The Only Time Trump Makes News Is When He Tells the Truth

Indeed, as Kessler noted in his final Fact Check column, fact-checking is in retreat everywhere. Meta ended its fact-checking program shortly before Trump took office; Google threw in the towel six months later, and Trump’s dismantlement of the United States Agency for International Development slashes funding for fact-checkers abroad. Globally, the Duke Reporter’s Lab reported in June, the volume of fact-checking articles is down 6 percent compared to 2024. “In an era where false claims are the norm,” Kessler wrote, “it’s much easier to ignore the fact-checkers.”

Clearly, we need a new approach. I propose that instead of chasing Trump’s lies, the press should experiment with treating as major news those very rare instances when a statement coming out of Trump’s mouth actually turns out to be true. What we call “fact-checks” today are mostly lie-checks made newsworthy by a consensus that truthfulness is society’s expected norm. Instead, let’s try “truth checks” made newsworthy by society’s growing recognition that, with Trump, mendacity is the expected norm.

If that sounds to you like surrender, it needn’t be. The most appalling Trump lies, like what he and his lackeys have been saying about Good, still warrant coverage. And I certainly don’t propose we shut down existing fact-checking operations. If nothing else, they’re a godsend to those of us with a professional interest in quickly sorting political truth from reality: journalists, political scientists, rival politicians, and so on.