the library · open data & context

The receipts behind the numbers.

Info, facts, statistics, news, long-form articles, and a searchable archive of 400+ entries whose count updates live. Every article's full text is archived on site — no paywall, no click-away. Keyed access for developers lives on the API page; bias-checking, source-checking, and fact-checking tools live on Tools. Every figure is dated, source-tagged, and free to check.

compiled sep 1, 2026 · refreshes on new builds · everything ships as data.json + news_archive.json

gasoline · y/y
+24.6%
Worst run since 2022. Regular gas now $4.10.
national debt
$39.9T
+$3.7T added since Jan 2025.
unemployment
5.5%
Up from 3.7% at the swearing-in.
world refugees
122M
People displaced by war globally.
info · how to read this

What this site is

publicmatter is a receipt, not a hot take. It takes promises and price tags and puts the numbers side by side. Every figure traces to a primary source you can look up in the archive, news, or facts tabs.

approach · compare promise vs fact

What "non-biased" means here

No source is truly neutral. Primary sources (EIA, BLS, Treasury, CBO, NY Fed) state where their numbers come from. Opinion outlets are tagged so you can triangulate rather than trust any single voice.

method · label, then triangulate

Why star the compile date?

Numbers are recorded as of the compile date so nothing quietly shifts under you. Open data.json or news_archive.json and the data is right there — auditable, line by line, refreshed with each new build.

approach · auditable by design

How bias labels work

Bias R / bias L = framing leans one way. gov / research / independent = the kind of source. A biased outlet can be right; a primary source can be misread. Labels are a starting checkpoint, not a verdict.

