Debunk 11 false Trump claims at cabinet meeting

Speaking to reporters during a recent cabinet meeting at the White House, President Donald Trump deviated from the topic, delivering a series of inaccurate and misleading statements across a broad range of issues. Knewz.com has learned that the president made false claims on inflation, taxes, tariffs, clean energy, foreign aid and immigration. Here is a breakdown of 11 of his most notable inaccuracies…

Trump made false claims about the economy and tariffs

It has been reported that President Trump repeatedly, and falsely, claimed during the meeting that the United States has “no inflation.” However, data shows that the U.S. had an annual rate of inflation of 2.4% in May, an increase from a 2.3% annual rate in April. Furthermore, monthly consumer prices also rose 0.1% in May on a month-to-month basis. Speaking about his new domestic policy bill, President Trump repeated his false claim that it achieves his campaign promise of “no tax on Social Security.” In reality, it adds a temporary $6,000 deduction for seniors over 65 and a smaller deduction for individuals earning $75,000 per year or more. However, the White House has acknowledged that the legislation leaves most Social Security benefits still taxable. The deduction excludes those under 65 and expires in 2028. Trump also insisted that sending letters to foreign leaders announcing new tariffs constituted a “deal.” However, the letters merely outlined his unilateral tariff plans and are not the result of negotiations. Additionally, he repeated the claim that other countries pay U.S. tariffs, while the reality is that American importers are responsible for those payments, not foreign governments.

U.S. was ‘wealthiest’ from 1870 to 1913, Trump claims

Trump stated that the U.S. was “proportionately” at its “wealthiest” during the period from 1870 to 1913, when tariffs accounted for a larger portion of federal revenue before the federal income tax was reinstated. However, he did not clarify what he meant by either “proportionately” or “wealthiest.” According to economists, by virtually all standard metrics, especially per capita GDP, the U.S. economy today is significantly more prosperous than it was in that era.

Trump’s claims about the environment and energy

The president made incorrect claims about China and wind power, saying that the country has minimal wind energy infrastructure. He also called China “smart” for avoiding wind and solar energy. “They don’t have a lot of wind farms, I’ll tell you; very, very few,” the president said. However, in reality, China leads the world in wind power generation and continues to expand its capacities both onshore and offshore. Regarding California, Trump claimed the state suffers weekly blackouts due to its reliance on renewable energy. This, too, is false. According to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, the state has not experienced rotating outages since 2020. In fact, clean energy supplied 100% of the state’s grid demand for at least part of the day on 167 out of the first 180 days of 2025.

On foreign policy

President Trump repeated his frequent false claim that the U.S. has provided “far more” wartime aid to Ukraine than Europe, saying the U.S. is “in there for over $300 billion; Europe’s in there for over $100 billion.” However, figures from the Kiel Institute show the U.S. committed about $139 billion in total aid, while European nations and the EU together committed nearly $298 billion. Even in actual allocated aid, Europe has contributed more: around $183 billion to America’s $134 billion. Trump went on to accuse President Joe Biden of ending South Korea’s payments toward the costs of U.S. troops. In reality, Biden’s administration signed two cost-sharing agreements — one in 2021 and another in 2024 — that increased South Korea’s contributions. He also exaggerated the number of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, claiming there were 45,000. According to the Defense Department, there were 26,206 U.S. military personnel in the country as of March 31, 2025, with 22,844 of them on active duty. President Trump then reiterated his false claim that unnamed foreign countries “released their insane asylum – the insane asylum population into our country.” While this allegation has circulated in his speeches for years, even his campaign has failed to provide any documentation or a credible source for the claim.

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