MOBILE, Ala. — President Donald Trump delivered a midterm campaign speech that ran well over an hour Friday night at the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell Center, blending attacks on Democrats with praise for his administration’s record.
As with many of his freewheeling rally speeches, Trump’s remarks in Mobile included embellished claims, contradictions and several assertions that conflict with available evidence. Some statements contained a kernel of truth; others did not hold up.
Below is a look at a dozen of the president’s claims and what the record shows.
1. The I-10 Mobile River Bridge Funding
The claim: “$3 billion from the Trump administration for the I-10 bridge project.”
Verdict: Mostly false, depending on who gets credit for the project.
The Trump administration did not provide a single $3 billion grant or federal appropriation for the Interstate 10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project. The largest federal grant for the project was a $550 million award through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed by former President Joe Biden.
Republicans, however, have credited the Trump administration with helping push the project forward and allowing construction to begin on its first phase. That phase, estimated at $4.15 billion, includes a 215-foot-tall, six-lane cable-stayed bridge over the Mobile River and additional lanes along the Bayway between Mobile and Daphne. A second phase, which would replace the existing Bayway, remains unfunded and has no construction timetable.
Trump tied Friday’s groundbreaking to “$3 billion” in administration funding. Much of the project’s financing, however, comes through a federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan — money that must be repaid through toll revenue, rather than a grant.
2. Wesley Britt’s Football Career
The claim: “You know Wesley was an All-American for four years. The guy’s a monster. Stand up, Wesley. I tell you … All-American and he was 11 years in the NFL and he was an All-Pro. He was that good.”
Verdict: Exaggeration.
Wesley Britt, the husband of U.S. Sen. Katie Britt and an Alabama business executive, played three seasons as a tackle in the National Football League, from 2006 to 2008, with the New England Patriots. He was not an 11-year NFL player.
Britt played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was a third-team All-American during his senior season in 2004 — not a four-year All-American.
3. The Texas Senate Candidate
The claim: “Like that guy from Texas, he’s eating meat like a pig. He goes to barbecues. He’s a vegan. He was wearing a mask three to four months ago.”
Verdict: An embellished Republican political attack line.
Trump was referring to Texas Democrat James Talarico, who has emerged as a serious challenger in a state that has long favored the GOP. Recent polling shows Talarico either narrowly leading or running even with Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in one of the highest-profile Senate races of the 2026 midterms.
The vegan line stems from a Republican attack on a 2022 video in which Talarico told the Texas Humane Legislation Network that it was “existential” for Americans to reduce meat consumption. According to reports, his comments were tied to climate change concerns — not to any personal decision to stop eating meat.
“I’m an eighth-generation Texan. I’ve been eating BBQ since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment,” Talarico said in response to the GOP criticism. He has since tried to turn the attacks into a conversation about affordability, noting that beef brisket prices have risen 28% over the past year as the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to a 75-year low.
4. The $5,000 ‘Trump Dividend’
The claim: “We’ll do $5,000 for everyone (if Republicans win).”
Verdict: A campaign proposal presented as a certainty, and one that would face a significant hurdle in Congress.
Trump has repeatedly said that if Republicans keep control of the House and Senate, every adult U.S. citizen would receive $5,000 through what he calls the “Trump Dividend.” Independent fact-checkers have estimated such a payment would cost roughly $1.2 trillion, not $3.3 trillion, and it would require approval from Congress.
Even some Republicans have expressed reservations, citing concerns about the national debt, inflation and the legality of tying government payments to election outcomes.
5. Crime and the Murder Rate
The claim: “We achieved the largest drop in violent crime ever” and “the murder rate is at the lowest level in 125 years, since the year 1900.”
Verdict: Partly true trend, though the decline began during the Biden administration.
Trump also cited declines in murders of 44% in Birmingham, 91% in Washington, D.C., and 83% in New Orleans.
Nationally, homicides have fallen to their lowest levels in decades. However, crime researchers caution that modern data cannot reliably be compared with figures from 1900. Violent crime has generally been declining since 2022, following a pandemic-era spike — a trend that began before Trump returned to office.