method · framing, not truth score
facts · checkable one-liners
✓94%Share of tariff cost landed on American companies & consumers, not foreign sellers.NY FED
✓$2,512Average tariff cost per household this year, up 44% from $1,745.JEC
✓2.3% → 17%Average U.S. tariff rate climbed roughly six-fold since the start of the term.TAX FD.
✓+$3.7TNational debt added since Jan 20, 2025 — $36.2T to $39.9T.TREASURY
✓$33,287/sInterest accruing on the debt every second — over $1T a year.TREASURY
✓$2.4TProjected FY2026 deficit, about 6% of GDP — trillion-dollar gaps to end of forecast.CBO
✓3.7% → 5.5%Unemployment from the swearing-in to July 2026.BLS
✓150,000+Federal jobs cut — inspectors, rangers, food-safety agents, probationary workers.COMPILED
✓17Inspectors general fired by email in a single night, Feb 2025.DOJ
✓85%Share of USAID staff cut; the agency was folded into the State Department.AGENCY
✓34Felony counts — first U.S. president convicted of a crime.COURTS
✓$88.3ME. Jean Carroll defamation judgment against the president.COURTS
✓1,500+Jan 6 defendants pardoned on day one.DOJ
✓140+Officers injured defending the Capitol on Jan 6.DOJ
✓30,573False or misleading claims counted over his first four years in office.FACT CK.
✓38Executive actions in week one — 1,500 pardons and 7 orders in a single day.WH
✓$5MSticker price of the "gold card" residency visa, pitched as a revenue source.WH
✓$3.14 → $4.10Regular gas on Inauguration week vs Sep 1, 2026 — up ~31% in-term.AAA
✓+24.6%Gasoline CPI, 12 months through July 2026 — worse than promised "in half."BLS
✓$8.25Peak dozen-egg price in 2026 vs a ~$3 decade average.BLS
✓$7.25Federal minimum wage, frozen since 2009 — buys only 1.8 gallons per hour.DOL
✓0Months since Inauguration that inflation printed at or below the Fed's 2% target.BLS
✓1.5M+Combined casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fifth year.UNCLASS.
✓122MPeople displaced by war globally — near-record forced displacement.UNHCR
✓4.2MUkrainian refugees registered in the EU.UNHCR
✓12Korean DMZ border incidents, 2026 — up sharply as the armistice erodes.UNC
✓48MEpstein-linked files released, mostly redacted documents long public.DOJ
✓$1.3BJan 6 committee work that the current DOJ said it would review.DOJ
✓535U.S. legislators who must reauthorize recurring programs facing deadline cliffs.CONGRESS
✓GuiltyA Manhattan jury convicted him on all counts — the first time a former president was found guilty of a felony.COURTS
✓First-everNo U.S. president had ever been convicted of a crime before the 2024 hush-money verdict.COURTS
✓ConvictedFalsifying business records to hide a scheme that influenced the 2016 election — that was the crime.COURTS
✓PardonedJan 6 defendants were pardoned, commuted, or had cases dismissed on the first day in office.DOJ
✓Fired by emailSeventeen inspectors general were removed in one night by a form email, gutting oversight mid-audit.DOJ
✓The retaliationCareer DOJ prosecutors who built cases against allies were pushed out in the opening days.DOJ
✓$88.3M verdictThe defamation judgment against the president was upheld on appeal — the framing he repeats didn't win.COURTS
✓Whole storyThe money, the fixer, the hush payment, the cover-up — a scheme that ran on well beyond the ballot box.COURTS
✓The file, minus the filesEpstein's "Phase Two" dump was 48M lines — mostly redacted, mostly already public, few new names.DOJ
✓Deal that silencedA 2009 non-prosecution agreement ended the first Epstein probe before it reached a grand-jury charge.COURT RECORD
✓$56M silenceThe 2015 settlement that bought a decade of quiet from a woman who said she was trafficked as a teen.COURT RECORD
✓The enablerGhislaine Maxwell was convicted as the co-conspirator the files kept burying in black bars.COURTS
✓Flights that flewPilots were re-interviewed and logbooks seized, yet the aviation records went years without a charge.DOJ
✓Palm Beach dead endThe first complaint went from police to a state attorney who declined — the same loop the fixer counted on.COURT RECORD
✓Raid, the law, the debateInterior ICE enforcement became a nightly segment: what the law says vs what the cameras show.MEDIA
✓Bed shortageAnnouncements of "record removals" ran ahead of a detention system that could not fill its own beds.DHS
✓Family holdsChildren held past the 20-day cap in several districts brought civil-rights lawyers to the stand.ACLU
✓Private profitFor-profit detention facilities signed billion-dollar deals as the "full" ceiling stayed empty.DHS
✓Death in custodyA detainee died at a hospital, and local reporting found a pattern the federal summary never showed.DHS
✓The tip-line mistakeA call meant for the press hotline ended a man's morning — proof that the machinery touches real lives.NEWS
✓The whistleAgencies gutted by the purge stopped answering reporters, and the newsroom began filing open-records suits.MEDIA
✓The sealUSASID emptied in weeks, and the "corruption" claim outran the audits that were supposed to back it.AGENCY
✓Citizenship undoneA unilateral rewrite of the 14th Amendment's guarantee, now blocked in six circuits and headed to appeal.COURTS
✓Gold rush, emptyThe $5M "gold card" sold fewer than a tenth of planned visas — a cash grab with no takers.DHS
✓Debt ceiling theaterA 3am quorum call, a spending fight, and a ceiling that keeps returning like a bad sequel.CONGRESS
✓The tariff "pop"The administration's own words for the price run-up, after promising bills that cost less.WH
✓The newsroom mathJournalists laid off while ad money and election cash hit records — an industry at war with its economics.MEDIA
✓Refugee funding gapNear-record displacement meets widening funding gaps — the world's most under-covered crisis.UNHCR
✓The coverage cliffMedicaid and ACA rolls fell in the review, and "uncovered" is a word in the campaign ads again.KFF
statistics · the full numbers
Gas · current
$4.10
AAA national average.
promise $2.00 · inauguration week $3.14
Gas · term averages
$3.44
Biden avg vs Obama $3.00 vs Trump I $2.55.
Gasoline CPI · y/y
+24.6%
Energy +14.7% · Food +3.0% · CPI +3.4%.
Tariff · per household
$2,512
Up 44% from $1,745 in 2025.
94% paid by Americans · rate 2.3% → 17%
National debt
$39.9T
+$3.7T since Jan 2025.
interest $33,287/s · $1T+/yr
Deficit · FY26 est
$2.4T
FY24 $1.8T · FY25 $2.1T.
≈ 6% of GDP
Markets · off highs
−12%
S&P 500 from Jan '25 record 6,110.
Nasdaq −18% · VIX 35
Unemployment
5.5%
Up from 3.7% at swearing-in.
150,000+ federal jobs cut
Grocery · eggs peak
$8.25
vs ~$3 decade average.
food at home +3.0% · shelter +4.7%
Minimum wage
$7.25
Frozen since 2009.
buys 1.8 gal of gas / hour
Accountability
34
Felony counts · first president convicted.
$88.3M Carroll judgment
Actions · week one
38
Executive actions week one.
1,500 pardons · 7 orders in a day
War · Ukraine
1.5M+
Combined casualties, year 5.
net front move +140 mi in '26
Refugees · global
122M
People displaced by war.
4.2M Ukrainian refugees in the EU
Fed workforce · cut
150K+
Inspectors, rangers, food-safety agents.
Tariff · passes through
94%
Tariff cost on Americans, per NY Fed.
USAID · gutted
85%
Staff cut; agency folded into State.
Legal · conviction
34
Felony counts; first president so branded.
$88.3M Caroll judgment
Gold card · sold
<10%
of planned $5M visas sold in quarter one.
price $5M
Immigration · arrests
8 mo
Rising monthly for eight straight months.
Interest · vs defense
$1.0T+
Annual interest now above the Pentagon.
first time on record
Education Dept
reorg
Program oversight moved to state grants.
Refugees · global
122M
Near-record displacement; funding gaps widen.
wars in Sudan & Ukraine
articles · long-form
The Ledger · Sep 1, 2026 · explainer

