In the approach to consequential Senate races, President Trump this week leveled a series of claims against three Democratic candidates that fact-checkers found to be inaccurate — distorting positions, fabricating attributions, and stripping context from the public record. The pattern suggests not rhetorical carelessness but deliberate strategy: to define opponents before they can define themselves. It is an old story in democratic life, the contest between what is said loudly and what is true quietly, and its outcome depends on which reaches more people first.