The breakdown.
6,159 lies, cut every way the record allows: by topic, year, place, platform, weekday and target. Red is lies. Beige is the misleading claims around them.
Lies by topic
Every topic, ranked by lies. Bar length includes the misleading claims on the same topic.
Lies by year
Red years: the Post logged everything. Yellow years: PolitiFact's selected checks only.
By day of the week
Lies by weekday, first term onward.
Lies per month
Topic by year
Lies per topic per year. Darker red means more lies.
Where he lied
By setting.
How he said it
Share of all lies by channel.
Lies by platform
Social posts only.
Who the lies were about
Claims that name each person, party or country.
Topic by setting
Lies per topic in each setting.
Most repeated lies
The same lie, told again and again. Count is how many times the Post logged it as a lie (2017 – Jan 2021).
Biggest days
The 10 days with the most lies logged.
By period
Lies logged in each period. Coverage is very different: see Gaps.
By year, in numbers
| Year | Lies | Misleading | All claims | Fact-checker |
|---|
How we count
What a record is
One record is one statement by Donald Trump on a given date and setting, as logged by a fact-checker. Each record keeps his original wording, the date, the setting, a topic and a link back to the fact-check.
Lies and misleading claims
- Lie: a statement the fact-checker put in its most severe categories: the Washington Post's 3 or 4 Pinocchios, or PolitiFact's False or Pants on Fire. records.
- Misleading: every other statement the Washington Post logged as false or misleading (2 Pinocchios or no Pinocchio rating). records.
The site does not judge intent. A statement counts because a fact-checker found it untrue.
Topics
Washington Post records use the Post's own topic. PolitiFact records were sorted into the same topics by keyword rules and then checked by hand; claims about his trials and investigations get their own topic, Courts & investigations. "Other" is the Post's miscellaneous category.
Settings, platforms and targets
- Setting comes from the venue each fact-checker recorded (rally, remarks, interview, speech, press conference, social post, video, statement or ad, debate, leaked call).
- Platform is Twitter for the Post's period and Truth Social, X or TikTok for PolitiFact posts, as named in the ruling.
- Who the lies were about counts claims whose wording names that person, party or country. One claim can name several.
- Most repeated uses the Washington Post's own links between repeats of the same claim. The headline for each is a short summary; his first logged wording is shown under it.
Counting rules
- Source rows are not edited. Records with the same date, setting and wording count once. The source files held rows; exact duplicates are merged.
- The statements from the leaked recording of his January 2, 2021 call with Georgia officials count like any other spoken claim.
- Repeated lies on different dates are separate records.
Sources
- The Washington Post Fact Checker claims database, January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021.
- PolitiFact rulings on statements by Donald Trump, February 2021 – October 2026, collected October 11, 2026.
Gaps
2017 – January 2021: near-complete logging
The Post's team reviewed his tweets, speeches, interviews and press events and logged each false or misleading claim, including repeats.
February 2021 – present: selected checks only
PolitiFact checks a sample of statements, and this record holds only the ones it found false. The Post did not build a second-term database, and no complete replacement exists.
Known limits
- No map. The sources record places for only a handful of statements.
- Social posts are as logged by the fact-checkers, not matched to platform records.
- The same claim logged by both fact-checkers is merged only when date, setting and wording match exactly.
- Ratings belong to the fact-checkers. Disagreements with a rating should go to the original source.