- President Donald Trump touted the economy and tax breaks in his annual State of the Union address
- Trump announced he’ll award the Medal of Freedom to Michigan native Connor Hellebuyck, the goalie for the US hockey gold medal team
- The president also made misleading statements about tariffs, voter fraud and drug prices
President Donald Trump celebrated Michigan Olympians and “heartland villages’ in a lengthy State of the Union address on Tuesday that was underscored by economic anxiety and his recent tariff loss at the US Supreme Court.
In a nearly two-hour speech to Congress, Trump touted his sweeping actions in his first year back in the White House while calling on federal lawmakers to back his health care, immigration and voter identification priorities.
Here’s a look at some of the president’s comments, including fact checks, Michigan connections and what his proposals mean for the state.
Trump says he’ll give Medal of Freedom to Michigan goalie
Trump used the speech to congratulate US athletes fresh off of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, including the gold-medal winning US men’s hockey team — several of whom have ties to Michigan.
Among those in attendance were goalkeeper Connor Hellebuyck of Commerce Township, who blocked 41 shots during the final match against Canada. Trump said he’s “never seen a goaltender play as well” and announced that he planned to award Hellebuyck the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the US.
In a rare display of bipartisanship, lawmakers gave the hockey players a standing ovation as they entered the House chamber after a shoutout from Trump. Rep. Lisa McClain, the Republican House Conference Chair of Michigan, shouted “Love you!”
Trump then gave a shoutout to the women’s team, who also received a standing ovation despite not being in attendance.
The president invited the men’s team to the speech in a Sunday phone call in the locker room following the gold medal win, during which he joked that he “probably would be impeached” if he didn’t also extend an invitation to the women’s hockey team, who also won gold against Canada.
The women’s team declined the president’s invitation to attend the address, citing scheduling conflicts. Trump said during his speech that he expects the team to be visiting the White House soon.
At least 11 athletes with Michigan ties won gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, including Jack Hughes and Megan Keller, who scored the “golden goals” in men’s and women’s hockey, respectively.
Trump misleadingly claims that tariff revenues are ‘saving’ the US
“It’s saving our country, the kind of money we’re taking in,” Trump said of tariffs, defending his strategy.
Trump has imposed massive tax hikes on imports, but they’re not sizable enough to make a dent in the government’s annual budget deficits. Nor have the tariffs corresponded with manufacturing job gains.
Before the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs based on an emergency declaration, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that his new taxes would raise $3 trillion over 10 years, or $300 billion annually.
That’s not enough to cover the cost of his $4.7 trillion in tax cuts, including additional interest cuts, that favored companies and the wealthy. Nor is it enough to pay down an annual budget deficit that last year was $1.78 trillion.
Calling the Supreme Court ruling “very unfortunate,” Trump said he’d continue to levy tariffs under alternative legal statutes, claiming congressional action will not be necessary.
Michigan’s border state status and longstanding business ties with Canada makes its economy especially vulnerable to volatility, experts have said, noting smaller firms can be particularly susceptible because they already operate with tighter margins.
But Trump and auto unions have praised the strategy’s impacts on domestic job creation, last fall crediting tariff policies as a factor in a $13 billion investment announcement from Stellantis and Michigan-based Whirlpool’s $300 million investment in Ohio.
John Sellek, a spokesperson for the Michigan Smart Trade Alliance, which includes the state retailers association and other groups, said in a Tuesday statement that businesses “want smart, consistent trade policies that create jobs, protect our relationship with Canada and lower prices.”
“We hope Congress enacts trade policies that work for Michigan and that provide businesses the predictability they need to plan and grow,” he continued.
Tariffs have been paid by US firms and consumers
Trump claimed foreign countries have paid for his sweeping set of tariffs, but nearly every study finds otherwise.
The Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Kiel Institut in Germany and economists from Harvard and the University of Chicago have concluded that nearly all the costs have been paid by U.S. firms and consumers.
Tariffs are paid by companies that import goods, like Hiblow USA Inc. of Saline. As part of a legal brief submitted to the Supreme Court last fall, the company said it expected to pay up to $2 million in tariffs last year on air pumps invented and imported from Japan.
