Facts First.
Americans First.
We're an independent platform making the case for a government that serves its own citizens first. We think that case is strongest when it's honest, so every number here is sourced, every source is linked and we correct our mistakes in public.
One Test for Every Policy
Does it make life better for American citizens: their safety, their paychecks, their freedom and their children's future?
It isn't owned by any party, candidate or personality, and it's older than all of them. Washington warned against permanent foreign entanglements. Hamilton built American industry on purpose. Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex. Barbara Jordan, a Democrat, called for immigration laws that are actually enforced.
We focus on five issues where we believe Washington has put other interests ahead of its own citizens: the border, jobs and industry, energy, foreign wars and free speech. We also keep the Media Record, a sourced log of major national stories that the documented record later contradicted. It follows the same standards as the rest of the site: primary sources, caveats included, corrections welcome.
What America First Is
- Pro-citizen, pro-worker, pro-family
- Secure borders and legal, orderly immigration
- Making critical goods and energy at home
- A strong military, used rarely and only with Congress's vote
- Free speech for everyone, including people we disagree with
What It Isn't
- It isn't about anyone's race, religion or ancestry. Every American citizen is owed the same rights and the same respect.
- It isn't isolationism. We trade with the world and stand with real allies.
- It isn't loyalty to a party. We judge politicians of both parties by the same standard.
Our Sourcing Standards
Primary Sources First
Government data (CBP, BLS, Census, CBO, Treasury, EIA), court opinions, official documents and peer-reviewed research come before news coverage or commentary.
Every Number Is Cited
Each issue page ends with a numbered source list. If a figure is rounded or approximate, we say so.
Dates on Everything
Data goes stale. We label each figure with its date. Most figures reflect data published through November 2026, and the Updates page logs each refresh.
Steelman, Don't Strawman
Our myth-vs-fact cards include facts that complicate our own side's talking points. If an argument can't survive the full picture, we don't make it.
Quotes Are Verified
We quote only from transcripts and original documents, and link to the document or to the archive that holds it. We give credit to the original author even when a famous figure made the line popular.
Found an Error? Tell Us.
If you believe a number, quote or claim on this site is wrong or out of date, send us the page, the claim and your source. We review every correction request. When we're wrong, we fix it and note the change below.
Submit a CorrectionCorrection Log
- Nov. 2026, sitewide: updated to revised official figures: 2024 trade deficit $904B (BEA revision), first-time buyer median age 40 (NAR 2025), FY2024 defense outlays $874B and FY2025 net interest $970B (Treasury), immigration court backlog (TRAC, Sept. 2026), June 2022 gasoline peak, CIA Syria program cost.
- Nov. 2026, quotes: "Without Freedom of Thought…" is now credited to Cato's Letters (Thomas Gordon), which Franklin reprinted. Washington's 1790 quote now matches the original wording exactly.
- Nov. 2026, links: fixed the CEQ, SIGAR and TRAC links. The Hamilton report and Silence Dogood letter now link straight to the documents in Founders Online (National Archives).
- Nov. 2026, debt ticker: now starts from the latest official Treasury "Debt to the Penny" figure and shows its date, instead of a fixed estimate.
- Nov. 8, 2026, energy: the home-electricity price rise now uses EIA's latest data (13.0¢ per kWh in 2019 to 18.0¢ in the 12 months to Aug. 2026, up 38%), replacing an approximate 27% figure for 2019–2024.
- Nov. 8, 2026, review pass: updated stale "current" figures (the national debt on the Economy page and in Then vs. Now; the Energy calculator now uses 2026 prices). Noted that the CPI electricity index (+48%) and EIA's average price (+38%) measure the same trend differently. Added context lines on the border surge's other drivers, the productivity–pay gap and NATO spending. Dated the visa-overstay finding (2011–2017). Quoted the Special Counsel's BuzzFeed statement more exactly, and linked Roosevelt's 1915 speech to its full text with his line on naturalized Americans.
- Nov. 8, 2026, Media Record: the Rittenhouse case wrongly said Rep. Jerry Nadler claimed Rittenhouse crossed from Illinois with an "assault rifle." Nadler's Nov. 19, 2021 tweet said "justice cannot tolerate armed persons crossing state lines looking for trouble." The case now quotes him exactly and includes his office's response. In a line-by-line source check of all 12 cases we also: removed "named" from Del Rio (no official named an agent); quoted Snopes's editor's note exactly; completed the Washington Post's correction quote; noted that lawmakers' impeachment talk on the BuzzFeed story was conditional; attributed the 2021 bounties assessment to Jen Psaki's briefing rather than the White House fact sheet; corrected Yoel Roth's 2017–18 title; attributed the Smollett finding to the special prosecutor's grand jury announcement; quoted Politico's full headline on the 51-signer letter; said the Washington Post verified "nearly 22,000" laptop emails and that most of the drive's data could not be verified; called Carter Page a former campaign adviser and Steele's source his "primary sub-source"; dated PolitiFact's lab-leak rating and its withdrawal; and quoted the Post's Covington note as saying it could not confirm that Phillips "was prevented from moving by one student."
- Nov. 8, 2026, quotes and data: Hamilton's 1791 quote now uses his original semicolon, and Orwell's matches his text. Refreshed to the latest official figures: FY2026 deficit ($2.0T) and net interest ($1.05T); 2025 trade deficit ($932B, BEA); 2025 gasoline ($3.10); border encounters for FY2025 and FY2026; current Strategic Petroleum Reserve level; LBNL's 2026 grid-queue (~2,060 GW) and data-center (4.7% in 2024) reports; and Then vs. Now.
- Nov. 8, 2026, Free Speech: the timeline now runs through 2026: NRA v. Vullo (2024), Executive Order 14149, Meta ending U.S. fact-checking, the FTC's censorship inquiry, Alphabet's Sept. 2025 letter and the March 2026 Missouri v. Biden consent decree, each with its source. We had said the core question in Murthy v. Missouri "remains unresolved"; the entry now notes the consent decree and its limits: three agencies, 10 years, and protection only for the plaintiffs' own posts. Sources 3, 5, 6 and 7 now link to the court opinions, House reports and news reports they cite.
- Nov. 8, 2026, sitewide: every page now reads fully without JavaScript. The 12 Media Record cases, the trust figure, every statistic, the debt figures and the calculators' default results are now in the page itself. Page addresses no longer end in ".html", and old links redirect. The About and Border pages now link GAO's biometric exit report (GAO-17-170) instead of the GAO home page.
Check Our Work
The key primary sources behind this site, grouped by issue. Full numbered lists appear at the bottom of each issue page.