&Quot;Elon Musk&Quot;

Did White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt kick "The View" host Whoopi Goldberg off the show after "heated clash on Live TV"? No, that's not true: The story narrated in a viral video was likely written by AI, according to online detection tools. As of February 24, 2025, there is no evidence that Goldberg had been fired from the daily…

Did TV monitors inside the HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) headquarters show a loop of an AI-generated video of President Trump licking the feet of Elon Musk for several minutes on February 24, 2025? Yes, that's true: HUD Secretary Scott Turner acknowledged the incident and vowed to fire whoever was responsible for the hack. A major clue the…

Did a viral post stating that the American Federation of Government Employees said that it was "cruel and disrespectful" to have to "justify job duties" accurately summarize the union's statement? No, that's not true: A widely shared post contained only the first part of the quote. In its original post, the union specifically discussed justifying job duties to an "out-of-touch,…

Did President Trump post a meme on Truth Social showing SpongeBob SquarePants making a "Got Done Last Week" list? Yes, that's true: The meme appeared on Trump's Truth Social account on February 23, 2025. It was still on the @realDonaldTrump account at the time of this writing. A screenshot of the post appeared in a post (archived here) on X,…

Does an image shared online in February 2025 show Jonathan Simpson, the pilot of Delta Flight 4819, which crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport? No, that's not true: The person depicted in the image is porn star Johnny Sins, whose image is often used in fake posts. The image featured a Grok AI watermark and, according to an online detection…

Did Elon Musk say millions of people over 140 years old get Social Security benefits? No, that's not true: Musk did post a chart that he said was from the Social Security database, showing age categories up to 189 years old "with the death field set to FALSE!" and he jokingly added, "Maybe Twilight is real and there are a…

Does a viral screenshot show a real X post from Ashley St. Clair talking about conceiving a baby with Elon Musk using "IVF with PGT-M & CRISPR" and saying the "DNA now includes enhancements from other organisms"? No, that's not true: The post did not appear on St. Clair's X account, and it was not indexed by Google. All versions…

Did the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives just discover $2.7 trillion in improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid overseas? No, that's not true: The report of trillions of dollars in improper payments, which accumulated since 2003, was published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in the first half of 2024 -- this was…

Did the Trump State Department come up with the idea to order $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles? No, that's not true: The original proposal to buy armored electric vehicles for the State Department came during the Biden administration in April 2024. The $400 million line item was included in a State Department Procurement Forecast Fiscal Year 2025 in…

Did the U.S. government pay Reuters to engage in "large scale social deception"? No, that's not true: The U.S. Department of Defense paid Thomson Reuters Special Services to provide "software and information services to U.S. government agencies," a statement from the company's CEO said. Thomson Reuters Special Services and Reuters News operate independently of each other. The claim appeared in…