“To be clear, we pay the full amount of tariffs assessed by US CBP,” the company said. “This amount will eventually have to be passed on to our customers and end-users and will certainly stall our hiring and capital investments in the U.S. in the interim period.”
Tariffs won’t replace income taxes
Trump claimed tariff revenue will “like in the past, substantially replace the modern day system of income tax.’’
Not likely. Under Trump, tariff revenues have swelled — to $195 billion in the budget year that ended Sept. 30 from $77 billion the year before.
But the import taxes accounted for less than 4% of federal revenue. Income taxes and payroll taxes that finance Social Security and Medicare account for 84%.
Data Center deal?
While he did not offer much detail, the president said he had negotiated a deal with tech companies involved in artificial intelligence to pay higher electricity rates in areas where their data centers are located.
Data centers tend to use large volumes of electricity, potentially increasing the cost of power to other consumers in the area.
Lured by new state tax breaks, hyperscale data centers have been proposed in at least 11 Michigan counties. In some areas, local communities are fighting the proposed developments, and others have established temporary moratoriums to prevent them.
Trump falsely claimed voter fraud is ‘rampant’
“I’m asking you to approve the Save America Act to stop illegal aliens and others who are unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections,” Trump said. “The cheating is rampant in our elections.”
Experts say voter fraud is extremely rare, and very few noncitizens ever slip through the cracks.
For example, a recent review in Michigan identified 15 people who appear to be noncitizens who voted in the 2024 general election, out of more than 5.7 million ballots cast in the state. Of those, 13 were referred to the attorney general for potential criminal charges. One involved a voter who has since died, and the final case remains under investigation.
Trump touts health care proposal
“That’s why I introduced the Great Healthcare Plan,” he said. “I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care.”
Trump is referring to a health care proposal he pitched to congressional Republicans in January, in hopes that they would turn it into legislation to make health care more affordable. No such legislation has gotten enough momentum to pass yet.
His pitch, a general outline of ideas he wants turned into law, calls for sending money directly to Americans in health savings accounts so they can handle health costs as they see fit.
Democrats have rejected the idea as a paltry substitute for Affordable Care Act tax credits that had helped lower monthly premiums for many people before the Republican-led Congress let them expire in the new year.
Drug prices can’t be cut by more than 100%
“I took prescription drugs, a very big part of health care, from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest,” Trump said. “That’s a big achievement. The result is price differences of 300%, 400%, 500%, 600% and more.”
This is impossible. Although the Trump administration has taken steps to lower drug prices, cutting them by more than 100% would theoretically mean that people are being paid to take medications.
Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center, said in August that this claim is “total fiction” made up by the president. He agreed that it would amount to drug companies paying customers, rather than the other way around.
Trump’s claim U.S. is ‘the hottest country’ misses context
“Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world, the hottest.”
The U.S. economy has generally performed strongly in Trump’s second term — after getting off to a bumpy start.
GDP shrank for the first time in three years during the first quarter of 2025. Growth rebounded in the second half of the year — from April through June, the economy expanded at a healthy 3.8% pace. And from July through September, it grew even faster — 4.4%. It slowed in the fourth quarter, increasing at only a 1.4% annual rate.
A key measure of inflation fell to nearly a five-year low in January. However, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, it remains elevated as the cost of goods such as furniture, clothes and groceries increase. Companies have also sharply reduced hiring.
The U.S. stock market did well last year, and yet it underperformed many foreign markets. The benchmark S&P 500 index climbed 17% — a nice gain but short of a 71% surge in South Korea, 29% in Hong Kong, 26% in Japan, 22% in Germany and 21% in the United Kingdom.
Trump’s big tax breaks divided Congress
“I urged this Congress to begin the mission by passing the largest tax cuts in American history, and our Republican majorities delivered so beautifully,” he said. “Thank you Republicans.”
