Yet again President Donald Trump amazes me with his outlandish claims on several political, economic and social issues at his State of the Union Address Tuesday night.

I am honestly surprised on how often Trump claims false facts in the entirety of his political career. I am curious to see what his personal editors and fact checkers tell him to say before speeches and press conferences because of what is said by him.

It is not like Trump is the first president to lie or at least claim false facts to the public; this has happened multiple times throughout multiple administrations. However, it is borderline humorous in Trump’s case; I always look forward to hearing what ignorant thing he says next each day.

When it comes to his State of The Union Address, there are many fact checks done. For this article here, I am going to use The Washington Post’s fact checks. The most significant aspect to analyze from this address is Trump’s claims on southern border security/ border wall. The government had the longest shutdown in history due to Trump not receiving funding for the border wall, so me and many other Americans were looking forward to what he had to say about this issue.

Trump tries to install fear into the minds of Americans by over exaggerating the security threat at the southern border. “The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security and financial well-being of all Americans. We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens,” Trump said. There is no new threat of a security issue at the border; this has been a fact for many years. Apprehensions of people trying to cross the southern border peaked at 1.6 million in 2000 and has been at a sharp decline since then. In Fiscal 2018, apprehensions fell to under 400,000.

He also brought up the illegal drugs being smuggled through the southern border. It has been long documented that most of this contraband comes into the country from legal points of entry. There is an abundance of statistics gathered by the DEA that prove this point. The construction of a larger border wall will only stop a small portion of illegal drugs being smuggled into the U.S., and Trump does not seem to care about this, oddly. He is sticking with the wall because of his own vanity, not the American people’s well-being and protection.

One aspect he brought up during the address that stood out to me specifically is his claims about the MS-13 gang presence in the U.S. “The savage, gang MS-13, now operates in at least 20 different American states, and they almost all come through our southern border… We are removing these gang members by the thousands, but until we secure our border, they’re going to keep streaming back in,” Trump said.

MS-13 is not present in 20 states; they are mostly concentrated in Los Angeles, Long Island and Washington, according to experts. Also, claiming that they are being removed in the thousands is an over exaggeration to say the least. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it deported 1,332 MS-13 members in fiscal 2018 and around another 1,000 deported in fiscal 2017.

Before you label this article as liberal media, I consider myself as middle of the road when it comes to the right and the left. I agree with many right and left-wing policies. I am stating this because I have seen so much feedback from our readers calling the editorial staff and columnists just biased, liberal media. We all have different opinions in this newsroom and, that is a good thing.

I will be critical of any politician that constantly lies to the American people regardless of party affiliation. Do not take what any politician says at face value. Think for yourself, and don’t be afraid to criticize politicians. We live in the U.S., a country that, thankfully, allows this.

Jordan Boyer is a senior history major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or at jtboyer@eiu.edu.