Google made sure its viewers knew its stance on President Donald Trump’s record-breaking State of the Union address with a flurry of elitist media hits against his speech on Wednesday morning.  In its coverage of Trump’s comments, Google News promoted eight leftist media outlets, while denying reporting from any right-leaning media outlets. Google painted a subtle but clear picture of its rejection of the president and his policies as it pushed reporting from outlets like The New York Times, Business Insider, National Public Radio (NPR), The Guardian and NBC News. The elitist media derided Trump’s speech, in some cases stating outright that it was rife with false and misleading claims, and in others framing stories around how Democratic lawmakers boycotted the speech entirely. MRC’s Findings: Google News pushed reporting on Trump’s State of the Union address as its first eight articles, using elitist media outlets to undercut Trump in the top 20 of its morning edition. Google News did not promote a single article from a right-leaning media outlet on Trump’s State of the Union address, while the digital news gatekeeper promoted nine articles from left-leaning or center media outlets in the top 20 stories of its morning edition.  The only “center” article Google News offered on Trump’s speech came from the government-funded, UK-based BBC.  Below are the nine articles Google News promoted on Trump’s State of the Union address in the order they appeared: (1) BBC (Center): Trump’s State of the Union speech - at a glance (2) The New York Times (Left-Leaning): Opinion ‘A Tedious, Tiresome Performance’: The Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s State of the Union (3) The Guardian (Left-Leaning): Trump claims a year of wins and attacks old foes in longest State of the Union | First Thing (4) Business Insider (Left-Leaning): I went to Trump’s State of the Union. This was the moment when the room’s mood shifted. (5) NPR (Left-Leaning): Signs, silence, skipping: How Democrats protested Trump’s State of the Union (6) Politico (Left-Leaning): Abigail Spanberger gave Democrats’ response to Trump. But she didn’t have the stage to herself. (7) The New York Times (Left-Leaning): Democrats, Boycotting Trump’s Speech, Rally Outside the Capitol (8) NBC News (Left-Leaning): At Least 12 Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott Trump’s State of the Union address (20) The New York Times (Left-Leaning): Trump Puts On a Show, Casting Democrats as the Villains Google News did not hide its disdain for Trump in its morning offerings. The digital news gatekeeper completely shut out right-leaning outlets from the nine separate articles it offered on Trump’s State of the Union address.  Google did not even pretend to remain neutral. Eight of the nine articles Google elevated in its top 20 morning edition came from outlets rated left-leaning by AllSides media bias rating firm, and the only “center”-rated article was foreign government-funded BBC. An opinion piece put out by The New York Times took the cake as arguably the worst of the elitist media outlet articles promoted by Google News. Its headline, “Opinion ‘A Tedious, Tiresome Performance’: The Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s State of the Union,” gives readers a glimpse of the cavalcade of anti-Trump derision that is to come later in the article. While the piece pretends to give a “Best Moment” versus “Worst Moment” sort of appeal, Times op-ed columnist Michelle Goldberg’s response to what she thought was the “Best Moment” seems to reveal what The Times really wants you to take away: “The moment when, after setting a record for the longest State of the Union in recorded history, it finally ended.”  Not to be outdone, Google News also elevated a piece from UK-based outlet The Guardian, headlined, “First Thing: Trump claims a year of wins and attacks old foes in longest State of the Union.” While that headline alone isn’t overtly biased, The Guardian’s subheader does the dirty work for Google: “President’s address was littered with false and misleading claims. Plus, how Trump’s big climate finding repeal could actually hurt big oil.”  