The people were doing their homework during President Trump's State of the Union address — so many that they crashed fact-checking website PolitiFact halfway through the speech.
PolitiFact is a nonpartisan website run by reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, and going into the State of the Union, they fact-checked Trump 498 times, finding that only 4 percent of those statements were "true," 33 percent were "false," and 15 percent were "pants on fire." When its servers crashed about 40 minutes into the State of the Union, PolitiFact kept going, just on Twitter. The site was only down about six minutes, and made it through the rest of the speech unscathed.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Princess cake: 'sexy' Swedish dessert has a momentThe Week Recommends The retro layered cake is selling fast in bakeries and hip restaurants around the world
-
Pros and cons of a wealth taxPros and Cons Raising revenue and tackling inequality vs. the risk of capital flight and reduced competitiveness
-
The best film prequels of all timeThe Week Recommends Balancing new information with what the audience already knows is a perilous tightrope
-
Secret Service 'failures' on Trump shootingSpeed Read Two new reports detail security breakdowns that led to attempts on the president's life
-
Trump set to hit Canada with 35% tariffsSpeed Read The president accused Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of failing to stop the cross-border flow of fentanyl
-
Mahmoud Khalil files $20M claim over ICE detentionSpeed Read This is the 'first damages complaint' brought by an individual targeted by the Trump's administration's 'crackdown' on Gaza war protesters
-
Trump threatens Brazil with 50% tariffsSpeed Read He accused Brazil's current president of leading a 'witch hunt' against far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro
-
AI scammer fakes Rubio messages to top officialsSpeed Read The unknown individual mimicked Rubio in voice and text messages sent to multiple government officials
-
SCOTUS greenlights Trump's federal firingsspeed read The Trump administration can conduct mass federal firings without Congress' permission, the Supreme Court ruled
-
New tariffs set on 14 trading partnersSpeed Read A new slate of tariffs will begin August 1 on imports from Japan, South Korea, Thailand and more
-
Elon Musk launching 'America Party'Speed Read The tech mogul promised to form a new political party if Trump's megabill passed Congress
