Trump

Are social media posts claiming that Pope Leo XIV and a long list of celebrities each filed a $50 million lawsuit against a news host for "vicious, calculated defamation" real? No, that's not true: None of the celebrities named in the posts made any such statement. The claims came from a spam operation managed from Vietnam that uses AI-generated Facebook…

Did actor James Woods call President Donald Trump the "most treacherous and truly worthless Republican leader in the history of the party" in May 2026? No, that's not true: The quote never mentions Trump. King's caption adds that context without it being present in Woods' original post. The social media post links to a video from Senate Majority Leader John…

Does a real video show Trump touching and kissing the belly of a man in the middle of an announcement in the Oval Office? No, that's not true: This video has been digitally altered using AI. The video shows the grouping of people who were actually present in the Oval Office, but the scene with the man's belly is fake.…

Does a reputable poll show President Donald Trump has 99% support in Israel? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available poll showing Donald Trump with 99% support in Israel. When Trump made that claim, he did not identify any poll supporting the figure, and Lead Stories was unable to find one either. The claim appeared in a video…

Did police find a male prostitute dead in the Indiana home of Mike Pence? No, that's not true: There is no news reporting of an incident such as this. This false news story originated from a Facebook page that lists its category as "comedian". The story has spread to other social media platforms without the comedy disclaimer. The story originated…

Did the Department of Justice issue a warrant to seize Sen. Adam Schiff's financial records or suspend his passport over alleged U.S. House January 6 Committee cash grifts? No, that's not true: The story originated on a Facebook page known for its satirical content, which carries the warning "Nothing on this page is real." The original image supporting the claim…

Did Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and chairman of Block, join the AI company Anthropic? No, that's not true: There have been no news announcements that Dorsey has joined Anthropic. After the true announcement that Andrej Karpathy, the co-founder of OpenAI, was joining Anthropic, a trend of copycat joke announcements popped up on social media. Among the copycat posts…

Did "Biden body double" AJ Barron flip and cut a deal to testify about acting on behalf of the then-sitting president? No, that's not true: The tale originated from America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD), a network of satire sites. Lead Stories found no record of anyone named AJ Barron publicly claiming to be a Biden body double. The claim…

Are social media posts wishing Pink a happy birthday and showing the musician wearing an anti-Trump T-shirt real? No, that's not true: The images were generated by artificial intelligence tools and distributed by a spam operation managed from Vietnam. The posts, which link to a website that sells T-shirts, falsely claim Pink's birthday is in May, but the singer was…

Does a real photo show former first daughter Sasha Obama wearing a MAGA hat? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence that she was ever photographed wearing a MAGA hat. Evidence shows the image is an altered version of a photograph first published online by a celebrity news agency on July 22, 2025. It also shows signs of…