The claim
“The poverty rate in the United States is lower than at any time in American history.”
The claim was attributed to Donald Trump during the Presidents Cup on 2 October 2026, as covered by a Yahoo News article.
Our verdict
Unverified
We could not verify this claim. There is no record of Donald Trump saying it, and the available poverty data do not show whether the current rate is the lowest in American history.
Know something that settles it? Send us evidenceWhat we found
The claim appears in a Yahoo News report about Donald Trump’s remarks at the Presidents Cup on 2 October 2026. However, the article does not quote him making the specific statement that the poverty rate is at an all-time low. We could not find any other public recording or transcript to confirm he said it.
To check the substance of the claim, we looked at official poverty figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. Reports for 2024 and 2025 give rates of 10.6% and 10.2%. These numbers are recent, but none of the sources compare them to historical rates going back decades. Without that long-term context, we cannot tell whether 10.2% is truly the lowest ever recorded.
Because we lack both a verified quote and the full historical data, there is not enough public evidence to confirm or refute the claim. If you have a recording, transcript, or historical poverty table that could help, please send it to us.
The evidence
6 sources, all background: none settles the claim either way.
- Background
A Yahoo News article about Trump’s Presidents Cup remarks mentions employment and economic claims but does not report him saying the poverty rate is at an all-time low.
www.yahoo.com· Donald Trump’s Presidents Cup remarks draw scrutiny over golf and economic claims - Background
A Census Bureau story notes that the official U.S. poverty rate was 10.2% in 2025, but it does not compare this figure to earlier years.
census.gov· States With Highest Poverty Rates Clustered in the SouthSeptember 15, 2026
- Background
The report ‘Poverty in the United States: 2025’ confirms the 10.2% rate for 2025, without providing historical poverty rates.
census.gov· Poverty in the United States: 2025September 15, 2026
- Background
A Census Bureau press release also gives the 2025 poverty rate as 10.2%, again lacking any long-term comparison.
census.gov· Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2025September 15, 2026
- Background
The 2024 edition of ‘Poverty in the United States’ shows a rate of 10.6% for that year, with no historical context to judge if later figures are record lows.
census.gov· Poverty in the United States: 2024September 9, 2025
- Background
A 2024 press release confirms the 10.6% poverty rate, but like the others, it does not include the historical data needed to assess an all-time low.
census.gov· Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2024September 9, 2025
What we could not confirm
- Whether Donald Trump actually said the poverty rate is lower than at any time in American history.
- What the official U.S. poverty rate has been in every year since records began, to determine if 10.2% is the lowest.
- Whether future revisions to the 2024 and 2025 poverty estimates might change the figures.
How we checked
We searched the Yahoo News article for the exact quote and examined the latest official Census Bureau reports on poverty. We looked for historical poverty tables that would show the lowest rate on record, but none of the sources we found included that comparison. We reviewed 6 relevant sources.
Help us check this claim
We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute this claim. If you know of an official record, dataset, transcript or report that settles it, send us the link. We review every submission and update this fact check when the evidence changes the picture.
Measured Take updates fact checks when new evidence emerges. Corrections are noted on the page.
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