Google News also pushed articles from NPR, NBC News and an additional piece from The Times that trumpeted Democratic lawmakers boycotting Trump’s State of the Union in headlines. The tech titan similarly promoted a Business Insider piece that devoted an entire section to “The Democratic side of the aisle was conspicuously less full.” With the appearance of being the most benign story on Trump’s speech, Google News also pushed a BBC article that was anything but benign. While the piece’s first section touted the length of Trump’s oration, BBC’s next three sections dragged on with contentious moments like the president’s “face-to-face” encounter with U.S. Supreme Court justices “who struck down his tariffs,” the ejection of Democrat Al Greene from the room “again” and Rep. Ilhan Omar’s so-called “‘Stand up’ moment.” The BBC, meanwhile, buried the triumphal entry of “Victorious hockey stars” entering the room to “chants of ‘U-S-A, U-S-A’” as well as a section on those who received honors from Trump. Google News once again promoted The Times more than any other outlet. In its third appearance in Google’s top 20 stories on Wednesday, The Times chose to color Trump’s speech as his attempt at a “survival strategy.” Right from the jump, The Times set the tone for a piece clearly trying to undermine the president with the headline “Trump Puts On a Show, Casting Democrats as the Villains,” and subheadline, “On the defensive over the economy and with the midterms approaching, President Trump made clear that his political strategy is to paint Democrats as unpatriotic and ‘crazy.’” The cherry on top comes just before the conclusion of the piece, whereby The Times makes sure to remind its readers of one of its favorite anti-Trump smears: Jan. 6. Google News also elevated an article from Politico, but unlike the others, the Politico piece focused squarely on the Democratic Party rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union address. Throughout, the Google News-promoted article highlighted how “[v]arious Democratic factions” hosted several events designed to “challenge President Donald Trump.” Methodology: The day after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Feb. 25, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 news stories featured on Google News at approximately 8:30 AM ET. MRC researchers used the AllSides media bias ratings, which categorize an outlet as “left,” “lean left,” “center,” “lean right” or “right” to determine the overall bias presented by Apple News and Google News and analyzed the results.  Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.   

The Cackling Coven of ABC’s The View spent the opening segment of Wednesday’s episode raging at President Trump’s State of the Union address the previous night. They decried how the prominent speaking position allowed for an “unfair dynamic” where Trump could be heard clearly, while Democrats only sounded… well, “crazy.” They also denounced the presence of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team and had a problem with all the clapping, and not just for Trump. Filling in as the fake conservative for co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, guest co-host Amanda Carpenter really hated that Congressional Republicans clapped for Trump: I watched the whole thing. I watched every minute of it, and I've got to say; a lot of people get confused when I explain that I'm a conservative and not MAGA. And here's the difference. What you saw on that screen from Republicans, that partisan tribalism that you saw on display there, that is different than being conservative. So, that's what we lost there. Carpenter’s voice got incredibly squeaky as she whined about “how expertly [Trump] continues to create villains on stage.” She didn’t like how far-left Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN) wasn’t able to be clearly heard during her wild outbursts against Trump, calling it an “unfair dynamic” (Click “expand”): CARPENTER: He got that split screen. And when he was talking about Minnesota and saying we're not going to go easy on them. Who thinks he's been easy on them? And so, she was shouting back, ‘you've killed Americans’ but you couldn't see what she said! WHOOPI GOLDBERG: No. CARPENTER: And so, it's such an unfair dynamic that I just - We got to find ways not to participate in that and give him that kind of advantage. I just can't believe we haven't learned this lesson after ten-plus years.   Fake conservative Amanda Carpenter decries Republicans clapping for Trump and suggests they were the problem last night and whines it was unfair to Democrats: "I watched the whole thing. I watched every minute of it, and I've got to say; a lot of people get confused when I… pic.twitter.com/spWljocc6V — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026   Despite the fact that Trump had touted legal immigration in his speech, co-host Joy Behar intentionally conflated it with Trump’s staunch opposition to illegal immigration. She even claimed to have a visceral reaction to it. “Well, I watched the whole thing and I was physically ill from it and more nauseous than usual watching him,” she said. “The way he was demonizing immigrants made me sick. It made me sick.”   