Summary: President Trump incorrectly said inflation was 5% rather than about 3% at the end of the Biden administration and wrongly claimed prices began falling immediately after the November 2024 election. Official year‑over‑year figures show 2.9% in December 2024 and 3.0% in January 2025, and inflation rose from October to December 2024. He also repeated the false claim that only the U.S. grants birthright citizenship; roughly three dozen countries, including Canada and Mexico, do so.
Fact Check: Trump Misstates Inflation Figures and Birthright Citizenship
President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on April 16. - Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
President Donald Trump made incorrect statements about inflation and birthright citizenship during a Tuesday morning interview with CNBC. This fact check reviews the claims against official year‑over‑year inflation figures and established citizenship laws.
Inflation Claims
CNBC anchor Joe Kernen accurately told Trump that the year‑over‑year inflation rate "was down to about where it is now, about 3%" as President Biden was leaving office. Trump disputed that, saying:
"No it wasn’t. It was down to 5%, it wasn’t down to 3%."
That statement is false. Official year‑over‑year consumer price inflation was 2.9% in December 2024 (Biden’s last full month) and 3.0% in January 2025 (the month of Trump’s inauguration). The rate had not been near 5% since early 2023.
Trump also claimed prices began falling immediately after his November 2024 election win, saying:
"And the reason it was down was because I had won the election, and it started falling after I won the election. And I started getting prices down from right after November 5."
That chronology is incorrect. The year‑over‑year inflation rate rose from 2.6% in October 2024 to 2.7% in November 2024 and then to 2.9% in December 2024. Inflation did not begin falling after the election.
Birthright Citizenship Claim
Trump repeated a long‑debunked assertion that "no country in the world" grants birthright citizenship other than the United States. This is incorrect. Roughly three dozen countries automatically confer citizenship on people born on their soil, including neighbors Canada and Mexico and most South American nations.
Media outlets, including CNN, previously fact‑checked similar statements by Trump during his 2015 campaign and again in 2018.
Bottom line: Trump's claims about a 5% inflation rate at the end of the Biden administration and about prices falling immediately after his election are inaccurate. His assertion that no other country grants birthright citizenship is also false.
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