Polygraph

The poverty rate is the lowest in history.

Posted by The Dan Bongino Show, Checked Updated

Polygraph verdictMixed
Sources
3 contradict1 support
Said
1 time·
Confidence
65%
The Dan Bongino ShowOct 19, 2026
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55 claimsThe check →

The official Census poverty rate (10.2% in 2025) was the lowest on record since 1959, so the claim holds under that standard measure as of the 2026-10-19 post date. Under the Supplemental Poverty Measure (13.1% in 2025, versus a 7.7% low in 2021), the rate is not at an all-time low, so the claim fails on that measure.

A detail. The sources confirm the gist; the verdict faults a detail such as a date, number or wording.

This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.

What was said

… The border effectively shut down, closed, no illegal migrants admitted into the country for, what is it now, twelve plus months. Crime plunging to all time lows, even in blue cities. Median household income going up, poverty rate in all time low. Please don't stop the momentum for a group of sham Alyssa Slatkin impeachments and investigations against you too, folks. I know they're coming for me, okay? I know they're coming for me and Cash and everyone else. I knew what I was signing up for. …
The Dan Bongino Show · · from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Contradicts. On the Supplemental Poverty Measure, the 2025 rate of 13.1% was not a record low; the measure hit 7.7% in 2021, so the all-time-low claim fails under that measure.[1][2][3]

Supports. The Census Bureau's September 2026 report put the official 2025 poverty rate at 10.2%, the lowest since tracking began in 1959, and the decline was the second consecutive annual drop.[2][3][4]

Context. Fact-checkers rated the claim as correct for the official measure but misleading as an unqualified statement about poverty overall, since the SPM is widely regarded as more comprehensive.[1][3]

Sources

4 sources: 4 fact-checkers

  1. 1Trump claims US poverty is its lowest in history, missing ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, context
  2. 2Is official US poverty rate at all-time historical low, as Trump claimed?snopes.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, supports
  3. 3FactChecking Claims from Trump’s Midterm Ralliesfactcheck.org · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, supports, context
  4. 4US poverty rate dips to lowest on record, Census Bureau saysreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports

Where this claim was made

Said in 1 published post

Checked 2 times

Each check reads the sources again. The newest verdict is the one this page states.

  1. · latestMixed
  2. True

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