Elizabeth Warren, PolitiFact, and the postmodern approach to the modern era

PolitiFact Bias completed a research project last year looking at PolitiFact's "True" and "Mostly True" ratings. And though it wasn't the original aim of the study we found that "True" and "Mostly True" count as dying breeds in the "Truth-O-Meter" universe. For example, in 2025 PolitiFact meted out only 10 "Truth-O-Meter" ratings to partisan political figures. There were over 60 in PolitiFact's first year.

Our experience from that study led us to track new "True" ratings a bit more closely this year. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) cracked the ice with the initial "True" rating of 2026.

I thought the term "modern era" was the key to this fact check. I asked Grok AI to evaluate the fact check. Grok's been tweaked at some point in the past year to elevate its deference to "trusted sources" like PolitiFact, so Grok produced a very trusting evaluation, finding the fact check perfectly solid. I followed up asking whether Axios had defined "modern era" as PolitiFact claimed.

A March 2 Axios article with an opening that nearly matches Warren’s statement: "No president in the modern era has ordered more military strikes against as many different countries as Donald Trump." The Axios story defines "modern era" as presidents post-9/11: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump and Joe Biden.

Short answer? No.

The Axios story mentions "modern era" in the lead, which was pretty much the same thing Warren said. And after that doesn't mention the term again. Axios backs the claim in the lead with 21st century examples Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. From there, PolitiFact infers that "modern era" was defined in terms of 21st century presidents.

But is that how the average reader understands "modern era"?

From a contemporary perspective, “the modern era” usually means the present day and the recent past, but historians often use it more specifically for the period from about the 1500s to 1945, with the time after 1945 often called the contemporary period.

I put the question to Perplexity AI. What is the "modern era" from a contemporary perspective?

Obviously the term carries some ambiguity. How many times have we seen PolitiFact appeal to a specialized definition backed by expert testimony to downgrade a similarly ambiguous claim uttered by a Republican? It's routine by now.

Well, the "modern era" as understood by historians runs up through 1945, encompassing the whole of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. The number of nations receiving military strikes from that administration would outnumber those from the Trump administration.

Not only does PolitiFact use specialized definitions to downgrade "Truth-O-Meter" ratings, it also appeals to the impression a claim leaves on the audience irrespective of whether that understanding finds support in the context of a claim. Yet Sen. Warren's claim failed to raise that warning flag for PolitiFact.

PolitiFact even introduced its own complementary claim about Mr. Trump:

After reviewing these sources and additional reporting, we found that Trump has authorized the highest number of strikes and targeted the most countries compared with other 21st century presidents.

That's nice, but Warren didn't mention the 21st century and neither did Axios. Axios simply limited its comparisons to other 21st century presidents. How was Warren's audience supposed to know that?

Were PolitiFact a neutral and competent fact checker, it would find, at minimum, that Warren left out the 21st century context when that context determines the truth value of her claim. Sounds a bit like the way PolitiFact defines "Half True" or even "Mostly False" on its subjective "Truth-O-Meter":

HALF TRUE – The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context.

MOSTLY FALSE – The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.

The important detail is the operative definition of "modern era." And "modern era" is the ignored critical fact that would give a different impression (FDR, not DJT).

What might have been: "Experts told us the "modern era" runs from the 1500s through 1945. That span includes president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who launched attacks on more countries than has Donald Trump. We rate Warren's statement "Mostly False."

Instead, PolitiFact drew a target around Warren's point with her point at the center and declared it a bullseye. That's the Texas sharpshooter fallacy.