President Donald Trump marked his first year back in office highlighting his accomplishments to world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday and during an appearance in the White House press briefing room Tuesday, according to an Associated Press fact check. The outlet said Trump also repeated or overstated claims about the state of the U.S. economy, Greenland, foreign policy, energy and other topics.
The AP fact check focused on several widely circulated Trump assertions, including claims about Greenland’s history, the state of inflation and growth, NATO spending and obligations, and an accounting of “eight wars” Trump said he “settled.” It also reviewed Trump’s language about the 2020 election being “rigged” and his descriptions of the 2024 election as a landslide.
Greenland claim disputed as a U.S.-after-WWII “give away”
Trump said, referencing World War II, that “After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark.” AP said the statement is misleading because Greenland “never belonged to the U.S.,” meaning no U.S. administration or Congress could have given it away.
AP reported that Denmark made Greenland a formal colony in 1814 and that the United States recognized Denmark’s right to the whole island in 1916 in a bilateral agreement that also covered the U.S. purchasing the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million in gold. AP said the World War II episode centers on an agreement the U.S. and Denmark’s government-in-exile signed on April 9, 1941, under which the U.S. agreed to occupy Greenland “for as long as Greenland remains cut off from the mother country” to prevent it from becoming another base for the Third Reich.
That 1941 agreement, AP said, reiterated that “the sovereignty of Denmark over Greenland is fully recognized,” and it described future negotiations for defense needs and a U.S. lease for use of areas needed for those purposes. After the war, AP said President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland for $100 million in gold, Denmark refused, and the governments negotiated a long-term lease arrangement culminating in a 1951 Defense Agreement that was updated over ensuing decades.
AP also said Greenland became self-governing in 2009 under a home-rule agreement that kept defense and foreign affairs under Denmark’s control.
Trump’s economy “booming” claim meets inflation and hiring counters
Trump said that “After 12 months back in the White House, our economy is booming,” with “Growth is exploding,” “productivity is surging,” “investment is soaring,” and “Incomes are rising.” AP said that while the economy was growing and unemployment remained low one year into Trump’s second term, other indicators did not match a “boom” picture, including persistently elevated inflation.
AP said consumer prices rose 2.7% in December from a year earlier, little changed from a 2.9% annual gain in December 2024. It also said hiring had slowed, limiting employees’ prospects for raises, and reported that inflation-adjusted after-tax income rose 1.5% in September 2025 from a year earlier, down from a 2.8% annual pace in September 2024.
In another passage, Trump said the Biden administration was plagued by “stagflation” and that “after just one year of my policies” the country was “witnessing the exact opposite — virtually no inflation.” AP said Trump was wrong about stagflation during the Biden administration, stating inflation rose in the first half of Biden’s term but the economy grew throughout the presidency.
AP reported GDP growth rates of 6.2% in 2021, 2.5% in 2022, 2.9% in 2023 and 2.8% in 2024. It also said inflation had been falling early in Trump’s presidency but “picked back up after the president announced his tariffs in April,” reaching 2.7% as of December 2025.
NATO spending criticism contrasted with Article 5 and post-9/11 actions
Trump criticized NATO by saying other presidents spent “trillions and trillions of dollars on NATO and gotten absolutely nothing in return,” and that “