Travis Caldwell

Sr. Editor, @CNN FactCheck

[Jake Tapper 🦅 @jaketapper]

That is some wild, unhinged stuff from the President.

Welker is a good person and honest journalist and didn’t deserve that but more importantly we have a president who constantly pushes conspiracy theories with zero evidence and can’t respond when politely challenged on that.

[Peyton @TowryPeyton]

My favorite Kyle Busch interview of all time

Absolutely iconic moment and he will forever be missed

[CNN @CNN]

A sprawling 20-acre hayfield in rural Minnesota was meant to become a tranquil resting place for the dead — a green cemetery where community members could bury loved ones in a more environmentally friendly manner.

But as word of the project spread, opposition in the community of Blackhoof Township quickly mounted. https://t.co/phpI43Mkkc

[Daniel Dale @ddale8]

It's hard to explain just how detached from reality President Trump's conspiracy-theory-filled social media posting spree last night and this morning was. One easy example: The president shared a completely made-up and frankly nonsensical "quote" about former president Obama the post attributed to GOP Sen. John Kennedy. The fake quote originated with a "satire" website, basically a fakery factory, that invents stories to be shared by online conservatives; per the fact-check website Lead Stories, versions of this particular fake quote have been wrongly attributed to everyone from Kash Patel to Madonna.
https://t.co/iuGHS09Zxs

[CNN Breaking News @cnnbrk]

Ted Turner, the billionaire media entrepreneur and philanthropist who launched the 24-hour cable TV news revolution when he founded CNN in 1980, has died. He was 87. https://t.co/61G2Kuh8Vz

[Mike Conti @MikeConti929]

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that the city of Atlanta, its sports community, and the broadcast industry (as a whole) would not be what it is today without Ted Turner.

[Casual Thursday @CasualThursday]

We haven’t seen an Atlanta team go out like this since many, many other such instances in Atlanta sports history.

[Donie O'Sullivan @donie]

WATCH the full 11-min dispatch here: https://t.co/ETlwOfhEiq

[Oxford United @OUFCOfficial]

Last night we paid tribute to Amelia. 💛

We will never forget you, Amelia. Forever Yellow!

We will continue to support Amelia's family, friends and teammates.

[Frederik Pleitgen @fpleitgenCNN]

Just departed Iran after visas expired. Has been an interesting trip in difficult times. Hope to return soon. Big thank you to @claudiaotto who made everything happen and all our colleagues @CNN

[Frederik Pleitgen @fpleitgenCNN]

@ASDylanJohnson I bought the coffee.

[CNN International PR @cnnipr]

Nearly a week into the conflict, CNN's reporters are fanned out across the region bringing you the latest:
📍@fpleitgenCNN in Iran
📍@NicRobertsonCNN in Saudi Arabia
📍@clarissaward in Iraq
📍@PHancocksCNN @BeckyCNN @EleniGiokos in the UAE
📍@BijanCNN in Qatar...

1/2

[College Baseball News @CollegeBSBNews]

GEORGIA STATE TAKES DOWN #5 GT 👀

The Panthers hand the Yellow Jackets their first loss of the season.

[Daniel Dale @ddale8]

President Donald Trump made a large number of false and misleading claims in the State of the Union address, including a bunch of egregious lies. Here’s a brief fact check of 26 of his remarks – some false, some misleading, some without important context. There's a link at bottom for more detail.

Immigration and foreign affairs
- Trump said the man who killed a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte last summer “came in through open borders.” Wrong. The man charged with the murder is from the US. His Facebook page says he was born in Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer reports.
- Trump said he’s ended eight wars. False. His list included an Egypt-Ethiopia diplomatic dispute that wasn’t a war, some mystery Serbia-Kosovo situation that also wasn’t a war, a war in the DRC that hasn’t actually ended, and the Gaza war he acknowledged himself “proceeds at a very low level.” The list also has several other issues.
- Trump said he hasn’t heard Iran say “secret words”: “We will never have a nuclear weapon.” It’s not clear what Iran is saying in closed-door negotiations, but Iranian officials have said those words publicly – in fact, yesterday afternoon before the speech, Iran’s foreign minister tweeted, “Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon.” Skepticism of those words is very reasonable, but those were the words.
- Trump said Joe Biden allowed “11,888 murderers” into the country as migrants. That’s a wild distortion of federal data, which is about people who immigrated legally or illegally over multiple decades, including during Trump’s own first administration, and were convicted of homicide at some point, usually in the US. Many of them are currently serving their prison sentences.
- Trump suggested a large number of migrants have come in from prisons and “mental institutions.” He has never corroborated such claims.
- Trump said that NATO members are now “paying” 5% of GDP on defense “as opposed to not paying 2 (percent).” But 18 NATO members of 31 were at or above the former 2% target in 2024; no member was up to 5% (or even above 4.5%) in 2025; the US was at 3.2% in 2025. And, again, these are defense expenditures, not payments to the US or NATO.

