What are the most commonly repeated false claims by President Trump in 2025, and which outlets debunked them?
Executive summary
President Trump’s 2025 rhetoric repeatedly recycled a handful of demonstrably false or misleading claims — about inflation and grocery prices, prescription drug savings, large investment figures and the 2020 election — and multiple mainstream fact‑checking outlets and news organizations have routinely debunked those assertions [1] [2] [3]. Opposing narratives, including White House pushbacks and partisan outlets, try to reframe some critiques as “fake news,” a tactic documented in administration messaging [4] [5].
1. Inflation, groceries and “inflation is stopped”: what he said and who corrected it
Trump repeatedly insisted that inflation was “stopped” or at historic highs under President Biden and that grocery prices had fallen; independent data and fact checks showed those claims were false or misleading, with CNN noting grocery prices were up year‑over‑year and that the January 2025 inflation rate matched the most recent rate at the time of several speeches [1] [2]. FactCheck.org and PBS likewise flagged exaggerations about ending inflation or claiming “the worst inflation” in history as inaccurate or misleading [3] [6].
2. The impossible math of “600%” or “900%” drug‑price cuts
The White House’s prescription drug boasts — including Trump’s repeated claim that an executive order would slash drug prices by “200%, 300%… up to 900%” — drew immediate pushback because percentage reductions beyond 100% are mathematically impossible, and outlets such as CNN and FactCheck.org called out the falsehood [1] [7]. Those fact checks highlighted both the numeric error and the gap between political rhetoric and measurable policy outcomes [1] [7].
3. Monumental investment tallies that don’t show up in the books
Trump asserted extraordinary investment numbers — $17 trillion, $18 trillion — as evidence of economic success; BBC, TIME and FactCheck.org reviewed public records and found no publicly available evidence to support such massive investment figures, prompting those outlets to label the claims unsubstantiated or false [8] [9] [7]. FactCheck.org noted that promises and pledges cited by the administration may be vague and not equivalent to realized investment [7].
4. NATO contributions and the “U.S. pays nearly 100%” claim
Claims that the United States was “paying for virtually 100% of NATO” were fact‑checked by BBC and TIME, which reported NATO spending proportions were far lower — roughly 62–70% historically and about 16% of NATO’s budget in some 2025 calculations — showing Trump’s framing overstated U.S. contributions [8] [9].
5. Foreign policy and “ended eight wars” assertions
Trump’s frequent claim that he had “ended eight wars in 10 months” was repeatedly rated exaggerated or mostly false by FactCheck.org and PBS, which documented that while the administration influenced several conflict de‑escalations, many cited episodes weren’t wars or remain unresolved [7] [6].
6. Repeating the 2020 election “rigged” line and other long‑running falsehoods
Outlets including CNN’s fact checkers and aggregators such as WRAL cataloged Trump’s persistent repetition of the “rigged 2020 election” claim among his top repeated falsehoods in 2025, placing it alongside other long‑lived falsehoods that have been repeatedly debunked [10] [11].
7. Patterns, motives and pushback: who debunks and who defends
Mainstream fact‑checkers and broadcasters (CNN, BBC, FactCheck.org, AP, TIME, PBS) consistently documented and corrected these recurring false claims with data or archival sourcing [1] [8] [3] [12] [9] [6], while partisan or administration sources sometimes countered by labeling critiques “fake news” or publishing rebuttal compilations aimed at discrediting reporters [4]. Observers have noted that rapid, repeated falsehoods can function strategically to “flood the zone,” a tactic described in reporting on Trump’s information environment [5].
8. Limits of this inventory and where reporting diverges
The cited reporting catalogs the most frequently repeated and consequential false claims as of late 2025 and early 2026, but coverage priorities vary: some outlets emphasize economic claims, others focus on foreign policy or election falsehoods, and the White House’s own rebuttals assert alternative facts that these outlets evaluate and often reject [7] [4] [8]. This survey does not evaluate every single Trump statement in 2025, only the recurring themes most widely fact‑checked by the cited sources.