That Donald Trump’s speech in Warren, Michigan marks his 100th day in office sounded like something the US president clearly loved. It’s a good old campaign meeting.
In a speech on April 29, Trump touted record numbers of executive orders, efforts to cut federal workers for US immigrants, illegally deporting immigrants, and shining the spotlight with a video showing Decorty being booked at a high-security El Salvador prison.
But Trump also returned to the theme that animated his campaign, searching for familiar faces in the crowd. “I missed you guys. I missed the campaign,” he said. Trump has mentioned his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, several times in the past, voting for his audience.
In a poll showing a decline in approval ratings, Trump took persistent shots in the survey, calling them “fakes,” and said that if the polls were honest, his approval rating would be “the ’60s or ’70s.”
Five polls released by Trump’s 100th day – CBS News, CNN, New York Times/Siena, ABC News/Washington Post and NPR/PBS/Marist found Trump’s approval rates of 42% to 45%.
Here we have confirmed the facts of some of Trump’s statements.
Trump said he “restored freedom of speech,” but his actions tell a different story.
“I banned all government censorship and restored freedom of speech in America. There is freedom of speech.” Trump’s administration has repeatedly acted against people and organizations who exercised their rights to freedom of speech, including news media, universities and students who participated in activities regarding Israel’s war with Gaza.
“President Trump certainly hasn’t regained free speech in America,” said Nicoperino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Personal Rights and Expression, an organization that advocates freedom of speech for people and groups on both sides of the political spectrum.
“In fact, since inauguration day, we have seen some of the most important threats to freedom of speech in recent memory.”
Several judges also stated and wrote in their ruling that the administration violated free speech, including cases filed by the Associated Press after the administration was banned from a White House event. This is because the organization did not call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
The federal judge ruled in favor of the Associated Press, saying “the exclusion of the Associated Press is against the First Amendment,” and instructed the government to stop “continuing its illegal path.”
Trump says the illegal border intersection is the lowest ever recorded
“We have set the highest record ever for the lowest number of illegal border crossings ever recorded,” Trump said.
This requires context. Monthly border data has been collected since 2000 only.
Immigration at the borders of the southern United States fell prominently during the first months of the Trump administration.
Immigration officers encountered migrants at the tropical border about 8,300 times in February and about 7,200 times in March. These border encounters are the small number of monthly intersections by undocumented immigrants between ports of entry since Border Patrol began reporting monthly data. Authorities recorded a previous low of 11,000 encounters in April 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic during Trump’s first term.
Before 2000, data was reported annually. We took federal data for that year and split it up by 12 to find the average monthly figure. Based on these calculations, the average monthly concern was less than 6,100 from 1961 to 1968.
Wholesale egg prices are falling, but consumers have not yet experienced bailout
Trump said egg prices (consumer concerns over the past few months) fell 87% on his watch. This is half true. Wholesale prices have fallen (but not as much as Trump says), but the decline has yet to affect retail prices.
Over 100 million egg-selling chickens have either died of bird flu or were killed to stop the spread of the virus. Flock Culling is a standard practice adopted by the presidents of both parties to deal with avian flu. But Biden-era precautions led to a lack of eggs and higher prices. It followed President Trump.
Wholesale prices for dozen eggs peaked at $8.07 on February 21st. Since then, it has dropped by 61% to $3.15.
However, the latest data on retail prices (what consumers pay at the store) shows that 12 eggs will cost $6.23 in March. The April figures could indicate a reduction in retail prices, but there is no data yet.
Gasoline prices are falling, but not as substantial as Trump says
In Michigan, on several occasions, Trump said the gas is on sale for $1.98 (3.8 liters) per gallon. This is false.
When he said this April 22nd, we found that the lowest statewide price is $2.66 per gallon, with the national average being around $3.14. Data from the Federal Government and the American Automobile Association have not shown any significant changes since.
Data from Gasbuddy.com on April 23 showed there were no gas stations of around 150,000 people selling gasoline nationwide for $1.98 per gallon.
