White House

Does an image show the White House just "turned all red" and is this cause for a "major alert" somehow? No, that's not true: the photo used in a viral social media post is a screencap from a 2022 video. That footage showed the White House lit in orange to "raise gun violence awareness" on National Gun Violence Awareness Day.…

Was President Donald Trump's son Barron drafted into the military as of June 30, 2025? No, that's not true: According to the Selective Service website, the United States hasn't drafted anyone for more than half a century, as of this writing. Footage presented as a report by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, on the supposed drafting, was fake. The claim originated in…

Did White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt "end up exposing herself on live national TV" after NBC News correspondent Garrett Haake dramatically sought to "correct the record" during a briefing? No, that's not entirely true: In March 2025, Haake did briefly fact-check Leavitt's description of a federal judge as an Obama appointee. However, a widely-shared June 2025 blog post exaggerated…

Does a viral video document U.S. Army soldiers deploying to Iran on June 22, 2025? No, that's not true: The post provides no evidence where those soldiers are going, nor when. No Army deployments have been documented by evidence-based news sites and neither the White House nor Congress have announced U.S. troops will be sent to Iran. The video was…

Does a trending video on social media authentically capture a fight inside a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv, Israel? No, that's not true: What looked like a crowd pushing each other was a scene from another country, Georgia. It depicted the atmosphere on the day of a verdict in a high-profile trial 13 years earlier. The claim appeared in a…

Did the Biden administration approve the permit in June 2024 for a "grand parade" for the Army's 250th birthday? No, that's not true: The parade permit application was submitted in March 2025, more than a month after President Biden left the White House and President Trump's administration began, according to a National Park Service spokesman. The permit application for a…

Does a widely-shared video prove that U.S. military tanks patrolled the streets of Washington, D.C. on June 11, 2025? No, that's not true: The person who recorded it told Lead Stories that the 10-second clip showed an armored vehicle that was in the nation's capital to participate in a military parade on June 14, 2025. That account was consistent with…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump propose a bill that bans all lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, from re-entering the U.S., if they leave? No, that's not true: As of June 11, 2025, Lead Stories found no such bill on the website of Congress. An earlier June 2025 White House proclamation about new travel restrictions did not…

Is Donald Trump's June 2025 mobilization of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles just like President George H.W. Bush's 1992 decision to mobilize the National Guard during riots in Los Angeles? No, that's not true: In 1992, both Gov. Pete Wilson and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley asked the President for National Guard to stop riots in Los…

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…