‘How about a little less Trump?’ PolitiFact readers share feedback on our fact-checking

PolitiFact last shared some of our reader comments^[1] at the end of President Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second term. 

A lot has happened since then.

Trump deployed Marines to Los Angeles^[2] during immigration protests and National Guard troops^[3] to Washington, D.C., to tackle crime. The U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites^[4] and played a large part in securing an Israel-Hamas ceasefire.^[5] Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin^[6] as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.^[7] The Justice Department declined to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein^[8]. Commentator Charlie Kirk^[9] and a Minnesota state representative^[10] were killed in acts of political violence^[11]. The U.S. government shut down.^[12] 

Here’s a selection of reader reactions to our fact-checks and stories from the past few months, lightly edited for length and clarity. Readers can email us fact-check ideas and feedback at [email protected]^[13]. 

Readers think we missed the mark on medical research, crime statistics

Ahead of the government shutdown that started Oct. 1, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., criticized the Trump administration’s efforts to cut back medical research funding during a Q&A with reporters. 

“Republicans have effectively ended medical research in the United States of America,” Jeffries said Sept. 24.^[14]

Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson wrote that Trump has proposed severe cuts to medical research at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, including caps on indirect costs for grantees’ labs, terminated grant funding and staff reductions. But this is not tantamount to effectively ending U.S. medical research.

Even if Trump gets his way on a 39% cut to NIH’s budget in 2026, the institutes would still have more than $27 billion to spend in fiscal year 2026.

Trump’s medical research cuts are real and sweeping, but they have not “effectively ended medical research.” We rated the statement Mostly False.^[15]

One reader disagreed with our assessment. 

“You fail to take into account the chilling effect of the Trump administration’s cuts on the researchers themselves,” the reader wrote. “Anybody with a job wants to know it will still be there in a month or a year. Putting their job security at the whim of the President, drives researchers out of the public sector. It discourages talented researchers from other countries from coming here.”

Another reader questioned our reporting on rhetoric about mass shootings and transgender people.^[16]

“Regarding your report about the gender of gun violence perpetrators, your cited statistics are misleading,” they wrote. “Unquestionably, males constitute the majority of shooters. However, what is far more relevant than the gender of the shooters is the percentage of shooters relative to the percentage of the population.

“Statistics showing that transgender people commit less than one percent of fatal mass shootings paints one picture. Statistics showing the number of mass shootings committed by transgender people relative to the number of transgender people in the population paints another. However, I’m sure you’ll ignore the latter statistic if it does not align with your priorities.”

An August 2025 report from the LGBTQ+ policy research center Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles found that 2.8 million people ages 13 and above identify as transgender in the U.S. That’s 1% of people in the U.S. aged 13 and older. 

Staff writer Loreben Tuquero noted in her story^[17] that it is difficult to come up with an exact figure for the percentage of mass shootings committed by trans people, because there is no widely accepted definition of “mass shooting” and it is sometimes not possible to verify a shooter’s gender identity. 

Questions about the best way to cover Trump

PolitiFact has fact-checked Trump more than 1,000 times^[18] since 2011. Over time, we’ve received questions and comments about how we should cover the president, 

“Your site seems to be mostly about Trump all the time,” a reader commented in an email. “How about a little less Trump, and write more about any other falsehood subjects?”

When deciding what to fact check, we select statements about topics that are in the news. As noted above, Trump and his administration have been at the center of many major news stories over the past year. 

But in 2025, we’ve also covered topics such as falsehoods about Kirk’s shooter^[19], accusations that prominent women in politics are men^[20] and AI-generated images of celebrities helping Texan flood victims^[21].

Without keeping count, we try to select facts to check from all sides of the political spectrum. At the same time, we more often fact-check the party that holds power or people who repeatedly make attention-getting or misleading statements.

“[Trump] is full of hyperbole and half-truths, like all politicians,” wrote one reader in an email. “Why not report on what he does, as compared to what he says? There is often a wide gap there… I, and everyone I know, cares about the end result, not the rhetoric leading up to it.”

Actions often speak louder than words. That’s why, in addition to fact-checking presidents, PolitiFact also tracks how well those presidents keep their campaign promises. 

We’re currently tracking 75 promises Trump made during his second campaign on our MAGA-Meter^[22]. We also tracked Trump’s promises during his first term^[23], as well as promises from former presidents Barack Obama^[24] and Joe Biden.^[25] 

Since it’s still the first year of Trump’s second term, many of his promises are rated In The Works^[26]. That said, he has accumulated 12 Promise Kept^[27], three Promise Compromise^[28] and one Promise Broken^[29] ratings.

Looking ahead to Lie of the Year

Every December, PolitiFact looks back on the sum of our fact-checking year and names the most consequential falsehood as our Lie of the Year.^[30] The 2024 Lie of the Year went to Trump and Vice President JD Vance^[31] for the falsehood that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets.

The official decision for the Lie of the Year is made by PolitiFact editors, but we also ask readers to weigh in^[32] with their votes. One reader got a jump start on suggestions this year.

“I’m voting in advance for your Lie of the Year,” they wrote. “The propaganda campaign is in full swing, Kimmel, Heather Cox Richardson, Laurence Tribe, and many other prominent voices on the left have claimed that Kirk’s assassin was MAGA. And major press outlets have been misinforming the public.”

What do you think should be the 2025 Lie of the Year? Send your suggestions to [email protected]^[33]. 

Some words of thanks from our readers

PolitiFact staff writers Madison Czopek, Grace Abels and Samantha Putterman have written a lot about Tylenol over the past month after Trump discouraged pregnant women from taking the drug and health officials tried to link its main ingredient, acetaminophen, to autism.^[34][35]

Experts repeatedly told PolitiFact that acetaminophen is safe for pregnant women^[36] and children^[37] when used as recommended. Links between Tylenol and autism are based on inconclusive reviews of conflicting science^[38], doctors and researchers said. 

One reader in the mental health field wrote to say thank you.

“As you might surmise, I sometimes contact writers about their articles and I have to say that this is one of the best examples of great writing I’ve talked to someone about,” they wrote.

“Ironically, or perhaps not, I am also a mental health prescriber for children with autism among others, and you’re doing a great job at advancing truth in healthcare with this population which has been crucial and extremely challenging.”

When Trump said that the Smithsonian Institution includes nothing about American success and is focused only on slavery, we sent Abels and Jacobson to Smithsonian museums to check out his statement. They found that the Smithsonian Institution’s collections are expansive and cover every aspect of U.S. history.

“Thank you for taking the time to give a cohesive thoughtful response to Trump’s assertion,” one reader wrote in response to our Pants on Fire fact-check^[39]. 

And after Tuquero and researcher Caryn Baird hosted a webinar^[40] on digging through public records and verifying information, one participant commented, “I have entirely new respect for the hard work, hours you journalists spend on getting reporting out that has integrity! Wow. Cheers. Many thanks to you all.”

If you believe in PolitiFact’s mission to hold politicians accountable, donate to our newsroom today.^[41] And make sure you’re signed up for our newsletters^[42] and new broadcast channels on Facebook^[43] and Instagram^[44].