On the one hand, reporters can’t quote Trump’s false comments without caveat; on the other hand, the time spent debunking statements that were never designed to be true anyway distracts from important, fact-based conversations about actual problems. The issue with his NATO remarks is not that the anecdote is false; it’s that he is undermining America’s key alliance at a time when Russia is fighting a brutal war of annexation in Ukraine and threatening other European states, and Trump is, by his own account, happy to tell the Kremlin to go ahead. No one outside the pork industry cares a great deal whether the details are right, but the crowds listening to Trump do care about inflation.