Inauguration

Does a viral video really show President Trump's Air Force One doing several flyovers of an aircraft carrier to honor the Navy personnel on it? No, that's not true: The video was digitally created by an online artist who goes by the name "Iceman Fox1." Their channel on YouTube says it publishes "Mixed reality digital aviation videos." A copy of…

Did Representative Jasmine Crockett "completely fabricate" the statistic that "80% of the most violent crime are by white supremacists" as a viral post said? No, that's not entirely true: Crockett appears to have badly misquoted a statistic that originated in a 2023 ADL report, altering the meaning. The statistic was about "domestic extremist-related murders" in the United States in 2022,…

Did White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announce on Fox News that tech billionaire Elon Musk left the U.S. after revealing "a secret at-home method that can reverse diabetes for good"? No, none of that is true: Paid ads circulating on Facebook used voice-cloning technology to mimic the speech of public persons. No credible sources reported the purported "news," and…

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 Carrie Underwood win a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against "The View" or did she even sue them? No, that's not true: The story alleging there was a lawsuit involving comments on "The View" about Underwood's performance at President Trump's inauguration was put out by a number of clickbait channels on YouTube, but it was not backed up by any sources…

Is there a public record of a memo showing President Donald Trump prohibited the use of the word "felon" "inside the White House or on White House grounds" as of February 14, 2025? No, that's not true: The White House couldn't confirm the existence of such an announcement when contacted by a Lead Stories reporter. The White House website doesn't…

Is Walmart decreasing its food prices "back to pre-inflation rates" within one month of President Donald Trump's January 20, 2025, inauguration? No, that's not true: Walmart told Lead Stories that this assertion is false. In an email, the company wrote that "this announcement is not accurate." The claim appeared in a post on Facebook on February 3, 2025, (archived here)…

Is the U.S. government spending money on the "National Pillow Fluffing Initiative," the "Bureau of Elevator Music Standards," the "National Velcro Noise Study," the "Program of Ice Cube Uniformity," the "American Cloud Watching Fund," the "Federal Kazoo Orchestra Grant" and the "Federal Bureau of Traffic Cone Counting"? No, that's not true: All these supposed expenses originated in a comedy skit…

Did the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, wear a "Make America Mexicana Again" hat? No, that's not true: A representative from the Embassy of Mexico told Lead Stories the image was "NOT real." A reply under the social media post with the image of Sheinbaum wearing such a hat revealed that a logo of Grok, X's AI tool, had been…

Did Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo impose a 50 percent retaliatory tariff on Tesla cars sold in Mexico, calling Elon Musk "pendejo"? No, that's not true: As of February 4, 2025, Lead Stories found no credible media or government reports confirming that she ever said what social media attributed to her. U.S. President Donald Trump said on February 3, 2025,…