Elon Musk

Did Elon Musk leave his son behind while exiting the stage at a January 2025 rally? No, that's not true: A video clip circulating on social media to support this assertion was edited and shortened to suggest Musk left his son behind. Uncut video footage of Musk's exit off-stage shows that he paused, turned around, and waited for his son…

Did tech billionaire and Donald Trump's ally Elon Musk go on X to say that "this country's billionaires are tired of subsidizing everyone else's schools, parks, health care, even food and entertainment"? No, that's not true: Neither his live posts on the supposed publication's date nor archived versions of his account on X showed the purported quote. The picture of…

Did White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt kick "The View" host Whoopi Goldberg off the show after "heated clash on Live TV"? No, that's not true: The story narrated in a viral video was likely written by AI, according to online detection tools. As of February 24, 2025, there is no evidence that Goldberg had been fired from the daily…

Did TV monitors inside the HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) headquarters show a loop of an AI-generated video of President Trump licking the feet of Elon Musk for several minutes on February 24, 2025? Yes, that's true: HUD Secretary Scott Turner acknowledged the incident and vowed to fire whoever was responsible for the hack. A major clue the…

Did a viral post stating that the American Federation of Government Employees said that it was "cruel and disrespectful" to have to "justify job duties" accurately summarize the union's statement? No, that's not true: A widely shared post contained only the first part of the quote. In its original post, the union specifically discussed justifying job duties to an "out-of-touch,…

Did President Trump post a meme on Truth Social showing SpongeBob SquarePants making a "Got Done Last Week" list? Yes, that's true: The meme appeared on Trump's Truth Social account on February 23, 2025. It was still on the @realDonaldTrump account at the time of this writing. A screenshot of the post appeared in a post (archived here) on X,…

Do viral clips circulating on social media prove that AfD is missing on the authentic ballots in the city of Leipzig, Germany? No, that's not true: The publicly available sample ballot still listed AfD the day the claim began to spread. A press release from Leipzig authorities described what the videos showed as "fake ballots" and ruled out printing errors.…

Does an image shared online in February 2025 show Jonathan Simpson, the pilot of Delta Flight 4819, which crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport? No, that's not true: The person depicted in the image is porn star Johnny Sins, whose image is often used in fake posts. The image featured a Grok AI watermark and, according to an online detection…

Did Elon Musk say millions of people over 140 years old get Social Security benefits? No, that's not true: Musk did post a chart that he said was from the Social Security database, showing age categories up to 189 years old "with the death field set to FALSE!" and he jokingly added, "Maybe Twilight is real and there are a…

Does a viral screenshot show a real X post from Ashley St. Clair talking about conceiving a baby with Elon Musk using "IVF with PGT-M & CRISPR" and saying the "DNA now includes enhancements from other organisms"? No, that's not true: The post did not appear on St. Clair's X account, and it was not indexed by Google. All versions…