Taxes

Does a viral image show a real restaurant bill from Le Club 55 in St. Tropez for 689,235.43 EUR? No, that's not true: It displayed a nonexistent business code and contained math errors. Le Club 55 told Lead Stories that the restaurant doesn't even serve what appeared on the receipt. Four online tools said that the image was generated by…

Did Donald Trump and other world leaders meet with several mysterious red-uniformed entities with long blond hair and pale skin? No, that's not true: There is no reliable reporting or photographic evidence such meetings ever happened or that these uniformed entities are real. Images of meetings between world leaders and aliens appeared on X in a video montage watermarked "Planeta…

Does a viral image show a real Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news report about a poll showing "89% of Canadians believe Donald Trump is to blame for Canada's struggling economy"? No, that's not true: The picture was first published by a satire account. Two online AI detectors suggested that the viral image was generated by AI. The claim originated from a…

Did Fox News post a story with the headline "FLORIDA MAN REFUSES TO PAY TAXES BECAUSE HE DID NOT PERSONALLY APPROVE ANY OF THE SPENDING"? No, that's not true: The Facebook account that originally posted the story is a satire page. It states it is "totally made-up entertainment," where the "stories are just wild enough to almost be real." The…

Oh, joy! It is the most wonderful day of the year (if you are a fact checker)... April Fool's Day is upon us, that day when every outlet, brand, influencer and Internet jokester under the sun tries to come up with something original to fool their audience with. Listing every effort at humor, satire, parody etc. on such a day…

Did Donald Trump announce that people who had cosmetic surgeries would no longer be eligible for any form of government assistance starting in March 2026? No, that's not true:There were no news stories about any such announcement from Trump, despite claims in a viral video. Neither the White House nor Trump's social media accounts showed anything looking like such an…

Is a high-end Seattle store called "Matthew's Haberdashery" moving to Charlotte, North Carolina and selling Seattle-made men's clothes at a discount in a moving sale? No, that's not true: the store never existed, and the website and Facebook page appeared just 39 days before the moving sale was underway. Lead Stories easily found the exact photos from the Matthew's website…

Did Walmart announce that it would shut down 23 "neighborhood markets" locations in New York City due to the "tax system Mamdani has planned"? No, that's not true: As of this writing, Walmart has no stores of any type in New York City. The earlier variations of the claim showed a satire label linking it to the self-professed liberal troll…

Did the New York Stock Exchange react to Zohran Mamdani's victory in the mayoral election by relocating to Texas from its 230-year base on New York City's Wall Street? No, that's not true: Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns and operates the New York Stock Exchange, announced in February, when polls showed Mamdani with a single-digit pool of support, that…

Did President Trump sign into law an income tax exemption for families making less than $120,000? No, that's not true: No such exemption has passed the U.S. House and Senate. There is no such exemption on the official list of laws signed by Trump. The claim appeared in a September 4, 2025 TikTok video (archived here) published by the AppalachianQueen5…