Fact-Checking Trump’s 2020 State of the Union Address and the Democratic Response President Trump spoke to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. Reporters for The Times listened to his speech and fact-checked his claims. Video President Trump addressed a divided Congress as his impeachment trial neared its conclusion. Credit Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times President Trump spoke to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, a day before the Senate was expected to acquit him in his impeachment trial. A team of New York Times reporters who cover the economy, national security, health care and more listened and fact-checked his claims as he speaks.

Mr. Trump exaggerated and inaccurately portrayed elements of his record, including that there has been a decline in drug overdose deaths for the first time in more than 30 years (mostly true), that the administration has sought to always protect Medicare and Social Security (misleading) and that there is a blue-collar boom (needs context).

Among those in attendance in the House chamber on Tuesday night were the opposition leader Juan Guaidó, whom Mr. Trump singled out as the “true and legitimate president” of Venezuela, and the conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Catch up on the key moments.

Feb. 4, 2020, 10:39 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 10:39 p.m. ET By Whitmer: “American workers are hurting. In my own state. Our neighbors in Wisconsin. And Ohio. And Pennsylvania. All over the country. Wages have stagnated, while C.E.O. pay has skyrocketed.” This lacks context. This claim was made by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan in the official Democratic response. Assessing it depends on the time frame. Over the last two decades, by several measures, pay for typical workers has barely increased; it was not until 2017 that America’s median household income, adjusted for inflation, topped the level it hit in 1999. But that median grew by 1.4 percent in 2017 and 0.9 percent in 2018, according to the Census Bureau. Executive pay is up nearly tenfold since 1979 according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research organization, and by one measure, it grew 10 percent in 2018. But it remained lower in 2018 than it was in 2007.

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Feb. 4, 2020, 10:18 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 10:18 p.m. ET By “This is the first major trade deal in many years to earn the strong backing of America’s labor unions.” Image President Trump delivering the State of the Union at the Capitol on Tuesday. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times This is true. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement earned the endorsement of the powerful A.F.L.-C.I.O., which had not endorsed a trade agreement since a pact with Jordan in 2001. But that endorsement was largely because of the work of congressional Democrats, who made changes to the agreement that strengthened its protections for labor rights in Mexico. Most labor unions ultimately signed on to the U.S.M.C.A., but not all — the United Automobile Workers, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the United Food and Commercial Workers have continued to criticize the pact.

Feb. 4, 2020, 10:17 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 10:17 p.m. ET By “As we defend American lives, we are working to end America’s wars in the Middle East.” Partly true. No doubt that the Trump administration is closer to a peace settlement with the Afghan Taliban than any previous administration. President Trump has also promised a complete troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, though he has yet to order it. But since May, Mr. Trump has actually deployed more than 14,000 troops to the Middle East to deter Iran from potential attacks and to safeguard American forces and bases. The partial troop withdrawal from Syria last fall was just that, partial. About 500 troops in northeastern Syria are still fighting the Islamic State, wedged between Turkish proxy forces, Russian ground troops and Syrian government forces. In Iraq, about 5,200 troops remain, though the defense secretary, Mark T. Esper, has said he is considering withdrawing some forces from the country, according to Defense Department officials.

Feb. 4, 2020, 10:13 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 10:13 p.m. ET By “Three years ago, the barbarians of ISIS held over 20,000 square miles of territory in Iraq and Syria. Today, the ISIS territorial caliphate has been 100 percent destroyed, and the founder and leader of ISIS — the bloodthirsty killer known as Al‑Baghdadi — is dead.” This is true. On its face, this is a factually accurate statement: The Islamic State controlled about 23,300 square miles in January 2017 and was pushed out of its last patch of territory, in Baghuz, Syria, in March 2019. An American raid on Mr. al-Baghdadi’s compound in October 2019 led the Islamic State leader to kill himself before he could be captured. But it is also important to remember that national security officials and experts had always anticipated that the war against the Islamic State, started by former President Barack Obama in 2014, would result in pushing the extremist group from its self-declared caliphate. Additionally, while the Islamic State no longer controls any territory, it remains a potent threat: Administration officials estimate up to 18,000 fighters still remain and the group is resurging in rural areas in Iraq and Syria where American and local forces have little physical presence.

