ICYMI: TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION CLAIMS CLASH WITH REALITY FOR MILLIONS OF AMERICANS

ON SNAP/FOOD ASSISTANCE:

CLAIM: Trump took credit for taking Americans off of food assistance, saying: “In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record, off of food stamps.”

REALITY: While the number of people receiving SNAP benefits did decrease by2.6 million from November 2024 to November 2025, that decrease does not mean that the need for food assistance has dwindled. In actuality, people lost access to SNAP — most weren’t “lifted off” of it. 

Numbers dropped in November during a government shutdown, where SNAP benefits were disrupted tremendously.  That’s on top of the fact that the Republican megabill marked the largest SNAP cuts in history — $187 billion — taking food assistance away from millions of people already struggling with high grocery prices. 

During that shutdown, SNAP advocate and mother Kelli Austin told the New York Post that “I’m not a statistic, I’m your constituent,” she asserted. “You take these programs away from me, you take food out of my kids’ mouths, which jeopardizes their health. It’s ungodly.”

ON HEALTHCARE: 

CLAIM: Trump declared: “We will always protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.”

REALITY: His own signature legislation, The Big, Ugly Bill, cut healthcare funding through Medicaid and ACA by over $1 trillion combined — the largest cut to Medicaid in history. About 15 million people will lose their health coverage under this agenda, making it impossible for those with serious health conditions to afford life-saving medications or go to a doctor when they’re sick. In fact, the cost of healthcare is now the top concern for Americans. 

Healthcare advocate Sharon Moon shared just how important Medicaid was to her aging parents ahead of the State of the Union. She told the Bucks County Beacon that she left the workforce to care for her two elderly parents, who have since passed away, and that she turned to Medicaid to secure long-term care for her parents. 

“The only help I could find was through Medicaid,” she said. “It was the only thing that allowed me to keep from losing sleep at night. I had taken such good care of them, and I just couldn’t anymore.”

ON COSTS:

CLAIM: Trump boasted that “the cost of hotels, automobiles, rent, and even beef is down significantly since I took office,” and claimed egg prices are “down 60 percent.” He called the price declines “like another big tax cut.”

REALITY: While the prices of grocery essentials like eggs have come down a bit recently, food prices at large are still 2.9 percent higher compared to the same time last year — and food-price inflation has actually increased since Trump returned to office.

WHAT THE EXPERTS AND ADVOCATES ARE SAYING: 

• “Outside the chamber, our economy feels less like a powerhouse and more like a car running on fumes. It moves forward only because the people inside are rationing what little fuel remains. The stories I hear from working- and middle-class families about how they’re faring are alarming—and directly contradict the president’s rhetoric.” – Sage Warner, Center for American Progress in Ms. Magazine
• “Here’s the reality: Nearly 15 million people will have their health coverage taken away & become uninsured due to cuts in the Republican megabill & the failure to extend the premium tax credit enhancements. What’s affordable about that?”- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• “We need a national strategy to increase the incomes of millions of families, through higher pay and federal investments in programs to make basic needs affordable. But the REAL state of the union in President Trump’s first year of his second term is one of lawless attacks on perceived enemies – immigrants, poor people, people of color, and blue states, to name some – and concerted efforts to further enrich billionaires. Increasingly, people are seeing past the lies; they are seeing the harmful reality.” – Coalition on Human Needs

BOTTOM LINE:

Even as Trump told Americans “we are building a nation where every child has the chance to reach higher and go farther” and pledged that “the interests of hardworking American citizens are always first,” his administration’s own budget priorities tell a different story — one where millions of Americans and their families stand to lose access to health coverage and basic assistance programs.

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For more information or to arrange an interview with someone affected by Medicaid, the ACA, SNAP, or an expert, please contact Sana Mamtaney at [email protected].