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Reporting from Dallas
Trump added a caveat to his promise of a $5,000 dividend for every adult American. All of them, he said, must spend the money in the United States. He did not provide details on how the government would track where private citizens spent the funds.
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— President Trump
False.
Mr. Trump’s tariffs have raised nearly $300 billion in revenue, But after the Supreme Court struck those tariffs down and the government began issuing refunds, the amount decreased to about $132.5 billion. That is nowhere near “trillions.”Trump is also giving the keynote speech tomorrow night at the convention. Given how much this speech mirrors his other public appearances, it will be interesting to see how tomorrow’s address is different from this one.
Trump just promised to send every citizen $5,000 if Republicans win the majority in both the House and Senate, without any details.
Nearly an hour into the president’s speech, he brings up his White House ballroom project, and tells members of the crowd they are getting it for “free,” which is not true because millions of taxpayer dollars have been earmarked for the project. In his speeches, he usually gets around to the ballroom, which takes up a lot of his time and attention in Washington, much sooner.
Update: Trump says “tariff” is now his fifth favorite word after bullying by the news media. It was previously his favorite.
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Trump describes tariff as his “favorite word.” But his tariff policies remain unpopular with a majority of voters and have put fresh pressure on Republicans in states like Alaska and Michigan that are heavily dependent on imports and international trade.
This is very much Trump’s familiar highlight reel. He is now talking about his love of tariffs.
In the arena where the Dallas Mavericks play, Trump is riffing on the team’s much-criticized 2025 trade of Luka Doncic, one of the N.B.A.'s biggest stars. “I don’t understand the trade,” he says. Trump says the deal “might go down as the worst trade” in the history of sports.
Left unsaid: The Mavericks are owned by a major Trump donor, Miriam Adelson.
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Trump is attacking Democratic opposition to legislation that would require proof of citizenship for people to be able to vote, using an expletive to describe their objections. “The only reason they’re fighting us is because they want to cheat,” Trump says, wildly mischaracterizing the nature of the political opposition to the legislation, which is rooted in concerns that it would broadly restrict access to the ballot box.
So far, Trump is talking far more about the work of his administration than any of the other speakers today, who focused far more on attacking Democrats. If anything, the other Republican speakers just touched on tax cuts and border security.
One lingering question is exactly how much this convention is going to cost the Republican Party. Cash has not been among the party’s most pressing problems this year. But a convention is not cheap.
— President Trump
This is exaggerated.
Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy law, which he signed last summer, creates deductions for tips and overtime, but those breaks are temporary. And its tax reductions for Social Security benefits are even more limited.The law allows workers to deduct tips and overtime pay from the 2025-28 tax years. The deductions are capped at $25,000 and $12,500, and decrease for individuals earning more than $150,000 a year. It also creates a deduction of $6,000 for seniors, phasing out for higher incomes and expiring in 2028. That is not quite eliminating all taxation on benefits.
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Trump’s speech so far is not much different from his typical public remarks. Politicians have often tried to use these set-piece events to announce new policy, reassure anxious supporters or persuade independent voters. Trump has never followed the typical playbook, but it’s worth noting that he pushed his party to hold this expensive event and so far, he’s basically just delivering his usual rally speech.
— President Trump
True.
The murder rate plunged to the lowest numbers recorded in 2025, according to one analysis by a think tank. The F.B.I. began collecting the data in 1936 and reported that the rate was the lowest since the 1950s. Moreover, crime analysts warn that historical comparisons should be taken with a grain of salt given the limitations in older data.Trump praises Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator John Thune, the majority leader, but the crowd boos for Thune.
Trump has been having fun with wordplay tonight, first by spending some time reminding the crowd that the word “dumb” has the letter “b” in it. Next he says he would like to change the state of New Mexico to New America, in keeping with executive orders that have directed government agencies to rename Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico.
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Trump addresses both gas prices and the Iran war: “Oil would be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran,” he says. He jokes about renaming the Strait of Hormuz the “Trump Strait.”
— President Trump
This is exaggerated.
Mr. Trump’s assertion is a perennial talking point that is a grab-bag of inaccuracy. The 25 million figure is more than double than most credible estimates of unauthorized migration under the Biden administration. Mr. Trump has also not provided any evidence of his repeated assertion that “many” of those migrants were criminals and “some of the worst people on Earth.” And the 11,888 murderers figure refers to people who had entered the United States in the past four decades, including under the first Trump administration.Trump is talking most extensively so far about the issues he cares most about. But that has not included a lot on the cost of living, which polls show is the biggest liability for Republicans in the midterms.
The crowd cheered for Trump after he said he would travel to all the battlegrounds. The truth is that plenty of Democrats are cheering the idea of more Trump in the midterms, given his unpopularity in the polls.
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— President Trump
False.
Mr. Trump has a point that there has been a steep drop in the number of unauthorized encounters at the southern border, but the number is not zero. The border authorities recorded along the border and at ports of entry from February 2025 to July, compared with over two million annually in the 2024 and 2023 fiscal years.The 25 million figure is more than double than most credible estimates of unauthorized migration under the Biden administration. (It is also a few million more than Mr. Trump’s own estimates of 21 million from last year.)
— President Trump
False.
The tax cuts passed last summer as part of the Republicans’ sprawling legislative package, called the One Big Beautiful Bill, are the — according to the conservative Tax Foundation.Trump is ribbing Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, for the way he dresses, talks and looks, but still says he enthusiastically supports him. He says Paxton is the best attorney general in the history of Texas.
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Trump says he is going to travel extensively to rally for candidates in tight races. So far, he has done little campaigning on behalf of midterm Republicans.
Trump’s directive — “pretend I’m on the ballot” — is interesting given that many Republicans in battleground states have had to carefully weigh how closely they want to position themselves to Trump ahead of the midterms, given his unpopularity, rampant affordability concerns, and an unpopular war with Iran.
— President Trump
False.
Mr. Trump won the presidential election in 2016 and 2024. Despite his repeated insistence, he lost the 2020 election.Trump is asking voters to “pretend” that he’s on the ballot. His plea is part of a strategy by his aides to try to rebuild the coalition of low-propensity voters that returned him to the White House in 2024.
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— President Trump
False.
Mr. Trump’s $20 trillion figure is almost double what the White House has tallied (). It also includes broad pledges and previously announced projects. And more than half of that amount comes from informal pledges from foreign countries to invest in the United States that experts warn may be unrealistic.For example, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates each pledged more than $1 trillion in investments, which is more than . Previous pledges in Mr. Trump’s first term may also show the amorphous nature of such promises: A 2017 pledge from Saudi Arabia to buy $450 billion of American products did not fully materialize.
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