Fact Checker

Dear loyal readers. I'm sorry to say this is my last column for The Washington Post. I have taken a voluntary buyout. Thank you for your support and interest over the past 14+ years. I will be writing from time to time, maybe even fact checks, on Substack under the title "By Glenn Kessler," and also writing books.

Analysis | The Fact Checker rose in an era of false claims. Falsehoods are now winning. Longtime Fact Checker Glenn Kessler takes stock as he departs The Washington Post.

Her claims strain credulity

Analysis | Tulsi Gabbard’s ‘seditious conspiracy’ claim is based on thin gruel The announcement from the director of national intelligence flies in the face of the conclusions of four previous investigations totaling more than 2,500 pages.

What was Trump's relationhip with Epstein? Here's the facts.

Analysis | Trump and Epstein had a relationship, but there’s no evidence of Trump wrongdoing A year ago, we scrubbed the public record. Here are our updated findings.

This phony number keeps coming up.

Analysis | Trump’s assertion that 10,000 of 300,000 ‘missing’ children have been found The president undercuts his claim of progress by repeating a ginned-up figure from the 2024 campaign.

NEW -->

Analysis | Fact-checking Trump and Democratic claims about tax and spending bill President Donald Trump falsely claims the ‘biggest tax cuts ever’ while Democrats add in the impact of a Biden-era policy.

A history lesson -->

Analysis | How Israel deceived the United States about its nuclear weapons program Israel is attacking Iran’s nuclear sites, but Tehran’s secret path was blazed by the Israelis.

The Ad Council is running ads that obscure the reality

Analysis | Are guns the biggest killer of ‘children and teens’? A statistic featured in Ad Council public service ads obscures the fact that it’s true for teens, but not children.

Four Pinocchios!

Analysis | Tim Scott’s video attacking CBO: Nine errors in 60 seconds Every claim made by the Republican senator to ridicule the nonpartisan agency turns out to be false

Four Pinocchios!

Analysis | Vance, Rubio peddle fiction that 88 percent of foreign aid doesn’t go overseas The vice president and secretary of state twist a statistic issued under the Biden administration — and pretend it’s new.

Four Pinocchios!

Analysis | The White House’s through-the-looking-glass budget spin OMB director ignores current law and relies on budget gimmicks to claim massive deficit reduction.

Four Pinocchios!

Analysis | The White House’s disingenuous claim about CBO’s political leanings What the White House calls a ‘verifiable fact’ is a nonsense fact.

When the spin won't stop....

Analysis | Records of dead people show how the pro-Trump spin machine keeps going Supporters cite a prosaic DOGE announcement as evidence that a Social Security problem that never existed has been fixed.