President Donald Trump repeated false and misleading claims about the 2020 election, the U.S. economy, and international conflicts while marking his first year back in office, according to an Associated Press fact check published January 20. Trump claimed the 2020 election was rigged, said he settled eight wars, and overstated economic improvements during an appearance Tuesday at the White House and Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.
The false claims span basic factual questions about election results, economic performance, and diplomatic achievements—matters central to informed evaluation of a presidency’s accomplishments and to public understanding of its actual record.
Greenland Claim
In Davos, Trump said “After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that?” according to the AP fact check. This claim lacks factual foundation.
Greenland never belonged to the United States. Denmark formally made Greenland a colony in 1814, and the United States recognized Denmark’s sovereignty over the island in 1916 through a bilateral agreement that included the U.S. purchasing the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million in gold.
During World War II, Nazi Germany occupied Denmark in 1940. The U.S. and the Danish government-in-exile signed an agreement on April 9, 1941, to allow the U.S. to occupy Greenland to prevent it from becoming a base for the Third Reich. That agreement explicitly stated that “the sovereignty of Denmark over Greenland is fully recognized.” After the war, President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland for $100 million in gold—another explicit acknowledgment that Denmark retained control of the island. Denmark refused, and the two governments negotiated a long-term lease agreement for U.S. military operations, culminating in the 1951 Defense Agreement.
Economic Claims
Trump claimed that “After 12 months back in the White House, our economy is booming. Growth is exploding. Productivity is surging. Investment is soaring. Incomes are rising.”
The fact check revealed a more complex reality. While the economy is growing at a solid pace and unemployment remains low, hiring has slowed dramatically. Inflation remained elevated at 2.7 percent in December 2025, little changed from 2.9 percent a year earlier. After-tax incomes adjusted for inflation rose just 1.5 percent in September 2025 compared to a year earlier, down from a 2.8 percent annual pace in September 2024.
Trump also claimed that “Under the Biden administration, America was plagued by the nightmare of stagflation” and “now, after just one year of my policies, we are witnessing the exact opposite—virtually no inflation.” This mischaracterizes the Biden record. The U.S. economy did not experience stagflation (a combination of stagnant growth and high inflation) during the Biden administration. While inflation surged in the first half of Biden’s term, the economy proved resilient. Gross domestic product expanded at healthy rates throughout his presidency: 6.2 percent in 2021, 2.5 percent in 2022, 2.9 percent in 2023, and 2.8 percent in 2024. Inflation had fallen during the first few months of Trump’s presidency, but it picked back up after he announced tariffs in April.
NATO and International Relations
Trump criticized NATO by saying “Other presidents have spent, whether foolishly or not, trillions and trillions of dollars on NATO and gotten absolutely nothing in return. We’ve never asked for anything. It’s always a one-way street.”
NATO’s founding treaty contradicts this characterization. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in 1949, commits member nations to mutual defense. NATO invoked Article 5 only once—in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. NATO members declared at that time: “At this critical moment, the United States can rely on its 18 Allies in North America and Europe for assistance and support.”
NATO members, including Denmark, deployed military forces to U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Denmark suffered 44 soldiers killed in Afghanistan, the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces, and 8 more in Iraq.
War Settlement Claims
Trump claimed “You have to understand, I settled eight wars.” The fact check determined this claim to be significantly exaggerated. While Trump has helped mediate relations among various nations, his actual impact is less conclusive than he suggests.
The conflicts Trump counts include Israel-Hamas, Israel-Iran, Egypt-Ethiopia, India-Pakistan, Serbia-Kosovo, Rwanda-Congo, Armenia-Azerbaijan, and Cambodia-Thailand. However, far more work remains before any declaration of an end to the Gaza war. Trump is credited with ending a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, but this has been described as a temporary respite from an ongoing cold war. Fresh fighting broke out recently between Cambodia and Thailand and between Congolese forces and Rwanda-backed rebels.
While Armenia and Azerbaijan leaders signed a deal in August aimed at ending their decades-long conflict, parliaments have not yet ratified it. India and Pakistan reached a ceasefire after April clashes in Kashmir, though Trump’s role is disputed—India denied his claims while Pakistan thanked him. Friction between Egypt and Ethiopia over a dam is better described as heightened tensions than war, and there has been no threat of war between Serbia and Kosovo during Trump’s current term.
Energy Claims
Trump claimed “the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses and the worse that country’s doing.” Energy economics data contradicts this assertion. Onshore wind is among the cheapest sources of electricity generation. According to Energy Information Administration estimates from July, new wind farms are expected to produce power at around $30 per megawatt hour, compared to $65 per megawatt hour for a new natural gas plant or over $80 for a new advanced nuclear reactor.
Offshore wind costs more to build than onshore, at approximately $88 per megawatt hour. The U.K. has made significant progress in bringing these costs down. In January 2026, the U.K. secured 8.4 gigawatts of offshore wind energy in a European auction—the largest single offshore wind procurement in British and European history. This procurement made offshore wind 40 percent cheaper to build and operate than new gas plants, according to the U.K. government.
Trump also called coal “clean, beautiful coal,” saying he never uses the word coal without preceding it with those adjectives. While coal production has become cleaner than it was historically, this characterization omits essential context. Burning coal still emits sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that contribute to acid rain, smog, and respiratory illnesses. Coal now accounts for about 15 percent of U.S. electricity production, down from more than half historically.
Election Results
Trump claimed that “When I won in a landslide, a giant landslide, won all seven swing states, won the popular vote, won everything.” The 2024 election results tell a different story. Trump won the Electoral College 312 to 226, including all seven swing states. However, his popular vote margin was far narrower than he suggests. Trump received 77,302,580 votes (49.8 percent) compared to Kamala Harris’ 75,017,613 votes (48.3 percent), a difference of 2,284,967 votes—a narrower margin than his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
Trump also won fewer electoral votes in 2024 than Democratic presidents Barack Obama in 2008 (365) and 2012 (332), Bill Clinton in 1992 (370) and 1996 (379), and far fewer than Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 523 in 1936, Lyndon B. Johnson’s 486 in 1964, Richard Nixon’s 520 in 1972, and Ronald Reagan’s 525 in 1984.
Trump continues to repeat his false claim about the 2020 election. On January 20, he said “a man that didn’t win the election, by the way, it’s a rigged election. Everybody knows that now,” referring to President Joe Biden. This is a blatant falsehood. The 2020 election was not stolen. Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 and won over 7 million more popular votes than Trump. Trump has persisted in claiming he won the 2020 race since its completion, even after winning a second term in 2024.
Biden’s Electoral College victory was nearly the same margin as Trump’s 2016 victory over Clinton. Biden prevailed in key states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia. Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud have been refuted by judges, state election officials, and the Homeland Security Department. In 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, told the AP that no proof of widespread voter fraud had been uncovered. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” Barr said at the time.