Recognizing false claims and fake videos shared on social media is a challenge for U.S. voters as the 2026 midterm elections approach. That is why Lead Stories and several other fact-checking organizations active in North Americal are joining forces in a first-of-its-kind collaboration: a joint newsletter sharing their best election-related work. It features an overview of fact check articles that…
Did Donald Trump refer to the servicemembers deployed at USS Lincoln as "suckers and losers"? No, that's not true: His account on Truth Social didn't show the purported post. Neither an archive of his posts nor credible media reports mentioned the entry in question. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook by a user named "Sharon…
Did President Donald Trump order sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to sign nondisclosure agreements before coming ashore? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the president issued such an order. The claim appears to have originated with a Facebook account that identifies itself as "political parody" and "satire" in its posts and profile description. The claim appeared…
Does a real photo show athletes wearing medals flipping the bird at President Donald Trump's back during the Patriot Games on Aug. 11, 2026, in Geneva, Ohio? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Trump was ever flipped off by the young athletes sitting behind him during the event. The image contains visual inconsistencies commonly associated with AI-generated…
Was the sound of a fart part of a White House event with President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The original recordings of the May 11, 2026, Oval Office meeting didn't feature it. The sound was digitally added in the version of the video shared on social media in early August 2026. The claim appeared in a post on…
Did U.S. President Donald Trump publicly say or write that his predecessor, Joe Biden, "destroyed our country" and now "cancer is destroying him" in August 2026? No, that's not true: Lead Stories did not find evidence that the exact viral quote shared on social media actually belonged to Trump. It did not originate from any of his accounts on social…
Did President Donald Trump file an emergency motion to "stop his own lawsuit against the BBC"? No, that's not true: The president's lawyers asked a U.S. federal judge for a stay of discovery into his finances in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster, which the judge granted on Aug. 6, 2026. Had Trump wanted to stop his…
Did President Donald Trump post an AI-generated image of himself standing between Gen. George Patton and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, with all three men wearing inaccurate uniforms? Yes, that's true: The image appeared on his Truth Social account. An AI detection tool found a SynthID watermark, indicating the image was generated using OpenAI tools. Another concluded that it was very likely…
Is a photo real that shows White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, second lady Usha Vance and Katie Miller, wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, holding their babies as President Donald Trump and his wife Melania look on? There is no evidence that the three women, along with the Trumps, posed for such an image. In…
Does a photo show a real Massachusetts license plate that reads "5TAB 47"? Yes, that's true: The Massachusetts Department of Transportation told Lead Stories that it is "an existing Massachusetts passenger plate," is not a vanity plate and was "randomly assigned." Some people have interpreted "5TAB 47" as "Stab 47," a threat to kill Donald Trump, the 47th president of…
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