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Did Elon Musk spend $40 million on Super Bowl ads that listed all the corruption the Department of Government Efficiency has found so far? No, that's not true: There was no credible evidence supporting the assertion that Musk bought five 30-second ads for the February 9, 2025, Super Bowl about the "corruptions DOGE has found so far." No ads aired…

Did the Federal Emergency Management Agency fraudulently send $59 million to luxury hotels in New York City to "house illegal migrants"? It's complicated: A New York City Hall spokesperson told Lead Stories that New York "never paid luxury-hotel rates" and that about a third of the $59 million -- around $19 million -- covered "direct hotel costs." A Department of…

Does a video on TikTok authentically show a patient denied health care by a black female doctor because the man is wearing a MAGA hat? No, that's not true: The video appears to be a mirrored version of a video that originally appeared on a TikTok channel along with other skits. In a second version of the video the "doctor"…

Did Katherine Long, the reporter who broke a news story about the resignation of a DOGE employee work for USAID when the story was published in February 2025? No, that's not true: The reporter in question was previously employed by an organization that worked with USAID. At the time of this publication, Long was writing for the Wall Street Journal.…

Is there evidence the Coca-Cola Company called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on their own workers in Texas and did several of them get deported as a result? No, that's not true: Online posts and videos making this claim lack details about the concrete place and time this supposedly happened and they offer up differing versions of events. A…

Did Elon Musk say that the U.S. Agency for International Development is "one of the biggest globalist terror organizations in history"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that he publicly said that. However, Musk did call the organization "criminal." The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on February 4, 2025. It read: Elon Musk has…

Did E! News report USAID paid celebrities like Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Orlando Bloom or Jean-Claude Van Damme millions of dollars to visit President Zelenskyy in Ukraine? No, that's not true: E! News told Lead Stories the video is "not authentic" and did not originate with them. Stiller denied he received any USAID money, posting on X that…

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…

Was Samuel Hydén (or Sam Hyde) the perpetrator of a school shooting in Örebro, Sweden, on February 4, 2025? No, that's not true: Comedian Sam Hyde is often named as the perpetrator by internet trolls whenever a mass-casualty incident happens. It is a bizarre in-joke that has been going on for years, often using variations of his name to make…

Did Elon Musk post he found out at DOGE that the Pentagon spent $600 million per year on sushi, the Air Force $1,280 per paper coffee cup and the IRS $230k per month on "Starbucks Cinammon Roast K Cups"? No, that's not true: Those claims originated on a parody account that pretended to be Elon Musk. The account was literally…