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Feb. 4, 2020, 10:08 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 10:08 p.m. ET By “Following NAFTA’s adoption, our nation lost one in four manufacturing jobs.” Image President Trump delivering the State of the Union at the Capitol on Tuesday. Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times This is misleading. The United States has lost about four million of its 17 million factory jobs since NAFTA went into effect in 1994. But American factory employment actually increased in the years immediately after the deal going into effect, and few economists blame the North American trade deal for the kind of immense job loss the president is talking about. Economists debate the jobs effects from NAFTA, but most agree that the deal had a relatively modest impact, destroying jobs in some communities where factories went to Mexico, but creating other jobs elsewhere. China’s entry into the global trading system when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, as well as continued automation in factories, has led to more significant job losses in the manufacturing sector.

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Feb. 4, 2020, 10:01 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 10:01 p.m. ET By “This is a blue-collar boom. Real median household income is now at the highest level ever recorded.” This needs context. Real median household income is now at its highest levels. And average hourly earnings growth has accelerated under President Trump for manufacturing workers, outpacing inflation. But employment growth in manufacturing, which Mr. Trump promoted in his speech last year, slowed to fewer than 50,000 jobs in 2019 — the worst rate of his presidency and the second worst of the long recovery from recession. And job growth has slowed sharply — from 2.6 percent at the start of 2019 to 1.3 percent at the end of the year — in so-called middle-wage sectors that include mining, construction and transportation.

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Feb. 4, 2020, 9:58 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 9:58 p.m. ET By “To protect the environment, days ago, I announced that the United States will join the One Trillion Trees Initiative, an ambitious effort to bring together government and the private sector to plant new trees in America and around the world.” This needs context. President Trump did not use the phrase “climate change,” but the plan to plant one trillion trees — unveiled last month by the World Economic Forum in Davos and embraced by Republicans as a way to address global warming — will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that are driving planetary warming. But just how much all these trees will help is disputed. According to a report last year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the United States produced about 5.8 billion tons of emissions in 2019. Getting that much carbon out of the atmosphere with trees alone would require planting on about 371 million acres — about four times the area of California.

Feb. 4, 2020, 9:53 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 9:53 p.m. ET By “We will always protect your Medicare and your Social Security always.” This is misleading. Not only has President Trump failed to strengthen Medicare and Social Security, but the financial outlook for both trusts has not improved or worsened. That is at least partly the result of Mr. Trump’s tax law, which has left the Treasury Department to collect fewer taxes from Americans and, in turn, invest less money into each program. Last April, the government projected that Medicare funds would be depleted by 2026, three years earlier than estimated in 2017. The report noted that less money will flow into the fund because of low wages and lower taxes.

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Feb. 4, 2020, 9:51 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 9:51 p.m. ET By Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who led Iran’s Quds force before he died in a targeted killing ordered by President Trump, “directed the December assault on United States Forces in Iraq, and was actively planning new attacks.” Image Mourners with pictures of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Tehran in January. Credit... Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times This is misleading. General Suleimani commanded all activities in Iraq, but there is no public evidence — other than President Trump’s own claim — that he directed the December attacks. While General Suleimani was presumed to be planning more attacks, Mr. Trump has evaded his own cabinet members’ statements, later amended, that the general was killed because a new attack was “imminent.” It is a critical omission, because the killing may be considered illegal under international law unless an attack was imminent.

Feb. 4, 2020, 9:50 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2020, 9:50 p.m. ET By “The U.S.M.C.A. will create nearly 100,000 new high-paying American auto jobs.” This is false. The nonpartisan International Trade Commission has estimated that the agreement would create about 28,000 jobs in the auto sector. President Trump’s own United States trade representative has a higher estimate — 76,000 new jobs in the next five years — but still one that falls short of Mr. Trump’s claims today. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement raises barriers to imported cars and car parts in an effort to encourage auto manufacturing in the United States, which results in some job gains. But in so doing, it will also raise the price of American cars and other vehicles, and lower both vehicle consumption and production, economists say.

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