Joy Behar admits her Trump Derangement Syndrome was flaring during the speech: "Well, I watched the whole thing and I was physically ill from it and more nauseous than usual watching him ... I was furious and scared..." pic.twitter.com/G0cPJmQwBP — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026   Chronically aggrieved co-host Sunny Hostin took great offence to Trump referring to illegal immigrants as “illegals,” and even pretended that the term had completely fallen out of use before Trump came along. “The saying that people are illegal, illegal aliens. That really matters. We haven't used that term for so long. Now it's back in vogue. You are not illegal as a human being just because you're undocumented. And so, that for me felt dehumanizing to our immigrant population,” she griped. Hostin also took issue with Omar’s out bursts. “[S]he gave him that moment he wanted when the Democrats wouldn't stand because he was calling people illegal aliens, they didn't stand and he called them crazy. They gave him all these moments,” she bellyached. “I think they were used as props.”   Sunny Hostin whines about Trump using the term 'illegals' to accurately describe illegals and falsely claims everyone had stopped using it before Trump came along. She also complains that Democrats even attended the address because they looked bad: "That saying that people are… pic.twitter.com/zqUlybiz1c — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026   “What's worse than him are the sycophants and the acolytes who are praising him and going along with him!” Behar shouted at one point. “I mean, I'm dismissing him because he's not will. The man is not well. His narcissistic disorder is off the charts.” Toward the end of the segment, moderator Whoopi Goldberg vented about the U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team attending the address. According to her, it was “insanely rude” for them to be there “because a lot of people won gold for the U.S., a lot of people won gold.”   Whoopi hates on the USA Olympic Hockey Team and calls it "insanely rude" that they were at the State of the Union because Trump didn't invite all the medal winners: "You know what, he's also insanely rude because a lot of people won gold for the U.S., a lot of people won gold.… pic.twitter.com/kSe670gHXF — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026   One of the through lines for their complaints about the night was their opposition to people clapping. Not only did they not like clapping for Trump, the clapping during the Democratic Party’s rebuttal delivered by Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger drove them up the wall (Click "expand"): BEHAR: Also the clapping was annoying. Go ahead. HOSTIN: Yeah, I mean, that amount of bootlicking, how exhausting was that? They kept on standing up and clapping, and standing up and clapping, and standing up and clapping! But anyway. SARA HAINES: I wish you could listen to it like a podcast in  1.5 [speed]. HOSTIN: It was crazy.   The View actually hated the audience clapping at Spanberger's rebuttal (makes you wonder about The View's audience): JOY BEHAR: Also the clapping was annoying. Go ahead. SUNNY HOSTIN: Yeah, I mean, that amount of bootlicking, how exhausting was that? They kept on standing up… pic.twitter.com/3bBvd6zWaC — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026   Finally, while she previously boasted that she was not going to watch Trump’s address, Goldberg admitted that she did.   After boasting yesterday that she wasn't going to watch the State of the Union and watch cartoons instead, Whoopi Goldberg admits that she did end up watching President Trump's speech. pic.twitter.com/skwZnPeYrK — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026   The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View February 25, 2026 11:05:03 a.m. Eastern (…) AMANDA CARPENTER: I watched the whole thing. I watched every minute of it, and I've got to say; a lot of people get confused when I explain that I'm a conservative and not MAGA. And here's the difference. What you saw on that screen from Republicans, that partisan tribalism that you saw on display there, that is different than being conservative. So, that's what we lost there. But on the reality TV aspect, it is so uncomfortable to see how expertly he continues to create villains on stage. You know, we talked yesterday about whether the Democrats should go to the State of the Union. I was kind of iffy but then when I saw Ilhan Omar gets singled out like that, I know what's going to happen. He got that split screen. And when he was talking about Minnesota and saying we're not going to go easy on them. Who thinks he's been easy on them? And so, she was shouting back, ‘you've killed Americans’ but you couldn't see what she said! WHOOPI GOLDBERG: No. CARPENTER: And so, it's such an unfair dynamic that I just - We got to find ways not to participate in that and give him that kind of advantage. I just can't believe we haven't learned this lesson after ten-plus years. JOY BEHAR: Well, I watched the whole thing and I was physically ill from it and