US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (March 4) used his inaugural address to a joint session of the US Congress to tout his administration's achievements, some real, some false, since taking to office.

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Here's a fact-check of some claims made by the 47th President of the United States during his speech to the US Congress.

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'Terminating' the Green New Deal

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Trump claimed that he ended the "Green New Scam". However, as per CNN, this claim is misleading and inaccurate in a number of ways.

The Green New Deal was not passed by Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden. In fact, it was a nonbinding resolution, meaning it was never turned into law in the first place.  

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Border crossings

The Republican leader claimed that since his return to office, illegal border crossings are at an all-time low. However, this claim is false. If the official figure of 8,326 is true, this means that February 2025 may have seen the lowest numbers in decades. However, official federal statistics from the 1960s show fewer Border Patrol encounters with migrants at the southwest border.

He also repeated his false claims that over the past four years, under the Biden administration, 21 million people have entered the US illegally. Nevertheless, national US Border Patrol data on migrant encounters up to September reveals less than 11 million total encounters, many of whom were swiftly deported. Even if we were to factor in the estimated two million getaways, the numbers don't match.

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Small business optimism

Trump claimed that "small-business optimism saw its single-largest one-month gain ever recorded — a 41-point jump". However, this data, as per The Guardian, was misrepresented. The 41-point jump appears to refer only to expectations about economic improvement, not the entire index, which actually declined in January.

Social Security payments to 'dead' people

Donald Trump's claim that millions of deceased Americans are still receiving Social Security benefits is misleading. A 2015 inspector general report found that 6.5 million people over 112 were in the system, but only 13 were still receiving benefits.  

In fact, the Social Security Administration has a verification process for people who reach the age of 100 to verify that they are alive, and their account is not being used by someone else to collect fraudulent payments.

(With inputs from agencies)