&Quot;Joe Biden&Quot;

Did Wisconsin run out of ballots in Republican-leaning "red areas" on the day of the State Supreme Court election on April 1, 2025? No, that's not true: The shortage affected only the City of Milwaukee, election officials told Lead Stories. In the last three federal elections, the city supported Democratic candidates. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published…

Did actor Richard Gere leave the United States after Donald Trump became president and did he vow "never to return"? No, that's not true: The actor announced the move as far back as April 2024 when Joe Biden was still President and the national conventions still had to happen. The stated reason for the move was that Gere's wife is…

Did President Donald Trump order the Keystone pipeline system "to transport ONLY American Oil"? No, that's not true: The claim came from a site with a satire label that explicitly says "nothing on this page is real". Originating in Canada, the Keystone Pipeline System moves unrefined Canadian petroleum, and some from the U.S. to refineries in the United States. The…

Did President Trump post on Truth Social that he was going to "annexe Alaska" after Greenland, in order to make it the "53rd State" and did he say "the people of Alaska don't want to be part of a backward nation in Canada?" No, that's not true: Viral screenshots of such a post are fake. Trump's actual Truth Social account…

Did President Donald Trump's adviser Alina Habba discover a hidden "fake Oval Office" used by former President Joe Biden? No, that's not true: There is nothing secret or hidden about the constructed Oval Office set. It is the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower building and has been used by multiple presidents, including Trump. Habba implied she discovered the "fake…

Did Donald Trump admit in an Oval Office ceremony on March 7, 2025, that the 2024 election was rigged so that he could become president again? No, that's not true: President Trump was claiming the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden was rigged, not the 2024 election. If he had won in 2020, he would not be president when…

Did the U.S. Justice Department just release the 1998-2004 flight logs for Jeffrey Epstein's Boeing 727? No, that's not true: We've had then since early 2015 and have embedded copies of the flight logs in several Lead Stories fact checks. This reporter investigated allegations of Epstein's abuse of young females as a national correspondent for American Media Inc. in January…

Did the former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, see her net worth increase by $23 million in three years? No, that's not true: Public financial records don't show anything close to that kind of an increase between 2021 and 2024. Based on Lead Stories' calculations, her net worth was essentially in the same range during…

Did the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rule that 84 of President Joe Biden's last-minute pardons were unconstitutional and did the opinion of "Judge Joe Barron" appear on a court website? No, that's not true: The ruling originated on a satirical Facebook page. The owner of the page is known for tricking conservatives into liking and sharing made-up content.…

Did an executive order signed by President Donald Trump reverse "the plastic straw ban"? No, that's not true: No such national "ban" was enacted by Congress. Trump's order counters policies of former President Joe Biden aimed at gradually phasing out single-use plastic items in the future, which affected only the operations of federal agencies. While some localities do have restrictions…