Politics

Did a viral clip show the actor Wyatt Russell giving an impassioned speech to federal agents in Los Angeles, amid protests against ICE roundups in June 2025? No, that's not true: A Democratic strategist named Aaron Fisher told Lead Stories he was the man shown in the clip. A representative for Russell had earlier denied the actor gave the speech.…

Did a photo of troops sleeping on a floor, shared amid President Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard in California in June 2025, in fact date to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021? No, that's not true: the AI chatbot ChatGPT made a mistake in identifying the photo as having first been published on a U.S. military website…

Did sports media report that Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani said "There's a right way and a wrong way to get into this country. They broke the law- they have to go." when commenting on recent LA protests? No, that's not true: That quote appeared on a parody account on X that mimics a baseball podcast named "Talkin' Baseball". There…

Did Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "Admit" under oath that Republicans voted to allow Jan. 6 rioters to serve in ICE roles, as numerous viral posts claimed? No, that's not true: The claim appeared in a meme spread by an account labelled "Satire/Parody". There's no record of such a statement by Noem on the Department of Homeland Security website, on…

Did a viral image showing a pile of bricks capture a scene in Los Angeles during anti-ICE protests in June 2025? No, that's not true: The photo was taken on the opposite coast of this country, thousands of miles away. The bricks in question were stacked up in New Jersey for construction work, as confirmed by local reporting. The claim…

Did Elon Musk reply to Stephen Miller's "We will take back America" post on X with "Just like I took your wife"? No, that's not true: Musk addressed the claim, saying he never posted that comment and there's no record of it on Musk's account or Miller's. Such a post would have been very newsworthy and yet there are no…

Did President Trump announce in a video that the production of Tesla cars would be banned in the United States? No, that's not true:The audio in the viral video, in which Trump could also be heard calling Elon Musk a "snake", was generated using AI according to a detection tool. It originated on an Instagram account with "AI" in its…

Was TikTok influencer Khaby Lame arrested by ICE and was he "deported"? No, that's not true: A video on X making that claim showed a 220963977 A-number from ICE's detainee locator system that currently does not show any results. An ICE spokesperson said Lame was briefly "detained" on June 6, 2025 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada…

Did actor Robert De Niro call White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt "KKKatherine" and did she respond that her family "fought to end slavery" while his "snuck into the country illegally in the 1920s"? No, that's not true: A meme describing that supposed exchange originated on a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer. The owner of the page is known…

Did President Trump post on Truth Social "That totally was a Nazi salute that Elon did by the way"? No, that's not true: a viral image of such a post was fabricated. There is no trace of such a post on Trump's actual Truth Social account and none was indexed by Google. Had he done so, it would have been…

Did President Trump post on his Truth Social account on June 5, 2025, that Elon Musk should "go back to Africa"? No, that's not true: The @realDonaldTrump timeline was closely watched at the time in anticipation of Trump's responses to Musk during their high-profile tit for tat dispute. There is no evidence the post ever appeared on Trump's Truth Social…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump write on Truth Social that Elon Musk left the White House administration after "a very tense meeting about travel to Mars" during which the tech billionaire brought up an "implication" of bringing women to spaceships? No, that's not true: Neither Trump's posts on Truth Social nor an archive of his entries confirm he ever published…

Is a photo of Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham standing with Osama Bin Laden real? No, that's not true: The image was digitally altered from a real photo of McCain and Graham standing with Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai in July 2013. The fake version showing al-Qaida founder Osama Bin Laden began circulating after McCain's 2018 death as a way…

Did Elon Musk send a cryptic tweet with the hashtag "#PIGFOOT" on June 6, 2025 following his public falling-out with President Trump? No, that's not true: A screenshot of such a tweet, including the message "Tomorrow 3PM PST #PIGFOOT", appears to have been fabricated and does not appear on Musk's X account. It was also not indexed by search engines.…

Do viral screenshots prove that U.S. taxpayers paid $411,634.00 for Senator Lindsey Graham's hotel stay in Kyiv, Ukraine, in May 2025? No, that's not true: His name is not linked to the spending documented in the images. The Department of State told Lead Stories that the screenshot of the agency's government contract in Ukraine had nothing to do with congressional…

Does a cropped screenshot of a Google Trends chart of search term usage prove Tesla owners were "scrambling to remove their anti Elon stickers" on June 5, 2025, the day Musk began to publicly feud with Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The screenshot is fake and does not show actual data. Looking the past seven days of data, June…

Was U.S. President Donald Trump's account on X blocked again in the aftermath of the public feud with the platform's owner Elon Musk on June 5, 2025? No, that's not true: The account was still active, as of this writing. The screenshot that resurfaced on social media showed what Trump's account looked like in 2021 - after he had been…

Did Fox News refer to President Donald Trump as "Former president" on their website? Yes, that's true: The phrase appeared in the subheading of a breaking news story about the allegations Elon Musk had been making against Trump. The subheader read "Former president reveals he asked billionaire to leave position after months of tension". It appeared in an article (archived…

Did Donald Trump announce he is imposing a 300% penalty on landlords who raise rents excessively? No, that's not true: No White House news releases or videos corroborate that. The rumor arises from a fake news-style video providing no authentic quotes, links, interviews or other evidence Trump made such a proposal. The claim appeared on a June 3, 2025 TikTok…

Did President Trump delete his June 4, 2025, Truth Social post discussing his phone call Russian President Vladimir Putin? No, that's not true: The post was still visible on Trump's timeline as of 12 p.m. ET on June 5, 2025. Lead Stories confirmed this 22 hours after it was initially posted and 17 hours after the false claim was posted…