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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Are Prices Up or Down? Parsing Misleading Claims by Trump and Democrats

Are Prices Up or Down? Parsing Misleading Claims by Trump and Democrats

About six months into the second term of President Donald Trump, Republicans and Democrats are making conflicting and often misleading assessments of the Trump administration’s impact on inflation and prices. Both sides cherry-pick examples of consumer products to support their claims, while sometimes wrongly taking credit for lower prices or falsely casting blame for rising costs.

Gabbard’s Misleading ‘Coup’ Claim

Gabbard’s Misleading ‘Coup’ Claim

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claims to have uncovered “overwhelming evidence” that former President Barack Obama and others in his administration manipulated intelligence to “lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump.” But the foundation for her case is misleading.

Border Czar Makes Misleading Claim About Immigrants With Criminal Records

Border Czar Makes Misleading Claim About Immigrants With Criminal Records

Border Czar Tom Homan has been repeating the misleading claim that there are “over 600,000 illegal aliens with criminal records walking the streets of this nation.” That number includes legal immigrants, not just those who entered the country illegally; about a third of them have only been charged, not convicted; and it’s unclear how many of them have been, or currently are, incarcerated.

Weather Modification Played No Role in Texas Floods

Weather Modification Played No Role in Texas Floods

Unfounded rumors linking an extreme weather event to human attempts at weather modification are again spreading on social media. It is not plausible that available weather modification techniques caused or influenced the July 4 flash flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas.

Unraveling the Big Beautiful Bill Spin

Unraveling the Big Beautiful Bill Spin

As the Republican budget bill, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, nears the July 4 deadline set by the White House, lawmakers have been ramping up the rhetoric. We referee the claims from both sides.

RFK Jr.’s New Vaccine Panel Casts Doubt on Hepatitis B Shot at Birth

RFK Jr.’s New Vaccine Panel Casts Doubt on Hepatitis B Shot at Birth

The chair of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly constituted vaccine advisory committee announced in his first meeting that the panel will revisit the longstanding practice of vaccinating all babies against hepatitis B, questioning whether it was “wise” to administer shots “to every newborn before leaving the hospital.” Experts, however, say there are valid reasons to vaccinate babies against hepatitis B, and that it has proven to be safe and very effective.

Iranian Nuclear Program Damaged, Not ‘Obliterated’ by U.S. Attack

Iranian Nuclear Program Damaged, Not ‘Obliterated’ by U.S. Attack

The bombing of three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 21 by American B-2 aircraft damaged the sites and set back Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, but didn’t completely destroy the sites or Iran’s nuclear capabilities, according to experts we spoke with and a classified U.S. intelligence report released on June 24.

Trump, Gabbard Comments on Iran Nuclear Capability

Trump, Gabbard Comments on Iran Nuclear Capability

President Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, appeared to be at odds over whether Iran was close to having a nuclear weapon, but Gabbard said the two leaders were saying “the same thing.” We’ll lay out the facts.

RFK Jr.’s Flawed Justifications for ‘Clean Sweep’ of CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel

RFK Jr.’s Flawed Justifications for ‘Clean Sweep’ of CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel, claiming it “has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.” But there’s no evidence of problematic conflicts of interest or that the group inadequately scrutinizes vaccines.