‘Morning Joe' Fact Checks Trump's Congressional Address: ‘Can't Happen. Won't Happen'

Yahoo

06-03-2025

Economic analyst Steve Rattner stopped by MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' to fact check President Trump's joint address to congress, and was quick to say it was all 'an empty promise.'
'Morning Joe' spent a good portion of their Thursday episode breaking down Trump's first joint address to Congress of his second term. Rattner used hard data to break down each of Trump's promises including tax cuts, DOGE cuts and his attempts to balance the federal budget. To start, the show cut to a clip from the address where the president talked about upcoming tax cuts.
'We're seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board and to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation,' Trump said during his Tuesday address. 'I'm calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on social security benefits for our great seniors. And I also want to make interest payments on cars tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America.'
Rattner quickly said with the House Republicans' budget proposal that it was nothing short of impossible.
'Yeah, look, Trump hands out tax cuts like they were Halloween candy, but then at some point you got to deal with the reality of what that all adds up to,' the MSNBC analyst said. 'These are billions and billions of dollars of tax cuts. Simply extending his existing tax cuts, the ones he passed in 2017 … would cost over $4.5 trillion.'
'The House Budget Committee has only allocated $4.5 trillion for all the tax cuts,' Rattner continued. 'How the rest of this happens, including a full deduction of the state and local taxes, is impossible. This is almost $8 trillion worth of tax cuts. So, this is an empty promise. Can't happen. Won't happen.'
'Morning Joe' then played another clip from the address where Trump talked about how 'in the near future' he wants to balance the federal budget.
'First term, he planned not only to balance the budget, but to pay off all the national debt. That did not work out so well. He added a ton of national debt,' Rattner said of the president's assertions. 'We are looking at deficits a bit below $2 trillion going all the way up to $3 trillion over the next ten years. The budget, the plan that I just described, would add another two and half roughly trillion of dollars of debt. So instead of balancing the budget and paying down the debt, he is creating more deficits, all these deficits adding $22.5 trillion to the debt.'
The MSNBC show then moved onto Trump addressing the tariffs. Trump has spent much of the first few weeks of his term promising to impose a 25% tax on imports from Canada and Mexico. The move has been pushed forward and stalled several times as both countries have promised retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. 'Morning Joe' looked specifically at Trump's promises to the automotive and farming industries.
The stock market has taken a big hit since the announcement of the impending tariffs, with prices of Ford and General Motors going 'off a cliff.' Ford is down 10% and GM is down 7.5% respectively. Trump asserted in his address that all of the automakers were very happy. However, Ford CEO Jim Farley said at an investor conference last month that the tariffs would 'blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen.'
Rattner echoed the sentiment and said that the stock prices and continued backlash from auto experts clearly show that the move will lead to major turmoil for the car industry and Americans alike.
The president also addressed U.S. farmers and said the new trade policy will help them since they will 'now be selling into our home market.' Farmers already sell into the home market but will likely now be faced by tariffs on exported goods.
Rattner used an example from Trump's first term about how the tariffs that were imposed affected farmers so badly that the government had to compensate them $24.5 billion for their lost exports.
'I don't really see how this is great for American farmers,' Rattner said as he broke down Trump's second-term plan. 'How this sort of allows them to 'sell things at home' when we are already selling everything we can at home and sending the rest of it overseas as one of our major exports.'
Rattner also dissected Trump's view on the aid the U.S. has given to Ukraine. During his address, the president said the government has spent 'perhaps $350 billion' on aid and that it was 'like taking candy from a baby.' The U.S. as of Wednesday paused intel sharing with Ukraine which has immediately led to increased bombardment from Russian forces.
'He's used those figures over and over and over again,' Rattner lamented. 'He's been corrected by me and 100 other people … and still he keeps using it. So, we'll try one more time. Maybe he's watching. Maybe someone will finally get him to say what is actually true.'
'He claims $350 billion spent by the U.S. in Ukraine. The real number is $120 billion,' the economic analyst continued. 'Europe is at $138 billion more than us, not $100 billion as he claimed. And by the way, Europe at the moment is putting together a massive amount of additional aid … We are cutting back on what we are doing for the Ukrainians.'
Lastly, 'Morning Joe' wrapped up its Thursday segment by looking at the supposed DOGE budget findings. For weeks, Trump and Elon Musk have been gutting federal agencies and have been touting major savings in the process, though the move has sparked major backlash from workers, the Democrats and federal judges who continue to question the legality of the process.
The controversial topic was another big point in his joint address. Rattner said 'when you actually add up everything DOGE has claimed and also the DOGE reality you get a very different picture.' The MSNBC analyst added that suspiciously a bunch of numbers have just disappeared from their website. He said now, all that DOGE is claiming is that $2.3 billion has been saved by cutting contracts of workers that have been terminated in the mass firings.
Rattner reiterated that Trump flat out lied about finding hundreds of billions in wasteful spending. 'Just like the tiniest little fraction of what Trump claims they have found.'
You can watch the full 'Morning Joe' segment in the clip above.
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