A series of figures and achievements presented by US President Donald Trump before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday underwent a fact-check that found several of his claims about oil, wars, drugs and investment did not match available data or involved exaggeration, according to a review published by The New York Times.
In his address, Trump gave a broad account of what he considered achievements by his administration at home and abroad. He said the United States had regained its forces and made breakthroughs on oil, peace and counter-narcotics, while the newspaper described a series of figures and outcomes he cited as false or exaggerated.
Data reveal gap in claimed oil figures
On energy, Trump said the United States and Venezuela together owned more than 60% of the world's oil, following an agreement giving Washington control over a large part of Venezuela's reserves. But data from the US Energy Information Administration indicate that the two countries' combined reserves account for only about 22% of the world's proven reserves.
Ceasefire did not end operations
Regarding the Gaza Strip, Trump announced that he had ended the Israeli war on the territory and said this had helped save thousands of lives. But the newspaper's review said the ceasefire his administration helped broker in October 2025 halted much of the fighting without fully ending Israeli operations and strikes.
The review said the death toll in the Gaza Strip had risen by more than 1,000 since the ceasefire was reached. Elements of Trump's peace plan also remained stalled, including the disarmament of Hamas, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a 15-point plan backed by the Trump administration. The fact-check also examined Trump's statements on combating drug trafficking.
Strikes have not been shown to reduce drug trafficking
The president claimed that US strikes on trafficking boats had destroyed 97% of the drugs being transported by sea and that the volume of trafficking had fallen by the same percentage. The newspaper said the claim was not supported by evidence proving the stated percentage. Experts in the region, according to the review, believe the strikes may have disrupted some trafficking routes but prompted traffickers to change the routes they used rather than stopping the flows.
An internal assessment by the Drug Enforcement Administration also found that the strikes had not affected cocaine supplies or prices in the United States. The newspaper identified Trump's claims about the size of the workforce and the availability of US munitions among the exaggerations, despite what it said was depletion of the US stockpile during the war with Iran.
The president also credited himself with ending 8 wars, although some of the cases he cited involved de-escalations or conflicts that had not reached a final settlement. On the economic front, Trump repeated his claim that he had brought in $21 trillion in foreign investment.
But the fact-check found that the figure included broad investment pledges, as well as investments announced previously, rather than new investment fully realised during his administration. Trump also said he had signed the largest tax cuts in US history, while the review ranked the latest cuts sixth in size.
The newspaper concluded that the address combined achievements announced by the administration with figures and outcomes unsupported by available data, particularly on oil, drugs, military munitions and wars.
