FactChecking Trump’s Inaugural Address

On Monday, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president, and as we do for major presidential events, our staff monitored the inaugural address. We noted several false and misleading claims, most of which we've heard before. 

For instance, Trump promised to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.” But tariffs are paid by U.S. importers — not foreign nations — who often pass such costs on to U.S. consumers through higher prices on products.

He falsely stated that the U.S. recently experienced “record inflation” under the Biden administration. Consumer prices have increased at faster rates during multiple other periods in U.S. history.

Trump also spoke about his desire for the U.S. to take back control of the Panama Canal. In doing so, he grossly inflated the deaths of Americans during the construction of the canal, claiming the U.S. "lost 38,000 lives." It was fewer than 1,000, an expert on the canal told us. And the president was wrong to say that “China is operating the Panama Canal.” Some in the U.S. have concerns about a Hong Kong-based company that manages ports at either end of the canal, but Panama continues to operate the Panama Canal. 

We also noted a few false claims Trump made in subsequent remarks in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol, such as his insistence that the 2020 election was “totally rigged.” In the more than four years since that election, and after numerous legal challenges by Trump's lawyers, there has been no evidence of widespread fraud.

See our full story for more about the president's remarks: "FactChecking Trump’s Inaugural Address."

Reader: I hear from families and friends that they cannot unfollow Trump, Vance, Melania. What gives?

FactCheck.org Director Lori Robertson: This week, some social media users complained that they were suddenly following President Donald Trump or other executive branch accounts on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms but didn't recall signing up to do so. As the New York Times explained, the official White House accounts on the social media platforms don't change, but the occupants of the White House do. So, anyone who had followed a previous president would, as of early this week, find themselves following Trump's official White House account. 

The Times quoted a statement from a Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, who posted on Threads: "People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady. Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes. This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition. It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands."

The Times said: "It is possible that the company is receiving such a high volume of unfollow requests during the transition that it is running into errors processing them all."

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "What President Trump Inherits, Part 2": On Inauguration Day, we provide a look at various metrics on the state of the country at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
   
• "What We Know About What Led to the L.A. Wildfires": We explain what’s known about how the catastrophic L.A. wildfires started and the factors that scientists do — and don’t — think contributed.
   
• "Canada and Mexico Are Helping to Fight California Fires, Contrary to Meme": Canada and Mexico have sent firefighting crews to help battle the blazes in the Los Angeles area, and Ukraine also has offered assistance. But social media posts misleadingly claim “$00,000,000” in “foreign aid” has been offered to the U.S. to help with the Southern California disaster.
   
• "No Evidence Officer Who Shot Ashli Babbitt Was Pardoned by Biden": In his final hours as president, Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons for House committee members who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and the police officers who testified before that committee. Online posts make an unfounded claim that Biden pardoned the officer who shot and killed protester Ashli Babbitt. The officer, who was cleared of wrongdoing, wasn’t among those who testified. 
  

• "Verificación del discurso inaugural de Trump": En un discurso inaugural de media hora, el recién juramentado presidente Donald Trump tergiversó algunos hechos al describir los últimos años bajo el gobierno de su predecesor, Joe Biden, como una época de “debilitamiento” y prometió que “la era dorada de Estados Unidos comienza ahora mismo”.