Republicans’ tax and spending package that Trump signed into law last summer includes various provisions that eliminate federal income taxes on tips for people working in jobs that have traditionally received them, a deduction for older Americans and the creation of Trump accounts.
Republicans jumped to cheer on their side of the aisle when Trump praised the law. And when Trump criticized Democrats for voting against it, they too stood and cheered.
The bill that became law is the most significant legislative achievement for the president and his party, so far, in his second term.
It extended many tax cuts that had been approved during Trump’s first term and were about to expire. The package also offered new tax breaks including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and others.
Trump repeated claim that tax law contains ‘no tax on social security’
“And with the great big beautiful bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security,” he said.
Trump frequently says his big tax cut bill means no tax on Social Security.
But that’s not true for everyone. Not all Social Security beneficiaries will be able to claim the deduction, which lasts four years until 2029. Those who won’t be able to do so include the lowest-income seniors who already don’t pay taxes on Social Security, those who choose to claim their benefits before they reach age 65 and those above a defined income threshold.
The deductions also phase out as income increases.
Trump promised to allow migrants who ‘love our country’
“We will always allow people to come in legally, people that will love our country and will work hard to maintain our country,” he said.
Trump has actually taken steps to restrict who can emigrate to the U.S. often in the name of protecting national security.
He suspended the refugee program on his first day in office and in October resumed the program but only in limited numbers for white South Africans.
Trump has also placed restrictions on who can travel or emigrate to the U.S. from nearly 40 countries. Many of those countries are in Africa.
Investment accounts for kids
“Tax free investment accounts for every American child,” he said. “This is something that’s so special. It has taken off and gone through the roof.”
Part of Trump’s tax legislation, Trump Accounts are meant to give $1,000 to every newborn, so long as their parents open an account.
That money is then invested in the stock market by private firms, and the child can access the money when they turn 18.
Parents can contribute up to $2,500 annually in pretax income, and yearly contributions are capped at $5,000. Some of the country’s wealthiest businesspeople have contributed tens of billions of dollars to the initiative, including billionaires Michael and Susan Dell and hedge fund founder Ray Dalio and his wife Barbara.
Several major companies announced plans to add Trump Accounts contributions to their benefits packages, including Uber, Intel, IBM, Nvidia and Steak ’n Shake.
Falling fentanyl seizures
“The flow of deadly fentanyl across our border is down by a record 56% in one year,” Trump said.
He appeared to be referring to fentanyl seizures, not the amount of fentanyl that got through undetected, which is unknown.
Fentanyl seizures at U.S. land borders and airports started dropping in 2023 and have continued to fall during Trump’s first year in office. Fentanyl seizures on the Mexican border dropped at 50% annual clip in October and at a 22% annual clip in January, the latest data available.
Monthly seizures were regularly above a half-ton before Trump took office but fell below that mark for 10 of his first 12 months as president. Trump has heavily pressured Mexico to increase enforcement but it’s unclear what is driving the decline.
Adam Isacson, a policy analyst at the Washington Office of Latin America, has said other possible explanations include less demand in the United States, infighting among Mexican cartels and new scanners that were installed at border crossings during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Record low numbers of migrants at southern border
“In the past 9 months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States,” Trump said.
Arrests for illegal crossings have plummeted to their lowest levels since the mid-1960s under Trump’s watch.
Republicans including Trump constantly criticized President Joe Biden for the number of migrants arriving at the southern border.
Arrivals hit a peak of 250,000 in December 2023. Then they started to fall to less than 50,000 in December 2024, Biden’s last full month in office.
They’ve plummeted even further under Trump.
The January tally of 6,070 arrests along the Mexican border translates to the lowest annualized rate since 1967.
Critics say the drop has carried big moral and humanitarian costs by ending asylum at the border.
80 million barrels of Venezuelan oil
The president said the U.S. has received more than 80 million barrels of oil from its “new friend and partner, Venezuela.”
That exceeds what his administration had initially projected in the days after the U.S. military carried out a stunning raid in Venezuela’s capital last month and captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Venezuela’s oil industry produces roughly 1 million barrels a day. The country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
Trump vowed to turn around Venezuela’s crippling oil industry after Maduro was captured and taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
Trump misstates gas prices, again
Trump said gas prices now are below $2.30 per gallon in most states, which overstates the price drop since last year.
