Is this a new way to fact-check Donald Trump at his RNC speech and beyond? | Opinion

Editor’s note: Contributing columnist David Mastio is covering the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee for McClatchy Opinion.

Tonight, the eyes of more fact-checkers than ever before will be trained on one slightly wounded and uniquely coiffed man in Milwaukee. Donald Trump says he was changed when a bullet came within an inch of taking his life. His most ardent supporters here believe he was touched by the hand of God.

Perhaps that belief in the hand of God explains why pointing out the half-truths, complete fabrications and common myths the man spews at an alarming rate is so completely ineffective in derailing, curbing or in any way impacting the Trump phenomenon.

“Just like they claim the Earth is billions of years old, fact-checkers go at things from their own perspective,” said Alberto Herrara, a Texan who can see Mexico from his house. “I use my own ears to hear and decide what is true. A Christian, like Trump, will sometimes speak things into existence. Non-Trumpers have a hard time understanding that.”

That’s a hard wall to pierce, but it is not because Trump Republicans aren’t listening. I couldn’t find a convention-goer who hadn’t read and heard many news reports on Trump’s fabulisms.

Kelly Mallette, a Biscayne Park, Florida, resident and GOP state committeewoman, says she reads coverage about Trump. “I am OK with media checking facts, but not sure the media is always a teller of truths,” she says, “The media just isn’t recognized for truth anymore.”

That may be part of the disconnect — here in Milwaukee at the center of the Trumpiverse, for this one week at least — the facts and the truth are not always congruent.

“They don’t like Trump and always find fault,” said Lisa Dyer from Denton, Texas. “Yes, are there sometimes facts that are wrong? Sure, (Trump)’s a storyteller, but the details aren’t as important as the meat, and that’s spot on.”

Listening to Lisa talk about the bigger truths that Trump reveals through a mist of mistakes, misunderstandings and miscues, she’s given me the beginning of an idea about how the press could make its vast fact-checking apparatus relevant to the half of America that isn’t liberal.

The standard fact check debunks some claim that Donald Trump throws out in support of, say, his plan to build that wall to block undocumented immigrants from overwhelming our country. The implication being, you Trump supporters are wrong to worry about the flood of undocumented immigrants, and building the wall wouldn’t work anyway.

We media people knock out the factual supports from under some Trump agenda item, and we expect Republicans to walk away from a powerful belief. What if we gave them new but actually true support for their belief to substitute for Trump’s wrongness? We don’t have to take a position on the “truth,” only the facts.

I don’t think the wall is a solution to America’s border crisis, but in some places it would be helpful. Wouldn’t it be great to tell readers what a tough attempt to slow illegal crossings to a trickle would look like? What would a disciplined, responsible Trump with the same beliefs be saying?

What if we said, “Keep your Trumpy truths, but let us supply actual facts to support them.” We might get a more nuanced and more useful approach to Trumpworld than we have now. We might get a more educated public and a better relationship with readers. As I said, this is a partial idea from the floor of the Fiserv Center in Milwaukee. Maybe it is crazy.

We can’t do worse than we’re doing now. Take it from Debbie McFarland of St. Charles, Missouri, who doesn’t trust fact-checkers as far as she can kick ‘em. “I am a seeker of truth and hell no, I don’t find truth from fact-checkers,” she told me. “I have to find it out myself through research and reading, and reading multiple sources. Multiple sources is the key.”

Debbie, Alberto, Kelly and Lisa aren’t alone. Half of America doesn’t believe what they read in the media. Maybe this is a way to do something about it.

David Mastio, a former editor and columnist for USA Today, is a regional editor for The Center Square and a regular Star Opinion correspondent. Follow him on X: @DavidMastio or email him at dmastio1@yahoo.com