Fact check: Where was Trump wrong in his Congress speech?

Heckling, chants and an expulsion - US President Donald Trump's first speech to Congress since his re-election provoked dramatic reactions. Trump began by heaping praise on himself and the work of his administration so far, which he said has achieved more in 43 days than other US administrations have in four or even eight years.

"And we're just getting started," he said.

During his 100-minute speech to both chambers of the US Congress, Trump made numerous claims, including boasts and figures about the cost of military aid for the war in Ukraine. The DW fact checking team has looked closer at what he said about Europe and Ukraine.

Has the US helped Ukraine three times more than Europe?

Addressing Congress, Donald Trump repeated a claim that the US has so far provided more than three times as much aid as its European partners.

Claim: "We've spent maybe 350 billion dollars... And they [the Europeans, editor's note] have spent 100 billion dollars... Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent."

DW fact check: False.

Donald Trump made this claim back in February, but provided no evidence for it. Publicly available sources however tell a different story. According to figures from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), US aid to Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022 amounted to 128 billion dollars by December 31, 2024. In contrast, Europe (including Turkey) has provided almost 290 billion dollars.

In other words, the relative amount of aid for Ukraine coming from the US and Europe looks very different from how Trump presented it.

The figures come from the Ukraine Support Tracker, which German think tank IfW uses to record military, financial and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

While the IfW only takes into account support provided directly to Ukraine, the figures from other surveys differ, as other services are recorded, such as the replenishment of US weapons stocks following deliveries to Ukraine.

The US government itself collects data on aid to Ukraine, which also fail to match Trump's figures.

According to the US government's Ukraine Oversight Working Group, the US contribution to Ukraine totals $203 billion. 

"Since Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Congress has appropriated or otherwise made available nearly $183 billion for Operation Atlantic Resolve and the broader Ukraine response," the working group states. "In addition, the United States has provided $20 billion in loans as part of the G7 nations' extraordinary revenue acceleration initiative."

The U.S. Department of Defense also reported figures of approximately $183 billion.

The question of who supported Ukraine to date and how much they spent in total depends on which services are included. Based on the uniform calculation of the Ukraine Support Tracker, the European nations, including the institutions of the European Union, have provided significantly more aid to Ukraine than the US, as a DW fact check from the end of February showed.

This article was adapted from German.