2024 Presidential Election

Did Kroger, Food Lion and Publix all announce a 4 percent price cut across the board since Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election? No, that's not true: This post came from a self-described satirical Facebook account. The website attached to this account has a disclaimer that says, "Nothing on this page is real." The claim appeared in a…

Did MSNBC host Rachel Maddow break down crying and run off the set due to the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election? No, that's not true: This post came from a self-described satirical Facebook account. The website attached to this account has a disclaimer that says, "Nothing on this page is real." The post appeared on Facebook on November…

Was the Sephora company "a huge donor" to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign? No, that's not true: Neither the company nor any Sephora employee donated to the Trump campaign or Trump-favored political action committee, according to OpenSecrets.org. The company said in a statement: "Sephora does not make corporate donations to political candidates." Records show some Sephora employees did contribute to Kamala…

Did Fox News report that California Gov. Gavin Newsom will withhold California's $235 billion 2025 federal income tax? No, that's not true: A Fox News spokesperson told Lead Stories that this was not reported on Fox News. Also, the claim originally appeared on an account describing itself as "Raw Unfiltered Parody." The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, commonly known as AOC, delete her pronouns from her account on X shortly after the 2024 election? No, that's not true: It happened months earlier. According to archived copies of the lawmaker's account, pronouns were most likely removed between November 2023 and May 2024. Ocasio-Cortez publicly confirmed that it had happened long before the election. The…

Does a photo show President Joe Biden sporting a red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap during his meeting with incoming President Donald Trump at the White House? No, that's not true: Media coverage of the meeting shows that the two men were wearing different clothing than what's seen in the photo. Online image-analysis tools found substantial evidence that the…

Did McDonald's stock climb 200 percent after Donald Trump made a campaign appearance at one of its franchises? No, that's not true: This comes from a website that regularly publishes fake stories, and the original article was clearly labeled as "satire." McDonald's shares actually dropped after Trump visited one of its restaurants. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Did a viral image of Taylor Swift capture her crying "on live television the moment the race was called for President Trump" in November 2024? No, that's not true: The picture was a screenshot of a Swift interview aired 12 years earlier. In it, Swift was reacting to questions about her personal life, not politics. The claim appeared in a…

Did the Kamala Harris campaign say it could overturn Donald Trump's election victory with a recount? No, that's not true: There is no evidence of any such statement from the Harris campaign, nor evidence of any campaign staff making such a statement. Harris conceded the presidential election to Donald Trump the day after he won a majority of both the…

Did Beyoncé declare she would no longer perform in "red states," meaning states that went for President-elect Donald Trump? No, that's not true: This comes from a website that publishes fake stories about famous people. The site describes itself as satire, and the original article was clearly labeled as satire. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook…