Sen. Rand Paul has pointed to a line in Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary to claim that the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases privately “knew” in January 2020 that the coronavirus did not come from a wet market, saying this contradicted Fauci’s public statements regarding a natural origin of the virus. That misconstrues Fauci’s original statement.
Major Driver of Worsening Canadian Wildfires Is Climate Change, Not Forest Mismanagement
President Donald Trump has blamed improper forest management for Canadian wildfires whose smoke drifted into the Midwestern and Northeastern U.S. earlier this month. But climate change — and not a lack of “Debris Removal,” as Trump suggested — is the main factor leading to worsening Canadian wildfires and smoke pollution, experts from both sides of the border told us.
One Big Beautiful Bill Not (Yet) Driving ACA, Medicaid Declines
Multiple Democratic lawmakers have claimed that 8 million Americans have lost healthcare coverage as a result of the Trump-backed budget reconciliation bill that passed a year ago, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But experts told us the enrollment declines seen to date are largely due to other factors — including other Trump administration policies.
Trump’s Numbers, July 2026 Update
Our quarterly series presents just the statistics on various measures since Trump reentered the White House.
Democrats Overstate Role of Monitoring Program Change in Parasitic Outbreak
As a large outbreak of cyclospora has ravaged the Midwest, Democrats have frequently pinned blame on the Trump administration for terminating a monitoring program for the parasite. But the change to the program, called FoodNet, is unlikely to have played much of a direct role in the current outbreak, several food safety experts told us.
Trump’s Distorted Venezuela Elections Claim
In claiming that American voting machines are vulnerable to manipulation, President Donald Trump provided an incomplete and distorted summary of the CIA’s reporting about Venezuelan efforts to manipulate electronic voting machines in that country.
The Dubious Rags to Riches Promise of Trump Accounts
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that so-called Trump accounts, new federal investment and savings accounts for children, “could grow to hundreds of thousands of dollars” by the time children turn 18. That’s only true if parents or other donors contribute thousands of dollars per year, per child, assuming that future returns are close to the historic stock market averages.
FactChecking Trump’s Election Security Speech
In a July 16 prime-time speech that warned of “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure,” President Donald Trump cast doubt on the country’s ability to hold “free and fair elections” but offered no evidence that widespread fraud had occurred.
RFK Jr.’s Flawed Claims About Sperm Count and Fertility
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has baselessly tied alleged declines in sperm counts among teenagers to a “fertility crisis” or an “explosion in infertility.”
No Clear Evidence Religion Is ‘Bigger and Stronger’ in U.S., Despite Trump Claim
President Donald Trump said at a June faith conference that “religion is back in our country, bigger and stronger than it has been in many, many years” and “it’s going up.” The statement is misleading, as multiple surveys show lower religious affiliation and engagement than in past years — despite a recent rise in the perceived influence of religion in America.