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 video show Iranian jets being shot down over Tel Aviv by an Israeli laser defense system? No, that's not true: There is no evidence from credible sources that such an incident ever took place. An AI detection tool concluded that the video was very likely AI-generated, assigning it a 99.1% confidence score, and the video contains visual…
Does a real video show New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani not applauding at the funeral of Staff Sgt. Angel Rampersad? No, that's not true: The video is AI-generated. It was originally posted with an AI disclaimer. The video has since been republished without the disclaimer. The video was reposted (archived here) on X by @magagrunt1 on Aug. 1, 2026. The…
Did Karoline Leavitt say, "It's hard for President Trump to make key decisions on Iran when he doesn't have enough intelligence"? No, that's not true: The White House press secretary never remarked that Trump "doesn't have enough intelligence." The fake quote was published by a humorist on social media. There are no records of her making the comment on the…
Is a video showing an Iranian ballistic missile attack on a U.S. aircraft carrier real? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Iran hit a U.S. aircraft carrier with ballistic missiles, and no credible news organizations had reported such an incident as of July 24, 2026. Plus, an online AI detection tool concluded that the video was very…
Does a viral video actually document an attack by a giant reptile? No, that's not true: After a visual inspection, Lead Stories found signs of AI-generated content in the video. Three online detectors concluded the clip was between 99 and 99.9% likely made by generative AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) on X where it…
Is this an actual video of the Iranian attack on a base in Jordan used by U.S. forces on July 17, 2026? No, that's not true: There is no evidence the clip depicts an actual attack. An online AI detection tool concluded that the video was likely AI-generated, assigning it an 80.9% confidence score. Additionally, the account that posted the…
Does an image posted by President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account as evidence of "retribution" against Iran show a U.S. bombing in July 2026? No, that's not true: The photo shows a previous attack on Iran by Israel that took place more than a year earlier, on June 15, 2025. Trump got the image from another social media…
Did New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani only put Iran's flag on New York subway trains? No, that's not true: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which serves New York City, Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut, decorated trains to represent each of the 48 countries competing in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Each train features the colors of a competing…
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