The economy, inflation and tariffs
- Trump said foreign countries pay his tariffs. Wrong. The payments are made by US importers, and study after study shows the costs of the 2025 Trump tariffs, like his previosu tariffs, are overwhelmingly borne by a combination of US businesses and US consumers.
- Trump said he’s secured $18 trillion in investment commitments in just a year. Fiction. The White House website says it’s $9.7 trillion, and even that is a wild exaggeration.
- Trump said he inherited record inflation. He didn’t. It was 2.9% in Biden’s last full month and 3.0% in the month Trump came back. It peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, a 40-year high but nowhere close to the record of 23.7%, and it then fell steadily before Trump returned.
- He said he inherited a “stagnant economy” but it’s now “roaring like never before.” Baseless. The economy grew faster in 2024 (and 2023, 2022 and 2021) than in 2025, and though the fall shutdown played a role in 2025, there wasn’t anywhere close to a record boom before it happened.
- Trump said gas prices are “$1.99 a gallon” in “some places.” He didn't make clear that it's extremely, extremely few places. GasBuddy found *4* stations at the time of the speech selling for $1.99 or lower aside from special discounts, out of 150,000 stations the firm tracks.
- Trump said gas is “now below $2.30 a gallon in most states.” Various states had some stations selling for $2.30 a gallon or less yesterday, but there were zero states with an average below Oklahoma's $2.37 and only two with an average below $2.50, per AAA; the US average was $2.95.
- Trump accurately noted that eggs, butter, chicken and fresh fruit have declined in average price during this presidency, but he didn’t acknowledge that overall grocery prices are up 2.1% or that far more grocery products have gotten more expensive than have gotten cheaper. He said “even beef, which is very high, is starting to come down significantly”; it did fall 0.9% in January (0.4% seasonally adjusted), but it was still 15% higher than a year ago.
- He said his $1,776 “warrior dividend” for members of the military came “from tariffs and other things.” It didn’t come from tariffs at all; it was taken from funds designated in his big bill last year as supplemental money for the military’s basic allowance for housing.
- He correctly said more Americans are working now than ever, but he didn’t mention that this number rises over time because of population growth. The employment-population ratio and labor force participation rate are both down slightly since he returned, while the unemployment rate has ticked up and job gains have been weak.

Taxes and government programs
- He said he achieved “no tax on Social Security for our great seniors.” He didn’t. His big bill last year created an additional, temporary tax deduction for people 65 and over, but millions will still pay taxes on Social Security.
- He said he can balance the budget overnight by finding sufficient fraud. There is no credible estimate that there is that much fraud in federal programs.
- He said Somali residents of Minnesota have committed much more than $19 billion in fraud. There’s no proof of that to date. A federal prosecutor estimated that there might be fraud in half or more of $18 billion in billing by certain Medicaid services in the state, but half of $18 billion in $9 billion, the prosecutor didn’t say all of this supposed fraud was committed by Somalis, and Gov. Walz’s administration has sharply contested the estimate.
- He said he’ll always protect Medicaid. He’s already broken that promise. His big bill last year slashed more than $900 billion in federal funding over 10 years for Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office. CBO estimated that its Medicaid provisions would increase the number of uninsured by 7.5 million in 2034.
- He said he passed the largest tax cuts in American history. That’s not true as a share of GDP, a common way to measure.

Elections
- He said “cheating is rampant in our elections.” It’s simply not. The incidence of fraud is minuscule.
- He referred to “crooked mail-in ballots.” Just baseless to categorically describe mail-in ballots this way. Experts say there is slightly more fraud with mail-in voting than with in-person voting, but all evidence shows it’s still tiny.
- He said Democrats can only get elected by cheating. An obvious lie.

Crime
- He said he inherited “rampant crime.” Crime data expert Jeff Asher: “The US violent crime rate in 2024 was the lowest since 1969 and the property crime rate was the lowest since 1961.”
- He said Washington, DC is “now one of the safest cities in the country.” That’s not true, though crime has fallen there in the past year – before and after Trump’s takeover of local law enforcement.
- He said DC has “almost no crime anymore.” Not true, as a cursory glance at public data or police press releases shows. It did have a rare three-week stretch of no murders to start the year, but that’s over.

https://t.co/Kt7DaRlyp4

[Pete Muntean @petemuntean]

BREAKING: A source briefed by FAA tells me the El Paso flight ban was driven by military operations from Biggs Army Air Field at Fort Bliss. The FAA acted after the Defense Department could not assure civilian flight safety.

[Kristie Lu Stout✌🏽 @klustout]

The fire ravaged everything.

We’re back in Tai Po, more than 2 months after the deadly high-rise fire that claimed at least 168 lives and left more than 4,000 people homeless.

68-year-old Yip Ka-Kui lost his wife and their home in the fire. His sons are by his side everyday, including his youngest who also lost his home in the fire. They live together in the older son’s apartment. 3 rooms for 7 people.

Local authorities say it will be challenging to rebuild the complex, and are considering a buy-back option. The brothers won’t accept that.

Wang Fuk Court is their home in ashes, one that this family may never return to.

🙏🏽 @karina_tsui

[Brian Stelter @brianstelter]

A statement from the family of Alex Pretti, obtained by CNN:

"We are heartbroken but also very angry.

Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.

The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you."

[Travis Caldwell @CaldwellCNN]

I would simply not be where I am today without the kindness and mentorship of Ric Ward and Chip Grabow. Missing them terribly and it was moving to see them here. Kudos to the #CNNNYE team to also include them and the CNNers we've lost.

[Jeff Storobinsky @JeffStorobinsky]

Poignant in Memoriam on CNN New Years Eve . Better than the Emmys or Oscars