Your fact-checks will appear here
Organization primarily tasked with preparing for and conducting war
Reporting shows hexachloroethane (HC) is a chlorinated compound long used in white smoke compositions for military and some law‑enforcement smoke grenades and pots, and federal and public‑health sourc...
U.S. military recruitment has reversed years of shortfalls and is up in 2024–25: the Army contracted more than 61,000 recruits for FY2025—about 10% higher than its FY2024 goal—and the services reporte...
U.S. forces in Europe are funded through a mix of regular Department of Defense appropriations and targeted programs such as the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI), which had a FY2025 request of $2....
Available reporting does not list a catalog of specific “unlawful orders” that President Trump has given; instead recent coverage centers on Democrats warning troops to refuse unspecified illegal orde...
The reporting and analyses provided show that taxpayers spent on presidential travel and security tied to Donald Trump’s Mar‑a‑Lago visits, but estimates vary widely by method and time period. Indepen...
The Coast Guard may lawfully use force, including potentially lethal force, under domestic statutes that authorize maritime drug interdiction and the Service’s Surface Use of Force policy, but that au...
Pete Hegseth’s military record, as reported by multiple public sources, lists two Bronze Star Medals, the Combat Infantryman Badge and Expert Infantryman Badge, two Army Commendation Medals, and at le...
President Trump’s second-term 2025 staffing changes include a mix of high-profile White House departures, a large-scale voluntary resignation program affecting over 100,000 federal employees, and mass...
The available reporting does not provide a comprehensive historical list of every military officer ever court‑martialed for refusing orders; recent coverage centers on a 2025 controversy over Democrat...
Taxpayer-borne presidential travel routinely runs into the millions: Air Force One operations alone can cost roughly $5 million for a single short overseas trip, and multi‑stop tours can top $20 milli...
The Presidential Rank Awards are a competitive, statutorily created program that recognizes a small fraction of career Senior Executive Service and senior professionals for “sustained extraordinary” o...
The claim that “the most dangerous grave is at Arlington National Cemetery” refers to the burial of Richard McKinley, a victim of the 1961 SL-1 reactor accident whose body retained radioactive contami...
Pete Hegseth’s public biography and interviews present him as an Army National Guard infantry officer who served in Guantánamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, rose to the rank of major, and received combat...
The Bronze Star was created in 1944 and, from the start, could distinguish meritorious service from combat heroism by the addition of a small "V" device—first authorized by the Army in 1945 and adopte...
The minimum physical fitness requirement for West Point admission is not a single pass/fail standard published by the Academy; candidates are evaluated using the Candidate Fitness Assessment (CFA), a ...
Tammy Duckworth served in Iraq in 2004 as a UH‑60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot with the Illinois Army National Guard and “flew 120 combat hours over eight months” before her aircraft was struck by an R...
The short answer is: , because federal law sharply restricts using the military to execute domestic law and there is no precedent for military arrests of ICE for civil‑rights infractions. Remedies for...
The United States faces a meaningful shortfall in technical talent relevant to defense missions: the Department of Defense concedes it is struggling to recruit and retain the specialized engineers, cy...
Operating and sustaining an army base requires a broad portfolio of facilities — barracks and family housing, training ranges, maintenance depots, runways/piers, utilities and energy systems, medical ...
Social media users have long tied “steak and lobster” (surf-and-turf) meals to an imminent deployment or “last meal” ritual; recent viral videos show U.S. soldiers eating such meals but available repo...