more nauseous than usual watching him. SUNNY HOSTIN: Yeah. BEHAR: The way he was demonizing immigrants made me sick. It made me sick. This country -- I was saying to my husband, what makes this country great? What made it great and different from other countries, let's say, in Europe and other places; is that we welcomed immigrants in this country. My family – [Applause] My family left Italy because there was no work in Italy when they were in southern Italy and they came here and that's why I'm sitting here today. And it just -- it just made me so -- it made me feel really sad that of that -- that's the reason America has been what it is. I don't want to make a speech but I was furious and scared as the Bert and Ernie kept jumping up behind him also. [Applause] And every time he lied, every time he lied, the economy is great, these idiots would be, ‘yay!’ Or the economy -- everything is great. Immigrants are the problem.’ Yay.’ It was sickening to watch. HOSTIN: Joy and I were texting each other. And I watched the whole thing too. I almost fell asleep because it was so boring actually, parts of it. But I think that's what got to me as well, that demonization of the entire Somali population. BEHAR: Disgraceful. HOSTIN: That was disgraceful. Language matters. Keep – The saying that people are illegal, illegal aliens. That really matters. We haven't used that term for so long. Now it's back in vogue. You are not illegal as a human being just because you're undocumented. And so, that for me felt dehumanizing to our immigrant population. And I disagreed with you, yesterday, Joy, when you said, you know, the Democrats shouldn't go. They shouldn't dignify this type of performance. And I disagreed with you and now I agree with you because like you said, someone like Ilhan Omar, who fiercely is protective of Minnesotans and Somalians in particular, she gave him that moment he wanted when the Democrats wouldn't stand because he was calling people illegal aliens, they didn't stand and he called them crazy. They gave him all these moments. BEHAR: They should have just walked out. HOSTIN: I think they were used as props. (…) 11:09:29 a.m. Eastern BEHAR: What's worse than him are the sycophants and the acolytes who are praising him and going along with him! HOSTIN: Yeah. BEHAR: I mean, I'm dismissing him because he's not will. The man is not well. His narcissistic disorder is off the charts. GOLDBERG: Well, you know what, he's also insanely rude because a lot of people won gold for the U.S., a lot of people won gold. I'm sorry. You know. The women's hockey team and the women -- and the young skater who comes from immigrant family -- I mean there are a lot. HAINES: He's clearly a fan of Heated Rivalry, Whoopi, that's why he loves the hockey players. I can agree with Donald Trump on this. [Laughter] GOLDBERG: I'll leave that right there. We'll talk more about this when we come back.

Google made sure its viewers knew its stance on President Donald Trump’s record-breaking State of the Union address with a flurry of elitist media hits against his speech on Wednesday morning.  In its coverage of Trump’s comments, Google News promoted eight leftist media outlets, while denying reporting from any right-leaning media outlets. Google painted a subtle but clear picture of its rejection of the president and his policies as it pushed reporting from outlets like The New York Times, Business Insider, National Public Radio (NPR), The Guardian and NBC News. The elitist media derided Trump’s speech, in some cases stating outright that it was rife with false and misleading claims, and in others framing stories around how Democratic lawmakers boycotted the speech entirely. MRC’s Findings: Google News pushed reporting on Trump’s State of the Union address as its first eight articles, using elitist media outlets to undercut Trump in the top 20 of its morning edition. Google News did not promote a single article from a right-leaning media outlet on Trump’s State of the Union address, while the digital news gatekeeper promoted nine articles from left-leaning or center media outlets in the top 20 stories of its morning edition.  The only “center” article Google News offered on Trump’s speech came from the government-funded, UK-based BBC.  