We have to admit we had been hoping that for the first time since 2014, Donald Trump would not make this roundup. “This may be Trump’s last appearance on this annual list,” we optimistically wrote a year ago. “As of Jan. 21, we will set a high bar for fact-checking his statements. He will be a defeated ex-president, and we tend to focus on claims made by people in power.”
We kept our promise — we fact-checked him rarely — but his continuing lies about the election he decisively lost left us no choice but to reserve yet another spot for him. This marks a repeat appearance for this claim, as we had also put his false claims about the election on the list last year. Moreover, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an extension of Trump’s months-long campaign to delegitimize potential defeat. Astonishingly, the initial response by many Republicans — a moment of clarity and condemnation — soon gave way to Trump subservience yet again.
In compiling this list, which has no particular order, we mostly focused on claims that earned Four Pinocchios during the year. To keep it simple, in some cases, we have shortened or paraphrased the quotes in the headlines. To read the full column, click on the link embedded in the quote. The all-around categories have links within the summaries.
On Jan. 2, Trump called fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, and over the course of an hour spouted false claims in a vain effort to “find” enough votes to overturn his...
From False Claims Act exposure and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS—a supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)),compliance to export controls and human rights...