According to AAA, the national average was $2.95 per gallon as of Tuesday, and $2.91 in Michigan.
That’s below the $3.14 average as one year ago, but not nearly as low as Trump claims.
Trump inflates foreign investment
“I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe,” he said.
Trump has presented no evidence that he’s secured this much domestic or foreign investment in the U.S. Based on statements from various companies, foreign countries and the White House’s own website, that figure appears to be exaggerated, highly speculative and far higher than the actual sum. The White House website offers a far lower number, $9.6 trillion, and that figure appears to include some investment commitments made during the Biden administration.
A study published in January raised doubts about whether more than $5 trillion in investment commitments made last year by many of America’s biggest trading partners will actually materialize and questions how it would be spent if it did.
Murder rate drop
“Last year, the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history,” Trump said.
Homicide rates did drop sharply in many cities last year. But violent crime has been trending downward for years in the U.S. after a spike during the coronavirus pandemic. And experts say the historic drop in violence defies easy explanation despite elected officials at all levels rushing to claim credit.
A study from the Council on Criminal Justice — a nonpartisan think tank — released in January showed a more than 20% drop in the homicide rate between 2024 and 2025 in 35 cities that reported data. Some cities, including Denver and Washington, reported a 40% decrease.
FBI reports for 2023 and 2024 also showed significant reductions in violent crimes. Violent crime dropped to near pre-pandemic levels around 2022 when Biden was president.
Income growth not ‘rising fast’
“Incomes are rising fast, the roaring economy is roaring like never before,” Trump said.
After-tax incomes, adjusted for inflation, rose just 0.9% in 2025, down from 2.2% in 2024. That is the smallest annual gain since 2022, when inflation soared and caused Americans’ inflation-adjusted income to drop.
Wages and salaries are the largest component of incomes, and their growth has slowed as companies have sharply slowed hiring. Workers typically command smaller wage gains in such an environment.
House Democrat escorted out
Barely two minutes into the address, the House Sergeant at Arms approached and escorted out US Rep. Al Green of Texas, a Democrat who stood as Trump began speaking with a sign reading “Black People Aren’t Apes!”
Two Trump allies, Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas and Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, had approached the area where Green was sitting before Capitol Police escorted him out. Before Green exited, some Republicans began chanting “USA.”
Later, Michigan US Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, was seen shouting towards Trump as the president discussed his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois, the head of the House Democrats’ campaign arm’s candidate recruitment efforts, left the chamber during Trump’s speech. Underwood shook her head as she stood with her purse and coat.
She waved goodbye to some of her Democratic women colleagues. The women, who were each wearing white as an homage to the suffragist movement, exchanged chuckles before Underwood quietly darted out the back.
Trump didn’t inherit a ‘stagnant economy’
“When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis, with a stagnant economy,” he said.
Not quite.
Voters were unhappy with high inflation in the 2024 election, but the U.S. economy was far from stagnant.
U.S. gross domestic product rose 2.8% in 2024 after adjusting for inflation. That’s a stronger pace of growth than the 2.2% achieved last year during the start of Trump’s second term.
Snow cleanup claims
“We’d love to give you a hand at cleaning it up, but you gave no money,” he said. “Nobody’s getting paid.”
Trump said an ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown was preventing the federal government from “helping people clean up their snow,” referring to the massive snowstorm that impacted much of the northeastern U.S. this week.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, housed under DHS, rarely helps states with snow cleanup, except in some instances of record snowfall or near-record snowfall, or when an ice storm causes catastrophic damage. States first request a disaster declaration that the president must approve.
A government shutdown also doesn’t necessarily stop FEMA disaster response: The more than 10,000 staff who make up the bulk of FEMA’s disaster response and recovery force continue to work and be paid during a government shutdown, and disaster spending can continue for as long as the agency’s non-lapsing Disaster Relief Fund has money.
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