Below are the nine articles Google News promoted on Trump’s State of the Union address in the order they appeared: (1) BBC (Center): Trump’s State of the Union speech - at a glance (2) The New York Times (Left-Leaning): Opinion ‘A Tedious, Tiresome Performance’: The Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s State of the Union (3) The Guardian (Left-Leaning): Trump claims a year of wins and attacks old foes in longest State of the Union | First Thing (4) Business Insider (Left-Leaning): I went to Trump’s State of the Union. This was the moment when the room’s mood shifted. (5) NPR (Left-Leaning): Signs, silence, skipping: How Democrats protested Trump’s State of the Union (6) Politico (Left-Leaning): Abigail Spanberger gave Democrats’ response to Trump. But she didn’t have the stage to herself. (7) The New York Times (Left-Leaning): Democrats, Boycotting Trump’s Speech, Rally Outside the Capitol (8) NBC News (Left-Leaning): At Least 12 Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott Trump’s State of the Union address (20) The New York Times (Left-Leaning): Trump Puts On a Show, Casting Democrats as the Villains Google News did not hide its disdain for Trump in its morning offerings. The digital news gatekeeper completely shut out right-leaning outlets from the nine separate articles it offered on Trump’s State of the Union address.  Google did not even pretend to remain neutral. Eight of the nine articles Google elevated in its top 20 morning edition came from outlets rated left-leaning by AllSides media bias rating firm, and the only “center”-rated article was foreign government-funded BBC. An opinion piece put out by The New York Times took the cake as arguably the worst of the elitist media outlet articles promoted by Google News. Its headline, “Opinion ‘A Tedious, Tiresome Performance’: The Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s State of the Union,” gives readers a glimpse of the cavalcade of anti-Trump derision that is to come later in the article. While the piece pretends to give a “Best Moment” versus “Worst Moment” sort of appeal, Times op-ed columnist Michelle Goldberg’s response to what she thought was the “Best Moment” seems to reveal what The Times really wants you to take away: “The moment when, after setting a record for the longest State of the Union in recorded history, it finally ended.”  Not to be outdone, Google News also elevated a piece from UK-based outlet The Guardian, headlined, “First Thing: Trump claims a year of wins and attacks old foes in longest State of the Union.” While that headline alone isn’t overtly biased, The Guardian’s subheader does the dirty work for Google: “President’s address was littered with false and misleading claims. Plus, how Trump’s big climate finding repeal could actually hurt big oil.”  Google News also pushed articles from NPR, NBC News and an additional piece from The Times that trumpeted Democratic lawmakers boycotting Trump’s State of the Union in headlines. The tech titan similarly promoted a Business Insider piece that devoted an entire section to “The Democratic side of the aisle was conspicuously less full.” With the appearance of being the most benign story on Trump’s speech, Google News also pushed a BBC article that was anything but benign. While the piece’s first section touted the length of Trump’s oration, BBC’s next three sections dragged on with contentious moments like the president’s “face-to-face” encounter with U.S. Supreme Court justices “who struck down his tariffs,” the ejection of Democrat Al Greene from the room “again” and Rep. Ilhan Omar’s so-called “‘Stand up’ moment.” The BBC, meanwhile, buried the triumphal entry of “Victorious hockey stars” entering the room to “chants of ‘U-S-A, U-S-A’” as well as a section on those who received honors from Trump. Google News once again promoted The Times more than any other outlet. In its third appearance in Google’s top 20 stories on Wednesday, The Times chose to color Trump’s speech as his attempt at a “survival strategy.” Right from the jump, The Times set the tone for a piece clearly trying to undermine the president with the headline “Trump Puts On a Show, Casting Democrats as the Villains,” and subheadline, “On the defensive over the economy and with the midterms approaching, President Trump made clear that his political strategy is to paint Democrats as unpatriotic and ‘crazy.’” The cherry on top comes just before the conclusion of the piece, whereby The Times makes sure to remind its readers of one of its favorite anti-Trump smears: Jan. 6. Google News also elevated an article from Politico, but unlike the others, the Politico piece focused squarely on the Democratic Party rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union address. Throughout, the Google News-promoted article highlighted how “[v]arious Democratic factions” hosted several events designed to “challenge President Donald Trump.” Methodology: The day after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Feb. 25, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 news stories featured on Google News at approximately 8:30 AM ET. MRC researchers used the AllSides media bias ratings, which categorize an outlet as “left,” “lean left,” “center,” “lean right” or “right” to determine the overall bias presented by Apple News and Google News and analyzed the results.  Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.   

