Trump airs familiar grievances, charts MAGA plan in address before bitterly divided Congress

Trump has spent most of the last 20 minutes talking about out-of-control government spending, ranging from cuts of foreign aid to repeating falsehoods about Social Security payments to dead people. He went so far as to promise the government will balance the budget — something it hasn't done since the 90s.

Now he's a few paragraphs in to a preview of tax cut legislation. Trump says he will extend his 2017 tax cuts and further cut the rate for wealthy Americans while eliminating the tax on tips. It's worth noting that these goals are not compatible without cuts to government entitlement programs, since cutting taxes also cuts revenues that pay for spending. A budget bill which recently passed the Republican-controlled House would add nearly $3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.

—G. Elliott Morris, 538

In detailing the waste and fraud his administration has discovered, Trump used the example of the country’s Social Security rolls, saying millions of people listed at ages 100 and older are still on active Social Security lists. Why?

Social media commenters came up with one possible explanation for the 150-year age, and experts who have worked closely with the Social Security Administration told PolitiFact it was plausible.

Under an international standard called ISO 8601, a missing value for a date is coded as May 20, 1875, because that was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the "Convention du Mètre."

For that reason, under some coding systems, a missing value for a date will default to 1875 — which in the year 2025 produces a round figure of 150.

Social Security Administration Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek said in a Feb. 19 statement that people older than 100 in the Social Security database "are not necessarily receiving benefits."

That doesn’t mean payments aren’t sent out improperly, however.

Between fiscal years 2015 and 2022, which includes Trump’s first presidency, the Social Security Administration sent almost $71.8 billion in improper payments, according to a July 2024 agency inspector general report. The inspector general’s office called improper payments "a longstanding challenge."

A November 2021 inspector general’s report found $298 million in payments after death to some 24,000 beneficiaries. (About $84 million was returned, the report said.)

— Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact

Rep. Al Green spoke with ABC News after he was escorted out of the chamber and said he'd welcome any consequences that come from his disruption.

"I was following the wishes of conscious, there are times when it is better to stand alone than not stand at all," he said.

1:39

'At some point, we're all going to have to stand up': Al GreenRep. Al Green spoke with ABC News after he was escorted out of the chamber and said he'd welcome any consequences that come from his disruption.

ABCNews.com

Green added that he believes Trump is "disrupting the healthcare system" and "all but defying court orders."

"At some point, we're all going to have to stand up," the congressman said.

-ABC News' Jay O'Brien

Though egg prices did increase under President Joe Biden, they have recently surged under Trump too — and that's because of bird flu, which has led to the deaths of 136 million birds since 2022, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

While the price of eggs was consistently rising due to inflation under Biden's administration, the first significant price hike occurred in 2022, when bird flu began infecting flocks of birds in the U.S. Egg prices rose from $1.93 per dozen to $4.82 per dozen over the course of just that one year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The prices moderated again, back down to the $2-$3 range during the rest of Biden's presidency — but have shot back up to a record-high $4.95 this January, again due to bird flu.