In a world where the political news seen on TV and read in newspapers is condensed to fit into a meme, it’s safe to say that not all of the information presented in said meme should be taken at face-value. Like most things that originate from the internet, memes are riddled with bias and emotional reactions to certain events, and political memes are no exception.

The meme I have chosen for this fact-check most likely originated in 2016, due to its subject matter and it being featured in a snopes.com article from 2016 fact-checking claims that Trump had filed for bankruptcy four times, one of these claims being made by Hilary Clinton. That being said, this meme was created during the 2016 election with the purpose of highlighting Donald Trump’s weaknesses when it comes to his qualifications for being an effective president in terms of economic leadership.

The sources I found for fact-checking the statement of fact in this meme—which is “I filed for bankruptcy 4 times in the last 15 years”— are “Donald Trump’s Bankruptcies” from snopes.com, “Yep, Donald Trump’s companies have declared bankruptcy…more than four times” from Politifact.com, “Fact-checking claims about Donald Trump’s four bankruptcies” from Politifact.com, and “Business Career of Donald Trump” from wikipedia.com. All of these sites with the exception of the wikipedia article were found through duckduckgo.com using the search term provided for us on the WRT website. The search term I used was “Trump filed for bankruptcy site:snopes.com site:politifact.com site:factcheck.org.” I proceeded to choose the sites with the most relevant headlines.

Out of the sources I used, there was a consensus among all of them that the meme was correct in its statement of Trump filing for bankruptcy four times, or I should say at least for times, as it was revealed that the correct amount of times he filed was six times (so, technically the meme wasn’t correct but its context makes it clear that the additional two bankruptcies would further prove its point rather than detract from it, so therefore this discrepancy does no harm). There was also a consensus among the sources that the reason for Trump’s bankruptcies are more on the ambiguous side. It is unclear if he filed Chapter 11—”a chapter of Title 11, the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States” (wikipedia.com)—as a result of a financial failure or a desire to reorganize his companies’ finances. Politifact.com says that although Trump’s name was attached to the bankruptcies, he wasn’t entirely at fault, instead, the casino and gambling industry itself was, as it was struggling at the time.

Trump’s first bankruptcy filing was for his casino the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991. Before filing he managed to fall into $3 billion of debt and $900 million in personal liabilities. The second time he filed for bankruptcy was for Trump Castle in 1992 in which had racked up $338 million in debt. His third filing was for the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City in 1992. His debt before filing added up to $250 million. Trump’s next bankruptcy was filed for his Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in 1992, which accumulated $550 million in debt. His fifth bankruptcy was for his hotels and Casino resorts, including the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza Casinos in Atlantic City mentioned before, which accumulated approximately $1.8 billion in debt. And the last bankruptcy Trump filed was for Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009, which before filing, had $1.2 billion in debt.

Based on the analysis made by the sources I chose, the statement of fact in this meme is true. Trump did file for bankruptcy 4 times, he also filed an additional 2 times that the meme doesn’t mention, but the point of the meme is put across regardless. As for the context of the meme and if there is anything to say about stretching the truth or molding it in a way that falls under the interests of those who made and support it (who are most likely democrats and definitely anti-trump), the reasons for Trump filing bankruptcy have more to do with making a necessary business decision than it does with being financially irresponsible. The meme leaves this out because the creator most likely wanted to relay a certain message that does not sympathize with Trump in any way. And while it’s easy to get swept up in the emotions that Trumps policies elicit, it is important to remain open-minded when it comes to retrieving and digesting the facts in order to make informed and unbiased decisions when it comes to politics.