Fact-checking Donald Trump’s economic speech in Michigan

President Donald Trump traveled to Michigan on Jan. 13 to address the Detroit Economic Club.

Earlier in the day, the federal government announced that inflation — a major preoccupation for voters, and one of Trump’s key 2024 campaign issues — held steady at a 2.7% year-over-year rate. That’s slightly lower than the 2.9% in December 2024, the last full month under President Joe Biden, or the 3% in January 2025, a month shared by both presidents.

But consumer sentiment has fallen on Trump’s watch, showing people feel increasingly negative about their economic position. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index has fallen from 71.7 in January 2025 to 51 in November 2025. That’s just slightly above its lowest level ever, in June 2022, when year-over-year inflation peaked at about 9%.

The nation is still adding jobs, but at a slower pace than usual. Counting December’s preliminary numbers, the economy added 584,000 jobs in 2025, the lowest annual figure since 2003, not counting recession years.

Trump’s long-running confrontation with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reached a new high, as Powell announced Jan. 11 that he was under Justice Department criminal investigation related to testimony about a Federal Reserve building renovation. Trump has been saying for the past year that he wants to see Powell gone because he has not lowered interest rates enough.

This morning, before leaving Washington, D.C., for Michigan, Trump told reporters, “Well, he’s billions of dollars over budget. So, he either is incompetent, or he is crooked. I don’t know what he is, but he certainly doesn’t do a very good job.”

Read PolitiFact’s fact-checks of his statements below.