An independent reader on US politics · evidence first

The Asterisk

The claims, checked against what they leave out.

Each piece takes a major political claim, mostly Donald Trump's, and weighs it against the evidence: what holds up, what does not, and why. The arguments are nonpartisan, every figure is sourced and labeled for how solid it is, the strongest counterargument is stated, and a live research desk lets you push back on any of it.

Try the desk Every piece carries a live research agent that searches and cites its sources. Ask it anything, like "Is there evidence Epstein worked for Mossad?" or "Did the January 6 pardons include people who attacked police?"

23 pieces·sourced & dated·RSS

№ 23Public health··31 min

The US vaccine schedule is bigger. The comparison to peer countries leaves out why.

An executive order calls the US childhood vaccine schedule an 'outlier' with 'twice as many doses as some European nations' and reorganizes it into tiers, with 11 diseases recommended for all children instead of 18 and the combined MMR shot split into three single-disease shots at separate visits. The schedule it judges serves a country with different diseases, no universal healthcare, and a system that relies on school-entry mandates as a safety net. The countries it is compared to do not.

Read the case
№ 22Public health··33 min

They promised the cause of autism by September. What they delivered was an instruction their own FDA never gave.

A dated promise to identify the cause of autism, an announcement naming acetaminophen, and eighteen passages telling pregnant women to stop taking it. The FDA notice behind it said something different, to a different audience, and this is what an untreated fever does.

Read the case
№ 21Truth Social··6 min
DJT Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
35,152 is the new number just released by Homeland Security of non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey. These are just the ones that got caught. The real numbers will prove to be many times this amount. They are all Dumocrats! Republicans, get smart and straighten out our Crooked Elections! Pass The Save America Act!!!
MisleadingHomeland Security called that number preliminary and asked New Jersey to check it. The state's own audit found 6,600.
Read the check
№ 20Public health··48 min

He gave four reasons to defund mRNA. Not one of them holds.

HHS cancelled 22 mRNA projects worth nearly $500 million, ending work that included a vaccine against Ebola and Marburg, and the Secretary gave four reasons for it. What mRNA actually is, how it compares with the five older ways of making a vaccine, and why not one of the four reasons survives checking.

Read the case
№ 19Elections··23 min

He declassified the evidence. It says the opposite.

In a primetime address, Trump released newly declassified documents he said proved 'shocking vulnerabilities' in US elections and that China worked to defeat him in 2020. Foreign threats are real, but the documents restate that no foreign actor changed a single 2020 vote, that China chose not to try, and the SAVE Act he demands as the fix would stop none of it.

Read the case
№ 18Executive power··25 min

The oath he swore, and the record

Every president swears to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Asked whether he had to uphold it, Trump said "I don't know." A calibrated, clause-by-clause ledger of where courts, his own appointees among them, found his second-term actions unlawful, the fights he won, and the honest limits.

Read the case
№ 17Executive power··20 min

The weaponization he promised to end

He ran on ending the weaponized justice system and wrote his own definition of the word into an executive order. Then his DOJ indicted the rivals he named out loud. Checked against his own standard.

Read the case
№ 16Truth Social··5 min
DJT Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
It is my Great Honor to have just signed Pardons for six people who were persecuted by the Biden Administration, and were in, or being sent to, prison, for "fixing their car." While I know this sounds ridiculous, it is nevertheless a fact, and part of the Weaponization and Stupidity that our Country had to endure during four long years of Sleepy Joe Biden. I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW! President DONALD J. TRUMP
MisleadingThey were not 'fixing their car.' They were defeating pollution controls, some on hundreds of vehicles.
Read the check
№ 15Truth Social··5 min
DJT Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Republicans, look what I just found! The Dumocrats are openly stating that they plan to TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER if they ever take power, and EXPAND THE SUPREME COURT. In other words, they will add two Radical Left States, 4 Dumocrat Senators, many Congressmen/women, their dream of 21 Supreme Court Justices (Not just 13, an unlucky number!) ... The Republican Party will never win another Election ... They will TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER in their first hour ...
MisleadingDemocrats really are floating this. The 21 justices and the 'first hour' are his.
Read the check
№ 14Courts··26 min

The case they call weaponized

He calls the 34-count felony conviction 'the very first Biden trial.' The record shows a state case the federal government never ran, a paper trail his own signature sits on, and one real legal debate hiding under a false claim.

