WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump mischaracterized core elements of the U.S. economy and stretched the facts when claiming he overthrew the Iranian government. when he addressed the nation It’s Wednesday night as gas prices continue to rise and inflation continues.
Here’s a look at some of what he said.
Claim: “After the last administration, we went from being a dead, crippled country to being the hottest country ever, with no inflation.”
Fact: This is President Trump’s standard argument. However, the economy he inherited was by no means weak. In 2024, the final year of Joe Biden’s presidency, America’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an inflation-adjusted 2.8%, faster than any other wealthy country in the world except Spain. It also expanded at a healthy pace from 2021 to 2023. In fact, U.S. economic growth slowed to a still respectable 2.1% last year under the Trump administration, in part because the 43-day federal government shutdown slowed growth from October to December.
Inflation hasn’t gone away either. The consumer price index for February announced by the Ministry of Labor rose 2.4% compared to the same month last year. It remains above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
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Claim: “Regime change was never our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change occurred with the death of all the original leaders. They are all dead. The new group is less radical and much more rational.”
Fact: President Trump’s portrayal of those currently in charge in Iran, after numerous senior leaders were killed in the war, overstates its credibility.
An Israeli airstrike at the start of the war on February 28 killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. After that, Iran installed his son Mojtaba, who is seen as an even more hardline figure, as its supreme leader. The month-long war has further strengthened the power of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards. Iran’s civilian leadership, largely unaffected by the war, acknowledges that the country has little command and control over the Guard’s actions.
Both Trump and Israel have indicated their intention to instruct the Iranian people to rise up to take back their government at the point of war. That hasn’t happened.
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Claim: “This murderous regime recently killed 45,000 of its own citizens protesting in Iran.”
Fact: This number of deaths has never been confirmed.
The US-based group Human Rights Defenders News Agency, which has accurately reported multiple demonstrations in Iran, said it had confirmed just over 7,000 deaths in the nationwide protests that culminated in January. However, Iran announced that thousands more may have been killed, although it has become extremely difficult to verify reports since internet and communications restrictions have been imposed in Iran. The total number of people arrested was more than 53,000.
The Iranian government has long downplayed the death toll in other uprisings, but released its only death toll on January 21, when it announced that 3,117 people had been killed.
President Trump has previously said that at least 32,000 people died in protests in January, far below the death toll estimates provided by activists. He provided no evidence to support these numbers.
this is How does the Associated Press report? Regarding the number of deaths caused by protests in Iran.
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Claim: “We are now completely independent from the Middle East, but we are still there to help. We don’t need to be there. We don’t need their oil.”
Fact: It is true that the United States is by far the world’s largest oil producer and relies on the Persian Gulf for a portion of its oil imports (8.5% in 2025). But as one look at American gas pumps makes clear, the country is not immune to the turmoil in the Middle East.
Sam Ori, an energy analyst at the University of Chicago, said before Trump’s speech that oil is a commodity and “prices are set in global markets,” adding: “Any disruption anywhere will affect prices everywhere.” That’s why the price of benchmark U.S. crude oil has risen more than 50% since the start of the Iran war, and why the average price of a U.S. gallon of gasoline topped $4 a gallon this week.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Calvin Woodward contributed to this report.
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Find AP fact checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