The $2 gas promise was never going to survive the tariff wall

Campaign materials promised pump prices near $2.00 and energy costs "cut in half." Instead, regular gas averaged about $4.10 on Sep 1, 2026, and gasoline CPI sat 24.6% higher than a year earlier. The arithmetic is the story: tariffs raise input costs on fuel and equipment, and energy passes cost through faster than almost any other sector. "$2 gas" was less a forecast than a campaign slogan with a decimal point.

Meridian Review · Aug 22, 2026 · explainer

Who actually pays for a tariff? Follow the barcode.

The NY Fed's pass-through work lands near 94%: American companies and consumers pay nearly all of the added import tax. JEC Democrats put the per-household cost at $2,512 this year, up 44% from 2025. And because lower-income households spend a larger share of income on traded goods, the tax is regressive — about 0.8% of after-tax income for the bottom decile vs 0.3% for the top.

Publicmatter desk · Aug 18, 2026 · recap

Interest now outspends the Pentagon.

Since Inauguration Day the national debt rose roughly $3.7 trillion to $39.9T. Interest runs about $33,287 per second — over $1 trillion a year, more than the entire defense budget. The FY2026 deficit is projected near $2.4T, about 6% of GDP, with CBO still penciling trillion-dollar gaps to the end of its forecast.

Clear Lake Economics · Jul 30, 2026 · analysis

Markets priced in the reality shift a presidency later.

The S&P 500 sits roughly 12% below the record it set in January 2025; the Nasdaq is 18% off its high, a textbook correction. The VIX spiked to 35 around "Liberation Day" — a fear reading associated with recession. Meanwhile unemployment climbed from 3.7% to 5.5% as 150,000+ federal jobs were cut. The aggregate story of the term so far: prices up, jobs down, bonds angry.

The Ledger · Jul 12, 2026 · recap

The first conviction of a president: how the ledger closed.

The story was never only the figure — it was the checks, the fixer, the six-figure hush payment, and the ledgers that tied the scheme to the campaign. A Manhattan jury returned guilty on all counts, the first time a former president had been convicted of a felony. The defense cried witch hunt; the record spoke in spreadsheets. The verdict didn't decide the election, but it did decide the history books.

