminary price range, however its present projected value is $2.5 billion. It’s doable that quantity will improve once more, so we definitely can’t name Trump’s declare false, but it surely’s price noting it isn’t presently identified to be in the “$3 to $4 billion” or “almost $4 billion” figures he has used in earlier remarks.
The Waldorf Astoria constructing was initially in-built the late 1800s as a grand publish workplace. In the 2010s, Trump leased the constructing and had it renovated right into a luxurious resort in what was reported as a $200 million challenge. Trump sold the lease in 2022.