Latest Stories By Louis Jacobson

As President Donald Trump prepares to take office for the second time, he brings with him a litany of campaign promises.  Over the next four years, PolitiFact will periodically evaluate the new administration’s progress on Trump’s 2024 campaign promises, just as we did with Barack Obama, Trump during his first term, and Joe Biden. Proposals in […]

As Joe Biden campaigned for president in 2020, national and global discussion focused on one issue: the COVID-19 pandemic. As then-President Donald Trump downplayed the pandemic’s severity, Biden pledged to increase COVID-19 testing, vaccinate 50 million people in 100 days and get the virus under control.  But his campaign promises extended beyond the pandemic. Biden […]

On Jan. 3, the new Congress — the 119th — officially began its duties. Once Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, Republicans will have unified control of government. But particularly in the House, the margin will be close. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., was reelected House speaker on Jan. 3., receiving the […]

During his first major interview since winning the 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump reiterated a promise he’s made multiple times: He will try to eliminate birthright citizenship, the longstanding practice of conferring citizenship on anyone born in the United States, even when the parents are noncitizens.  Kristen Welker, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” asked […]

In a Dec. 8 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” President-elect Donald Trump elaborated on plans for removing people in the country illegally and imposing tariffs on trade partners — and made some false claims to support them. Trump reiterated his promise to end the granting of birthright citizenship, meaning citizenship bestowed to anyone born […]

President-elect Donald Trump — who during the campaign called tariff “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” — wasted little time after his election win before proposing even more stringent tariffs on U.S. trading partners. Trump’s campaign promises included adding a 10% to 20% tariff on all nondomestic goods sold in America, a 60% tariff […]

How big was President-elect Donald Trump’s victory? It was clear, but not a landslide by historical standards. Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote; in fact, Trump this year became only the second Republican to win the popular vote since 1988. The vast majority of counties saw their margins shift in Trump’s […]

Whether former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., serves as U.S. attorney general during Trump’s second administration depends on several factors, including what senators make of a House committee investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by Gaetz. The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to meet Nov. 20, when it could decide whether to release a bipartisan report […]

The House is on track to be narrowly divided for a third straight Congress, forcing the Republican speaker to use every bit of leverage to keep members in line on tough votes. As the final House races’ results fall into place, it appears that Republicans will win a slim House majority. Unexpected developments, such as […]

After Americans voted to return former President Donald Trump to the Oval Office, some Trump supporters celebrated on social media by sharing lists of things that had changed virtually overnight. Pastor Franklin Graham shared a Facebook post Nov. 9 saying, “Someone posted about some of the good things that have already happened since President Donald […]

Barely a week after winning the presidency, President-elect Donald Trump made his surprise announcement that he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., for attorney general A few hours later, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., praised the pick. “Everyone who’s served with him will tell you he’s one of the most intelligent members of Congress,” Johnson […]

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on the simple message that he will fix what he sees as the country’s problems: the border, inflation, housing prices, health care. After Trump won the 2024 election, we asked PolitiFact readers to send us their questions about his campaign promises. Most were about taxes, immigration, abortion, the Affordable Care Act, […]