Econified

President Donald Trump spoke at the 2025 McDonald’s Impact Summit. The whole video can be watched from the White House’s official YouTube page. This speech can really be summed up as a recap of how he has brought about “The Golden Age” for the United States.

Here is a list of key economic claims President Trump brought up in the speech with my comments below:

• He has normalized inflation after President Biden’s presidency.
  •  It is true the inflation now is lower than under most of Biden’s presidency. President Biden’s presidency had such high inflation due to economic issues mostly resulting from the global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• He has secured $17 Trillion in domestic investments in his first 9 months with aims at over $20 Trillion before the end of his first year.
  • There are no numbers attached to how he got this figure. He implies that this investment is based on his business deals and economic policies. While these deals have been impressive, they do not total anywhere near $17 Trillion. I think he is measuring investment as total capital investment as a part of GDP. This includes all household investment, business investment, and foreign investment. Total GDP for the U.S. in 2024 was $29.2 Trillion. 21.74% of that number was capital investment. This means that capital investment in 2024 was roughly $6.4 Trillion in 2024. This would mean his presidency raised investment by over $10 Trillion already this year. While actual numbers on how he got to this figure would be needed to verify, this seems very economically positive.
• There are over 1.9M new American-born workers today than when he took office.
  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics supports these numbers. The former director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics was fired on August 1st because she revised several labor statistics. These numbers indicated the economy was not as strong as previously thought. President Trump stated that the numbers were “rigged in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.” The firing of the BLS director is a controversial call. Some economists worry that economic data may not be scrutinized thoroughly under this administration.
• Wages for hourly workers rose fastest in 60 years under his second term.
  • President Trump is looking at real wages for the entire presidency of his predecessors when making this claim. Since President Trump has only been in office for five months when this report came out from the U.S. Department of Treasury, it is not an exact comparison. However, strong real wage growth numbers like President Trump’s are very positive. They indicate economic growth.
• 600,000 people are now off food stamps since he took office.
  • This figure is true according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the department that runs the food stamp program. This number represents roughly a 1.5% reduction in the total number of food stamp recipients. Reasons for this decrease were not given, but it does show a decreased liability for the government.
• 100% of new jobs are created have been in the private sector.
  • President Trump has really tried to decrease federal employment since coming into office. This number is not factual since there are a lot of public employees that are not under the federal government. However, federal employment hiring has been suspended since President Trump took office with only a few exceptions. One key exception is Immigration and Customs Enforcement which has been hiring many new agents to meet President Trump’s immigration policies. U.S. military are also federal employees which has not stopped hiring during President Trump’s presidency.
• We have the world’s greatest military. Our B-2 Bomber strikes on Iran completely obliterated their nuclear capability.
  • The operation that took out the nuclear capabilities in Iran was an impressive use of military power by the United States. It is unknown if all of Iran’s nuclear capabilities are eliminated, but the ability to project global power has been showcased by this attack.
• He was instrumental in creating the Board of Peace in the Middle East, and it was endorsed by the UN.
  • President Donald Trump is expected the head the board with the aims of bringing peace to the highly contested Gaza Strip in the Middle East. This plan was voted in favor by the UN Security Council. This region has been highly contested for many years, and President Trump is making progress to keeping the area safe. The Board of Peace will still need buy-in from the nations in the region to be successful, so it is not known if this board will ultimately be effective in bringing sustained peace.
• We produce more oil and gas now than any time in history.
  • Additionally, the United States is also the world’s largest oil producer. Oil is utilized in many different industries. Increasing domestic oil production is going to make the United States less reliant on the Middle East as well as allowing domestic oil to support U.S. industry. This could be very economically prosperous if oil production continues to grow at this heightened rate.
• Inflation has hit the lowest levels in the last 8 years.
  • The most common way to measure inflation is utilizing the Consumer Price Index (CPI). A chart of CPI for the last 20 years is reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, CPI actually lowered to less than one percent. Before COVID-19, CPI has been hovering around 2% since 2010. CPI is currently at 3%, so this statement seems to be untrue. Read more about President Trump’s inflation in Econified’s tariff post.
• Estate and death taxes have been significantly lowered.
  • This was included under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The new standard deduction for an estate tax is now $15M. This means that more money can be transferred by family members without taxation. Additionally, farms and small businesses are eligible for deferral of tax payments and valuations based on use rather than market value. This will allow more money to be passed on, which should help small businesses and farmers. The value of land is so high for many farmers that they are not able to afford the tax liability when inheriting land. President Trump is trying to help solve that problem.
• Stock market hit all time high 48 times in the 9 months of his presidency.
  • The stock market has had a monumental year since President Trump took office, and there is something to be said for his ability to reassure investors in the market. The S&P 500 is up over 13% YTD. Nasdaq is doing better at over 17% YTD. Dow Jones Industrial Average also showed good growth at almost 9% YTD. Overall, these are good signs of growth in the economy.

The McDonald’s Impact Summit was definitely a chance for President Trump to verbalize a lot of the key talking points of his administration. President Trump is reporting some very positive numbers for the U.S. economy, and, hopefully, the growth remains steady throughout the rest of his second term in office.