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WASHINGTON – A claim by President Donald Trump from his speech to Congress and how it stacks up with the facts:
TRUMP: His budget plan will offer "one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history."
THE FACTS: Three times in recent years, Congress raised defense budgets by larger amounts, in percentage terms, than the $54 billion, or 10 percent, increase that Trump proposes. The base defense budget grew by $41 billion, or 14.3 percent, in 2002; by $37 billion, or 11.3 percent, in 2003, and by $47 billion, or 10.9 percent, in 2008, according to Defense Department figures.
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Contributed by Associated Press writer Robert Burns.
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