State of the Truth Address

FactCheck, a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics, has monitored the factual accuracy of what was said by President Donald Trump in the State of the Union Address on February 24 2026. Their goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

Fact Finding the State of the Union Address

Trump SOTU Fact Check Full story here: https://www.factcheck.org/2026/02/factchecking-trumps-state-of-the-union-address/
	Trump’s State of the Union Address	Fact Checking the SOTU Address
1	Trump falsely claimed that he inherited “a stagnant economy” with “inflation at record levels.”	Annual growth in real GDP was 2.5% or higher each year under former President Joe Biden, and the annual inflation rate was down to 3% from its peak of 9.1% peak when Trump took office.
2	The president went on to claim that the economy “is roaring like never before,”	Real GDP growth in 2025 was down to 2.2%, according to a federal estimate. Also, the unemployment rate has increased slightly under Trump.
3	He misleadingly claimed that prices are “plummeting downward” because of his policies.	The annual rate of inflation has declined, but prices overall are still increasing.
4	Trump’s claim that “more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country,”	while accurate, doesn’t account for population growth. Job growth slowed a bit last year.
5	The president misleadingly claimed that Americans “will now pay the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs.”	The administration’s negotiations with drug companies may have lowered prices for some specific drugs in certain situations, but there is no evidence of a widespread decline in prices.
6	The president continued to exaggerate the decline in gasoline prices, saying they are “now below $2.36 a gallon in most states.”	In no state was the average that low. And the nationwide average is $2.94.
7	He claimed to have presided over a “tremendous renewal” of religion in America,	Recent polling has found the opposite.
8	Trump claimed that $1,776 “warrior dividend” bonus checks paid to military personnel came from tariff revenue.	It was actually a reallocation of funds initially earmarked for an increased housing allowance.
9	The president repeated his unsupported claim that many immigrants came from “prisons” and “mental institutions,”	He wrongly claimed that the Biden administration allowed in “11,888 murderers.”
10	Trump boasted about stock market gains since his election	The gains were less than each of the last two years under Biden.
11	He exaggerated when he said his signature legislation eliminated tax on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits for seniors.	The tax breaks are substantial but do not apply to all individuals.
12	As he has for years, Trump insisted, without evidence, that “cheating is rampant in our elections.”	He claimed legislation was needed “to stop illegal aliens” from voting, though evidence suggests that’s rare.
13	Trump claimed that the federal budget could be balanced “if we’re able to find enough of that fraud.”	The most recent budget deficit was $1.8 trillion, more than three times higher than the highest federal estimate of government money lost annually to fraud.
14	Trump claimed that he inherited “rampant crime at home” and later boasted that “last year, the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history.”	Crime and murder was down last year, continuing a trend that began in 2022.
15	Trump made the dubious claim that his increased tariffs would one day replace income taxes,	Something many economists say doesn’t add up.
16	Trump claimed that the U.S. “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program” last year.	Experts have said the program was damaged but not destroyed, and Trump is now considering military action over Iran’s nuclear program.
17	Trump said “American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day,”	Crude oil production increased by 334,600 barrels per day in his first full 10 months in office.
18	He also claimed that U.S. natural gas production increased to “an all-time high” because he “kept” his “promise to drill, baby, drill.”	Production of natural gas was already at record levels before he took office.

Fact Finding the State of the Truth Address February 24, 2026

Trump’s Feb. 24 address was longer than any prior SOTU, clocking in at over 1 hour and 47 minutes, as measured by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

References

By Robert Farley, D'Angelo Gore, Lori Robertson, Jessica McDonald, Kate Yandell, Saranac Hale Spencer, Sanjana Juvvadi, Andrew Noh and Ashley Wang. (n.d.). FactChecking Trump’s State of the Union Address. FactCheck.org - A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center. Retrieved February 25, 2026, from https://www.factcheck.org/2026/02/factchecking-trumps-state-of-the-union-address/ 

Help for Health Housing Here

Government budgets have recently provided some attention to the crisis in health and housing that we are experiencing across Canada.

Housing Options in HRM

The challenge of providing primary health care to Nova Scotians is evidenced by over 100,000 people who have no family physician.

Doctor Parking Empty

Some Governments have promised bonus payments to health care professionals to retain them in positions that are becoming increasingly challenging as workload increases.

Bonus for long hours with short staff

The path to timely resolution of these challenges to our assumption that Canada is a wealthy progressive society that can take care of the needs of it’s residents may require us to decide in which ballpark we can expect to find help.

Consider Health and Housing as Human Right

In healthcare, jurisdictions across Canada have sought the help of entrepreneurial enterprises who have provided resources for virtual access to primary care and supplemental diagnostic testing and surgery services. The principals of these organizations use the language of “target market” and “customer” in describing their operations. 

Health and Housing is a Right Here

A nation of 11 Million that is a very popular sun destination for Canadians, the Republic of Cuba, has defined health care and housing as rights for it’s citizens in its constitution. During the Obama administration, the loosening of the US Embargo on Cuba saw the flourishing of a small market economy and increased tourist and economic involvement with the United States. The Trump administration reversed the Obama policy and took aggressive action to severely inhibit economic activity between the US and Cuba.