The State of the Union is typically an eye-opening exhibit of how dramatically slanted our "independent fact-checkers" are. An overview of the most prominent traditional national media sites reveals a total of 110 "fact checks" on the president to four for Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.). One might say that Trump spoke much longer, but all four of Spanberger's claims were ruled as solid. Here's the rundown:  PolitiFact promised their usual checking in real time, and performed nine checks on Trump and three on Abigail Spanberger. While Trump's claims drew words like "exaggeration," "mathematical hyperbole," "no evidence," and a "wrong," they avoided the usual "Truth-O-Meter" ruling words. Spanberger's three claims were ruled as ""research supports this number,” "This is accurate," and "Early data supports." (9-3) PBS reposted these checks on both parties.  National Public Radio made those checks look fair and balanced. NPR reporters performed 28 "fact checks" on Trump to absolutely zero on Spanberger.  It began with a "partly true" on the crackdown on illegal immigration. A number of the checks on Trump by NPR weren't ruled false, they were merely explained, like “Congressional stock trading ban faces tough odds for passage.” But like several others, NPR picked battles on "I ended eight wars" and "the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program." (28-0) The New York Times published an amazing 29 "fact checks" on Trump to one on Spanberger. The terms for Trump included "false," "exaggerated," "misleading," "lacks evidence," and if was a tiny bit true, then it "needs context." The Times checked one Spanberger line, and it was "Mostly true." Like PolitiFact, the Times backed Spanberger's claim that Trump’s policies "have forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each in tariff costs." (29-1) They even checked Trump’s sports claims. Julian Barnes confessed: “OK, this is definitely a pedantic fact check. Mr. Trump is probably correct that he has never seen a goaltending performance like Mr. Hellebuyck’s. Sportswriters praised the amazing game he played. However, the Canadian team had 42 shots on goal, and Mr. Hellebuyck stopped 41.  An amazing performance, but only 41, rather than 46, shots stopped.” CNN flagged 22 Trump statements and nothing by Spanberger. Toronto-based Daniel Dale provided most of the "checking." He couldn't stand boasting on gas prices coming down: "Trump claimed gas prices are 'now below $2.30 a gallon in most states, and in some places, $1.99 a gallon.' But no state had an average gas price on Tuesday below $2.37 per gallon, according to AAA; only two states had an average below $2.50 per gallon." (22-0) FactCheck.org brought its readers 22 "fact checks" on Trump to zero for Spanberger. Like several others, Team FC added "context" on the jobs claims. "Trump’s claim that 'more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country,' while accurate, doesn’t account for population growth. Job growth slowed a bit last year." (22-0) So all that adds up to 110-4. The "no quick fact check of either party" list includes Reuters, USA Today, The Washington Post, Snopes.com, and Lead Stories -- although in the last case LS cried foul on a Loudoun County (Va.) Republican Party video which created an AI-generated mockery of Gov. Spanberger collecting wads of cash from taxes. 

The Associated Press’s Melissa Goldin and Calvin Woodward were given the task of fact-checking President Trump’s Tuesday State of the Union address and, in some of their checks, they were so pedantic it bordered on self-parody. The worst example was the duo’s final entry. Every president tries to wax poetic about the legacy of the Revolution and how it lives on to today, and Trump was no different, “The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended. It still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot.” The full context was that Trump was referring to the nation’s upcoming 250th birthday, but Goldin and Woodward wrote, “To be clear, the American Revolution started the previous year, on April 19, 1775. The colonies declared independence in 1776. It ended Sept. 3, 1783.” Fact-checkers like to say that Trump is the best example of why their profession is necessary. Some like to justify the lopsided Republican versus Democrat totals by saying Republicans are checked more because they deserve it, but Woodward has been the kind of fact-checker who has been "fact"-checking Republicans’ opinions for at least 15 years, well before Trump decided to run for president. Elsewhere, Goldin and Woodward denounced Trump for claiming, “Last year, the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history. This is the biggest decline. Think of it in recorded history, the lowest number in over 125 years.” According to the duo, Trump is right, but they still wanted to quibble, “Trump takes credit for a significant decrease in violent crime during 2025, claiming the murder rate in the U.S. dropped to its lowest in 125 years. But this is misleading. Crime had already been trending down in recent years.” Trump also claimed, “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” Here, Goldin and Woodward insist, “Yes, but the number of Americans with jobs always rises as the population grows. The relevant figure is the proportion of Americans with jobs, which has fallen significantly in the last quarter-century, partly because the workforce is aging and more people are retired. The proportion of Americans with jobs peaked at 64.7% in April 2000, and was 59.8% in January.” By contrast, when former President Joe Biden stated in his first official State of the Union that “our economy created over 6.5 million new jobs just last year, more jobs created in one year,” AP’s desire to put context—in this case recovery from Democratic-mandated COVID shutdowns—around historic job numbers was nowhere to be seen. From overzealous nitpicking to double standards in how similar claims are adjudicated, AP’s post-State of the Union roundup unintentionally did a good job of showing why the fact-checking industry needs to be greatly reformed.