President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other Republican officials made false or misleading claims about the economy, healthcare and immigration during a two-day convention ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. Government data and other available figures contradicted or added substantial context to claims about investment, inflation, prescription drug prices and illegal border crossings.
Trump said more than $20 trillion was being spent in the United States by foreign countries and companies, and suggested the total could rise to $25 trillion. He presented no evidence for either figure. Based on statements from companies, foreign countries and the White House, the estimate appears highly speculative and substantially above the actual total. The White House website lists $11.2 trillion, a figure that appears to include some investment commitments made during the Biden administration.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said inflation was 1.4% at the end of Trump’s first administration and that Biden’s policies drove it to a 40-year high of 9.1%. Inflation was 1.4% when Biden took office in 2021 and peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, but it had declined to 2.9% by December 2024. During Trump’s second term, it reached 4.2% in May and stood at 3.4% in August. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s statement that more Americans were working than ever was accurate but omitted that payroll totals frequently set records as the economy grows. Job creation averaged 9,700 a month last year and 92,000 a month so far this year, compared with 166,000 a month during 2023 and 2024.
Vance credited the administration with lowering drug costs for all Americans. Federal data showed prescription drug prices fell 0.9% in July and 3.1% from a year earlier, the steepest annual decline since 1963. The White House attributed the decline to Trump’s “most favored nation” agreement with pharmaceutical companies and the TrumpRx website. Drug-pricing experts said other factors may be more significant, including Medicare negotiations authorized under Biden and competition from generic and biosimilar products. The figures also reflect payments pharmacies receive from insurers and consumers, meaning patients may not experience the same reduction in out-of-pocket costs.
Trump separately claimed prescription drug price cuts of 400%, 500% and 600%, although a price cannot fall by more than 100%. He also said 25 million immigrants entered illegally during the Biden administration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 10.8 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico between January 2021 and December 2024. That total counts arrests rather than individual people, and repeated crossing attempts under pandemic-era asylum restrictions mean the number of people was lower.