Canada has a much better relationship with Cuba and many Canadian visitors have encountered well educated Cubans working in the resort industry. Surprisingly, the largest source of government income in Cuba is not from tourism but from export of medical services to countries in the Global South.

Canadians encounter well educated Cubans

The government's responsibility to maintain health and housing as a right for residents in Cuba has necessitated maintaining a high quality education system that supports health and economic development in the country.

On the road to Havana

Health and housing are too essential to the success of a society to be left to the market that best serves profit and short term gain for shareholders rather than community needs that are long term. Healthy, educated people with housing are essential to maintain our health, education, and business infrastructure. 

Canadians can learn from Cuba that government support to create health care and housing as a right for people is a wise investment in creating the healthy educated community that is required to build the infrastructure that is now required in Canada as we prepare to address the transitions required to respond to the climate crisis and the worldwide migration emergency.

Build Back Better Budget and Biden

 

The climate emergency will require government spending and the electorate will need to assess the budget plans of the political parties to meet this challenge.

Build Back Better

 

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, focuses on the social and economic dimensions of Canada's shift toward a zero-carbon economy,

For a just transition

 

including the necessity of a just transition for vulnerable workers and communities across the country.

 

Call it what you want: a Green New Deal, a proactive just transition or a government-led clean industrial policy. Whatever the label, we need massive, direct public investment in emissions-reducing, job-creating infrastructure projects across the country. Chump change won’t cut it here. The federal government should be spending upwards of $40 billion per year to accelerate our transition to a net zero carbon economy… Rather than cling to an outdated and dying vision of the Canadian economy, we need a transformative vision for a net zero future. Budget 2021 is a big opportunity to get us there.1

Dr. Don Lenihan, Senior Associate at the Institute on Governance and Andrew Balfour, Managing Partner at Rubicon Strategy, comment that in the National News Watch that Justin Trudeau may be proposing a recovery plan that will “build back better,

A liberal budget

 

” but last week Erin O’Toole countered with a promise to “build back right.”

A conservative budget 

Conservatives think they not only have a better plan for Canada, but that they have the right one.

 

the recovery (and election) debate won’t be about whether to pick winners or how to define “infrastructure.” It will be about the window of opportunity. People will want to hear what the different parties think the federal government can and should do to ensure that Canada is a player in this new economy. Looked at in this light, it’s hard to see the Build Back Right approach as the right choice for Canada. The country needs a plan that will lead to a successful transition. And Conservatives agree that their approach isn’t designed for this. Moreover, as the debate unfolds, Canadians will realize that once the window closes, the big players, such as the US, China, and the EU, will have the market cornered. Canadians therefore must decide now whether they want to be buyers or sellers in this new economy. And that makes the stakes in this debate very clear: Act now and think big or get shut out.2

 Seth Klein writes in the National Observer that Trudeau’s climate plans appear lacklustre and tepid in comparison to Biden's ambitious agenda. In the course of his  climate research he has developed four markers that signal when a government has shifted into emergency mode:

 

1	It spends what it takes to win
2	It creates new economic institutions to get the job done
3	It shifts from voluntary and incentive-based policies to mandatory measures
4	It tells the truth about the severity of the crisis and communicates a sense of urgency about the measures necessary to combat it.

Sadly, when it comes to the climate emergency, the Trudeau government is 0 for 4 on hitting these markers. Biden, on the other hand, is starting to hit all four. Let’s compare the two leaders. Some form of carbon pricing will likely be part of Biden’s plan. But unlike Canada’s federal plan, it is not the centrepiece of Biden’s strategy (it is more of a side story). And that’s good. It’s basically impossible to get people excited about carbon pricing. At best, we reluctantly accept it. What Biden is proposing is compelling. Nothing about the Trudeau government’s approach to the climate crisis looks or sounds urgent, and none of it feels like a grand collective undertaking. Biden, in stark contrast, is communicating emergency and generational opportunity. He’s making hundreds of new appointments to lead a cross-government transformation centred on the climate emergency. His domestic climate czar, Gina McCarthy, is a particularly inspiring choice — in every interview she gives, she communicates like someone with deep policy knowledge who is seized with the task at hand. Biden’s first wave of executive orders centred on rising to the climate challenge, framed around jobs and equity (the full, and inspiring, January 2021 climate executive orders can be found here).3

Four emergency markers

Our economic health in the effort to address the climate emergency will be related to our ability to participate in the audacious projects likely to be initiated by the United States government.

 

References

 

1	(n.d.). | Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Retrieved April 14, 2021, from https://www.policyalternatives.ca/
2	(2021, April 14). Build Back Better or Build Back Right? Trudeau vs. O'Toole on the .... Retrieved April 14, 2021, from https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2021/04/14/build-back-better-or-build-back-right-trudeau-vs-otoole-on-the-recovery-canada-needs/
3	(2021, April 16). Biden beating Trudeau on climate leadership | Canada's National .... Retrieved April 16, 2021, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/04/16/opinion/biden-beating-trudeau-climate-leadership

 

Green Solutions in this new decade

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood asks what does a Green New Deal look like?