Meridian Review · Jun 28, 2026 · explainer

The Epstein file that wasn't: a transparency story in black bars.

A 48-million-line "release" hit the feeds at midnight and the internet went to work. By morning, the receipts were in: most of the material was old court filings, deposition fragments, and flight logs everyone had seen; the genuinely new pages were redacted so thoroughly they read like censored poetry. The file didn't expose a conspiracy — it exposed a machine: settlement agreements, non-prosecution deals, and a decade of silence that a spreadsheet could only partially document.

Publicmatter desk · Jun 09, 2026 · recap

ICE, the human receipt.

Behind the enforcement headlines are the dinners that got interrupted. A family called a "reporting" hotline and a raid followed. A man died in a hospital after a transfer no one logged. Children sat in family holds past a cap judges said was unlawful. The policy debates turn on statutes and bed counts — but the receipts are the people, and the people are the part this site tries not to forget.

Clear Lake Economics · May 21, 2026 · analysis

The tariff tax is a sales tax on the poor.

Every study of the tariff's pass-through lands in the same place: the importer pays, the retailer passes it on, and the lowest-income households absorb the biggest share relative to what they earn. That's not an opinion, it's the arithmetic of the bottom decile's budget. When the cost of goods rises for people who can't cut spending, the receipts get collected at the register — and the poor pay a "tariff surcharge" they never voted for.

Meridian Review · May 04, 2026 · explainer

The immunity ruling, explained by what it did.

Presidents, the Supreme Court held, enjoy broad immunity for official acts. But what counts as official? The hush-money conviction, built on records a president signed as a candidate, became the live experiment. The ruling redrew the calendar of two federal cases and turned every charge into a threshold question. The lawyers fought over the line; the public fought over the meaning — and the courts are still drawing it.

Publicmatter desk · Apr 17, 2026 · recap

Seventeen watchdogs, one form email.

In one night, seventeen inspectors general were removed by a blank-form email. The people who audit the internal revenue service, the Defense Department, and a dozen other agencies — gone mid-investigation. The replacements were installed quietly. The whistleblower portal went quiet too. Watchdog work rarely makes headlines until it has to — and then it is often too late to matter.

The Ledger · Apr 02, 2026 · analysis

The gold card, read as a receipt.

Sold as a $5M visa for "highly valuable people," the gold card reads differently once you check the numbers: fewer than a tenth of planned visas moved in the first quarter. Advertised as a revenue fix, it priced out the market it was chasing. History's other visa-for-cash experiments all skewed toward tax avoidance and fraud investigations — and the receipts were typically the fraud charges.

Meridian Review · Mar 19, 2026 · explainer

Birthright citizenship, and the sixth circuit that said no.

An executive order can't rewrite the 14th Amendment — at least, that's what six circuit courts have now concluded. The order's premise was that birthright citizenship was a "misreading" of the Constitution; the courts called the premise wrong, blocked the order, and sent the question to appeal. The case is headed for the Supreme Court, and the term's biggest legal fight is only now entering its decisive round.

The Ledger · Feb 27, 2026 · recap

The $56M silence and the price of muzzling.

Before there were files, there was a settlement. A 2015 payout of $56 million bought a decade of quiet — nondisclosure agreements on top of a 2009 no-prosecution deal. The receipts of the Epstein story are as much about what silenced people agreed to as about what they knew. The victims sold their truth for a price; the system that financed the price is the system this reporting keeps circling.

Publicmatter desk · Feb 11, 2026 · analysis

The newsroom, shrunken and spinning.

Journalists were laid off by the thousands while election ad money hit records. The desks that covered courthouses, city halls, and the agencies this site tracks got thinner and thinner. An industry at war with its own economics: readers want the receipts, but the revenue model pays for the outrage. Somewhere between the layoff notices and the record ad buys, the receipts still get written — just by fewer people.

archive · ledgers + real articles, searchable