Fact check: Five claims from Donald Trump’s inauguration
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On January 20 2025 in Washington DC, Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States, after winning the US election in November 2024. He gave his inaugural address indoors in the US Capitol’s Rotunda just after noon, then spoke a short time later in Emancipation Hall, in the Capitol’s visitor centre, before giving another speech at a rally in the Capital One Arena.
Has the US seen ‘record inflation’?. In his inaugural address, President Trump said he would “direct” his cabinet to “defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices”. In June 1920 inflation was 23.7%, a record since at least 1914 and possibly much longer, though we’ve not found monthly or annual figures stretching back to the founding of the US.
Did former President Biden pardon ‘almost everybody’ with a death sentence?. Speaking in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall, President Trump claimed that former President Joe Biden “pardoned almost everybody having a death sentence”. It’s also worth noting that while former President Biden did commute the majority of federal death row inmates’ sentences, these represent only a small proportion of the total number of people in the US facing death sentences (the majority of whom are on state death rows).
How many people died building the Panama Canal?. During his inaugural address, President Trump claimed that the United States “lost 38,000 lives” during the construction of the Panama Canal. This is similar to a claim he’s made before—in 2023 he quoted a figure of 35,000 deaths.
