United States

Did President Donald Trump post the board of Tesla should approve a new compensation package for Elon Musk, "ASAP" and to get him "P-A-I-D"? No, that's not true: A viral image that showed such a post was fake. The Truth Social post was not found on Trump's account or on a site that archives all his posts. The bogus Trump…

Did widely-shared social media posts accurately show that a Cuban singer who performed a pro-Donald Trump song was Yanet Correa, whose husband was later ordered to be deported by the Trump administration in 2025? No, that's not true: The woman shown singing "I will vote for Donald Trump" was Ana Pinelli Paez. The second woman, shown crying outside a Miami…

Did Dunkin' Donuts' CEO announce in June 2025 that a woke ad campaign cost the company $1 billion, forcing it to backtrack? No, that's not true: The story is fiction and copies the idea, but not the words, of a September 2024 spoof produced by a Facebook page specializing in satirical news stories. No evidence-based news organization has published or…

Did Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian publicly announce his resignation from office as of June 23, 2025? No, that's not true: As of this writing, no such dispatches appeared on websites of credible news outlets. The website of the Iranian president made no such public announcement. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on June 22, 2025.…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris say "If we elect Trump, we will be at war within 6 months" as multiple viral memes claim she did? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available proof she said it. None of the multiple versions of the meme provides the time or place when she is supposed to have said it. Had…

Did a video really show a B2 bomber landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier? No, that's not true: The video, which went viral in the wake of the U.S. bombing Iranian nuclear plants with such planes in June 2025, appeared on a TikTok channel that publishes video game footage. It appeared there months before the strikes on Iran…

Does a viral video document U.S. Army soldiers deploying to Iran on June 22, 2025? No, that's not true: The post provides no evidence where those soldiers are going, nor when. No Army deployments have been documented by evidence-based news sites and neither the White House nor Congress have announced U.S. troops will be sent to Iran. The video was…

Does a video authentically show a lightning strike during a nuclear blast at an Iranian nuclear facility during a U.S. bombing attack on June 22, 2025? No, that's not true: While Lead Stories cannot confirm whether the video is real or AI-generated, the same video was shared online at least two days before the U.S. attack on three nuclear facilities…

Does a trending video authentically capture U.S. President Donald Trump missing the ball on a golf course in 2025, then grabbing it off the ground before anyone notices? No, that's not true: The footage was digitally altered and had the watermark of an Instagtram account with a bio that read "graphic satirist". The original, of Trump striking the ball at…

Did basketball team Indiana Fever sign up Gertrud Schlaghammer to protect star player Caitlin Clark? No, that's not true: The announcement about the "former Olympic Greco Roman wrestling silver medalist and ex-German special forces operative" was posted on a Facebook page dedicated to sports satire. There was no such announcement on the actual Indiana Fever X account, despite the fake…

Did NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace call for the white flag, which signals the final lap of a race, to be banned, in June 2025? No, that's not true: The rumor originated on a Facebook page that publishes sports-related "sports parodies" and "satire". Wallace, who is Black, previously called for NASCAR to ban displays of the Confederate flag at races, which…

Did an X post by podcaster Alec Lace imply the life of Democrats is "at stake" if they vote against Republicans or MAGA? No, that's taken out of context: It originally quoted one of his own posts speculating that the murder of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman was to be blamed on "her base" becoming "unhinged" after she voted a…

Did President Donald Trump threaten, in a TruthSocial post, to "drop Chris Christie" on Iran, in June 2025? No, that's not true: A widely-shared screenshot which appeared to show such a message was, in fact, fake. A search of the president's TruthSocial account yielded no record of his having written those words. The fake post appeared in a June 18,…

Did Paul McCartney give his private jet to a WW2 vet to help the 102-year-old American reunite with his wartime lover? No, that's not true: The text and supporting images in a story making the claim were generated by artificial intelligence tools. There is no documentation that the former Beatle lent his plane to an elderly veteran for a flight…

Did The International Olympic Committee plan a vote on moving the 2028 Games out of Los Angeles? No, that's not true: The meme spreading that news originated on a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer and a warning that all the contents of the page are made up.The owner of the page is known for tricking conservatives into liking and…

Did former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning buy a dog rescue shelter that was about to close? No, that's not true: A viral Facebook post contained no more than fan fiction and an image that appeared to be AI-generated. The page that published it regularly posts similar heartwarming (and fabricated) stories about Manning, along with pictures that appear AI-generated. The story…

Did Disney and Playboy announce in June 2025 that they would be collaborating to produce a special $50 edition of the magazine? No, that's not true: The claim originated on Mouse Trap News, which describes its output as "satire and parody". We found no evidence to suggest that the rumor was even inadvertently true. The claim appeared in a June…

Does a video really show missile-shaped baloons with the slogan "Iran is your problem too!" floating past Radio City Hall in New York? No, that's not true: The video was created by a digital advertising agency named Cracker TLV. They created several other videos using the exact same background scene but with other objects floating past. The video can be…

Did the Biden administration approve the permit in June 2024 for a "grand parade" for the Army's 250th birthday? No, that's not true: The parade permit application was submitted in March 2025, more than a month after President Biden left the White House and President Trump's administration began, according to a National Park Service spokesman. The permit application for a…

Did New Balance publicly cut ties with Simone Biles, ending a $22 million contract after the gymnast criticised activist Riley Gaines in June 2025? No, that's not true: The rumor originated on a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer. Quotes attributed to the footwear brand were fabricated. The claim appeared in a June 10, 2025, post on Facebook (archived here),…