Read the case
№ 13Truth Social··5 min
DJT Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
The United States spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect them, without getting any benefit from so doing: U.S. 999 Billion Dollars, United Kingdom, 90.5 Billion Dollars, France, 66.5 Billion Dollars, Italy, 48.8 Billion Dollars, Poland, 44.3 Billion Dollars. Others, including Germany, are MUCH LOWER. (2014-2025) Ridiculous! President DJT
MisleadingThose are whole military budgets. Defending Europe costs roughly a twentieth of that.
Read the check
№ 12Truth Social··6 min
DJT Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
"FREE TINA!" became the rallying cry of the Republican Party over the past two years. Tina Peters just came to the White House to thank me for getting her released from prison in Colorado. She was put there because she found Election Fraud, but instead of arresting the people that committed the Fraud, they arrested her! ...
FalseShe was not jailed for finding fraud. And the man who freed her is a Democrat.
Read the check
№ 11Courts··11 min

Subject to the Jurisdiction

On his first day back, Trump signed an order to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented and temporary immigrants. On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court struck it down, 6 to 3. The order, the 14th Amendment clause it collided with, and what the Court decided.

Read the case
№ 10Executive power··16 min

Abuse and Miscarriage of Justice

That is what Trump called Biden's pardon of his son. Then he freed roughly 1,500 January 6 defendants, including those who beat police and the leaders of a seditious conspiracy, plus corrupt officials, fraudsters, and donors. The numbers, the crimes, and the standard he set for everyone but himself.

Read the case
№ 9Economy··16 min

State Capitalism, American Style

The self-described enemy of socialism now has the government owning shares of companies, setting prices, and picking winners deal by deal. The sharpest critics are conservatives, who once called far less exactly that.

Read the case
№ 8Truth Social··5 min
DJT Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Other Polls have my Approval Rating at 65%, and more! Like Journalists, Honest Pollsters are very rare and hard to find! President DJT
FalseNo public poll had him near 65%. The one he cited said 50.
Read the check
№ 7Executive power··20 min

Troops in American cities, for emergencies that were not there

In 2025 the administration sent the National Guard and Marines into Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, and Portland, over the objections of elected governors, justified by crime and rebellions the data did not show, and aimed at protesters. Courts repeatedly ruled it unlawful.

Read the case
№ 6Trade··14 min

Tariffs were supposed to bring factories back

They are sold as protection for American manufacturing. But most factories buy the steel, aluminum, and parts the tariffs make expensive, which is why the last time the US tried this, factory jobs fell.

Read the case
№ 5Elections··18 min

A cure for a disease we do not have

Requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote targets a problem measured in dozens of cases, while tens of millions of eligible citizens lack the documents it would demand.

Read the case
№ 4Economy··26 min

The party of fiscal responsibility is a brand, not a record

No president since Clinton has lowered the debt burden. A look at whether "Republicans budget better" survives the record, the 2025 law, DOGE, and the tariffs.

Read the case
№ 3Immigration··32 min

Closing the Door

What Trump's immigration crackdown does, who it targets, and what the country gives up, with the legal and illegal distinction kept honest.

Read the case
№ 2Money & power··26 min

Corruption in Broad Daylight

How a president turned crypto into a legal channel for influence and self-dealing, and who profited from it.

Read the case
№ 1Foreign policy··20 min

He promised no new wars. Then he bombed Iran.

Why some of his own supporters feel betrayed, weighed honestly against what the evidence does and does not show.

Read the case