Four pieces of the Green New Deal

The climate crisis requires rapid replacement of fossil fuels by cleaner energy sources.The inequality crisis requires massive redistribution of income and wealth and political power. The New Deal requires genuine reconciliation with Indigenous people. It requires good jobs, vibrant communities and widespread social and economic wellbeing.

 The details matter, of course, and there are many questions that GND advocates have yet to think through or agree on. For example, how can we produce enough electricity to rapidly replace all fossil fuels if we preclude new, large-scale hydro and nuclear projects in our communities? Where will we mine the environmentally-harmful resources necessary to produce lower-emission technologies? Will new, green jobs be good, unionized jobs that are accessible in the places where jobs are needed most?1

We hope the 2020s will be the decade where we get serious about the climate and inequality solutions.

References

1(2020, January 6). The 2020s will be the decade of the Green New Deal - Behind .... Retrieved January 8, 2020, from http://behindthenumbers.ca/2020/01/06/the-2020s-will-be-the-decade-of-the-green-new-deal/

Communications on climate

The beginning of December has been chosen by significant opinion leaders to address us about climate change.

December decisions

Pope Francis calls on COP 25 leaders in Madrid to show political will to safeguard healthy planet.

 new commentary on Pope Francis's encyclical

“We must seriously ask ourselves if there is the political will to allocate with honesty, responsibility and courage, more human, financial and technological resources [to the climate crisis],” he said, in the pontifical message, which was welcomed by activists.

 “Numerous studies tell us it is still possible to limit global warming. To do this we need a clear, far-sighted and strong political will, set on pursuing a new course that aims at refocusing financial and economic investments toward those areas that truly safeguard the conditions of a life worthy of humanity on a healthy planet for today and tomorrow.”
He put particular emphasis on the role of young people, who “show a heightened sensitivity to the complex problems that arise from this emergency. We must not place the burden on the next generations to take on the problems caused by the previous ones.”1

Twenty-six CEOs and civil society leaders in Canada have sent a letter to First Ministers to tell Prime Minister and Premiers “time is now” for implementing a clean economy. Building a low carbon, high performance economy is a vital environmental responsibility. It is also a major economic opportunity for all sectors and regions of the country.

Transition Opportunities

As a diverse group of leaders from business, labour, youth, Indigenous and environmental organizations across Canada, we believe the time for us to capture this economic and environmental opportunity is now.

 The evidence and the urgency for seizing this opportunity is all around us. Globally, the transition to a clean economy is estimated to be worth $26 trillion and 65 million new jobs by 2030. This will create opportunities in all sectors. Canada’s cleantech sector can tap into a growing global market set to double in the next five years. And boosting innovation and efficiency in the resource and energy sectors – in which Canada has great strengths – represents a $3.6 trillion opportunity by 2030. Becoming a leader in clean performance and innovation will strengthen our competitiveness, attract capital, generate good jobs, and improve Canadians’ quality of life – as summarized in a new report released today by Smart Prosperity Institute, entitled “8 Reasons for Canada to Transition to a Clean Economy Now”.
Canada is well positioned to seize these opportunities. We have a highly skilled work force, strong entrepreneurs and innovators, world-class financial institutions, proven economic strengths in many sectors, and a population that is ready to act for a cleaner, better future. And we have already started. All around us we can see a shift towards emissions-free vehicles, greener energy, cleaner industrial production, and smarter, more efficient buildings.2

The Ontario auditor general slams Doug Ford's climate policies.

Questions about carbon projects

The threadbare climate and environment policies of Doug Ford’s Ontario government are insufficient to meet Ontario’s 2030 emission reduction targets and are riddled with errors and omissions, according to the province’s fiscal watchdog.

“Our audit concluded that the emission-reduction estimates in the plan are not based on sound evidence or sufficient detail,” Lysyk said in her 2019 annual report, which was released on Wednesday.
Ford’s government moved to scrap the prior Liberal government’s cap and trade program, which was raising almost $2 billion a year, and began dismantling the broader climate action plan it funded within days after forming government following the provincial election held on June 7 last year.3 

The expert advice calls us to seize the opportunity to attack the climate emergency with realistic action now!

References

1	(2019, December 5). Climate crisis is 'challenge of civilisation', says pope .... Retrieved December 5, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/05/climate-crisis-is-challenge-of-civilisation-says-pope
2	(2019, December 4). Letter to First Ministers from major business and civil society .... Retrieved December 5, 2019, from https://www.smartprosperity.ca/8recommendations
3	(2019, December 4). Ontario auditor general slams Doug Ford's climate policies .... Retrieved December 5, 2019, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/12/04/news/ontario-auditor-general-slams-doug-ford-climate-policies