Trump promotes car investment, but they can take some time to pay off
With one exception, the White House’s auto-related announcement was investment real locations at existing facilities rather than plants being constructed. Plant construction, or increased production at existing factories, can take years, and plans can be completely altered or extinguished.
In some cases, experts said companies may publicly announce plans to curry favors Trump, even if they have been planning to make these investments for a long time.
Greig Mordue, professor at McMaster University Manufacturing Policy, said it is likely that automakers such as Hyundai, Honda and Stellantis are preparing to accelerate the launches that have already been decided to adapt to political realities. “These launches can be positioned as ‘wins’ for Trump,” Mold said.
Trump: “We’re reducing billions of dollars and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.”
The federal government is cutting costs under Trump, but hasn’t proven that he has cut billions of dollars with fraud.
The government’s efficiency department known as Doge says it saved $1600 billion. This was once promised to cut billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who had cut billionaire businessman Elon Musk.
Partnership for Public Services, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the federal government, said DOGE is paying about $135 billion in federal government. The organization estimates that it was based on $270 billion in annual labor compensation, with layoffs, acquisitions, employment freezes and other changes to reduce productivity by 50%. The numbers do not include costs to protect the lawsuit.
Trump and Musk have repeatedly said they have revealed “fraud,” but mostly pointed to projects that are ideologically opposed, including efforts on diversity, equity, inclusion and climate change.
Trump’s 2017 tax cut expiration could be a major blow to taxpayers
“If Democrats win this bill, they’ll get a 58% tax increase,” Trump said. Taxes will rise if Trump’s 2017 tax bill expires, but Democrats are not opposed to continuing Trump’s tax cuts on households earning less than $400,000, with households earning more than that.
Trump is right that if Congress doesn’t pass the extension, taxpayers will be a huge hit. We rated most of the statements from New York Representative Mike Lawler as “If we don’t pass tax bills by the end of the year, we’ll have the largest tax hike in American history.”
Some estimates expiring tax cuts will result in the single most significant tax cut in history, increasing revenues of an estimated $4.6 trillion over a decade including interest, from fiscal year 2025 to 2034.
Trump asked: “Who the heck does work at home?” This is what we know about remote workers.
Data from the 2023 US Census Bureau shows that approximately two-thirds of US home workers were white, with a median age of 43.5 years.
Women represented 52.3% of people who worked from home and 47.7% of men. The New York Times reported that mothers of young children are more likely to work remotely than women without children or older children.
Trump identifies the wrong lawmaker who proposed a bullet each
Earlier in his remarks, Trump said, “This country went crazy. And today they did it again. I’ve never heard of it, John James. Is he a member of the House of Representatives?
This week, Michigan Senators proposed to fire Trump each, but that wasn’t Republican Representative John James. It was the democratic representative Sri Tanedar.
James is running for governor of Michigan and wants to replace Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.
Trump supporter Brian Pannebecker, who the president asked to address the crowd, correctly identified Thanedar as the lawmaker proposing each.
And Trump later correctly identified James in his speech, saying, “We’re lucky, we have good people in Congress, like John James of Congress here.”
Trump said he “takes back” Columbus Day. Have you ever disappeared?
Trump said, “Just yesterday, I revived Columbus Day in America.”
His April 28th Truth Social Post stated that he “reviving Columbus Day under the same rules, dates and places as decades ago!”
Trump appears to be referring to the 2021 declaration, with Biden acknowledging that he “recognizes the significant sacrifices of Indigenous people to this country and recognizes many ongoing contributions to our country.”
However, some states recognize Indigenous Day instead of or instead of Columbus Day on the same day in October, but there has not been a change to federal public holidays under Biden. It remains a federal public holiday. Biden issued the Columbus Day Declaration in 2024.
Trump: “We found out that the person who ran the autopen was the real president.”
We fact-checked a similar statement from Trump about Biden, who uses an autopen to sign the pardon.
The Constitution does not require that pardons be signed directly by the President. The use of mechanical devices is not prohibited in the signature.
Biden was not the first US president to use an autopen. Presidents Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson used autopens or mechanized signing devices.
When asked the White House in March if Trump had ever used an autopen, a spokesman pointed to Trump’s comments.