Closer to home, Birmingham is on pace to record its lowest homicide total in roughly 75 years. Through the first three quarters of 2026, the city recorded 34 homicides. Just two years earlier, Birmingham reported 152 homicides, one of the deadliest years in its history.
6. ‘Amnesty’ for 25 Million
The claim: The Biden administration “gave 25 million illegal aliens amnesty. They wanted to give amnesty to everyone who came into the country illegally.”
Verdict: False.
Independent fact-checkers have rated Trump’s claim that 25 million immigrants entered the country illegally under Biden as false. Estimates of the nation’s undocumented population during Biden’s presidency generally ranged between 11 million and 12 million, depending on methodology, with the highest published estimate at 16.8 million.
There is also no evidence that the Biden administration granted blanket amnesty to everyone who entered the country illegally.
7. Border Crossings ‘Zero’
The claim: “In the past 17 months, 25 million people poured into our country. But in the past 17 months, zero.”
Verdict: Misleading.
Trump contrasted his unsupported 25 million figure with “zero” crossings during his own term. Illegal crossings have indeed fallen sharply and reached historic lows compared with the Biden years — but they have not fallen to zero.
8. ‘$21 Trillion’ in Investment
The claim: Trump said $21 trillion is being invested in the United States, through new manufacturers, farmers, American exports and more.
Verdict: False.
An independent review of a nearly identical claim of $22 trillion found it was almost double the $11.2 trillion listed on the White House’s own investment tracker. Even that White House figure includes multiyear commitments, announced projects and future investments in areas such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, energy, biotechnology and manufacturing — not money already spent.
9. Prices
The claim: “We’ve done nothing but bring prices down.”
Verdict: False.
Inflation and consumer prices remain central Democratic attack lines heading into the midterms. Gasoline prices were more than 40% higher than in January 2025, amid market disruptions tied to the Iran conflict, and diesel prices reached record highs last month. Overall consumer prices have increased about 4.7% since Trump returned to office, according to published estimates.
10. Democrats and the Tax Law
The claim: “Every Democrat voted against our record tax cuts, no tax on tips, and overtime and no tax on Social Security for seniors.”
Verdict: Mixed.
The first part of the statement is accurate: Democrats uniformly opposed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed in 2025.
The rest is more complicated. Trump’s description of the law as providing “no tax” on tips, overtime and Social Security overstates what the legislation actually does. The law provides limited deductions and tax breaks rather than fully eliminating taxes on those forms of income, and some provisions expire after 2028 unless Congress extends them. The law does not eliminate taxes on Social Security; instead, it provides an additional $6,000 deduction for many Americans age 65 and older.
The “record tax cuts” description has also been challenged. According to independent analyses, even when factoring in the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, the tax savings from the 2025 law still rank behind tax cuts signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and President Barack Obama in 2012.
11. Proof of Citizenship
The claim: “They voted against proof of citizenship.”
Verdict: Misleading.
Trump was referring to Democratic opposition to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Republicans support the bill as an election-integrity measure.
Democrats generally oppose it, arguing that it addresses a problem election officials and researchers have found to be extremely rare. Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal. Critics also contend that some eligible voters may not have immediate access to passports, birth certificates or other required documents — with married women whose legal names differ from their birth certificates frequently cited as a potentially affected group.
Republicans counter that passports and other citizenship documents can satisfy the requirement and argue that verifying citizenship is a reasonable safeguard.
The Bottom Line
Trump’s Mobile speech, like many of his rally appearances, mixed accurate statements with exaggerations and claims that do not match the available evidence. His description of Democratic opposition to the 2025 tax law was accurate, and his claim of falling homicide rates reflects a real national trend. But claims about the I-10 bridge funding, the size of foreign investment, immigration numbers, prices and the scope of his tax law overstated or misrepresented the record.
Alabama voters will weigh these and other issues when they go to the polls in the Nov. 3 general election. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 19.
