Elon Musk

Did Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo impose a 50 percent retaliatory tariff on Tesla cars sold in Mexico, calling Elon Musk "pendejo"? No, that's not true: As of February 4, 2025, Lead Stories found no credible media or government reports confirming that she ever said what social media attributed to her. U.S. President Donald Trump said on February 3, 2025,…

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…

Did Elon Musk say two Boeing Starliner astronauts died in space, as a social media post implies? No, that's not true: Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were shown conducting a spacewalk nearly a month after the post -- and there's no record of Musk ever having made the statements attributed to him in the social media post. On February…

Did ICE announce it was pausing a hotline to report undocumented immigrants because 90 percent of the calls were people reporting Elon Musk? No, that's not true: That claim originated on a satirical X account named "The Halfway Post." The ICE website still lists the number 1-866-DHS-2-ICE to "report suspicious activity," and it currently shows no statements or news releases…

Did Elon Musk decide to withdraw support for the World Boxing Organization unless Imane Khelif's medal and $25 million bonus are revoked? No, that's not true: The article cited in the comments of a social media post making this claim did not offer any quotes or sources to confirm this. A search on X for an announcement by Musk did…

Does an old photo show Elon Musk's grandfather Joshua Haldeman standing in front of the office of Technocracy Inc. in Canada? No, that's not true: The black-and-white image shows Howard Scott, an American engineer who founded the technocracy movement in 1933, according to reverse image search results. Haldeman's obituary says he was a chiropractor in Canada. The claim appeared as…

Did Elon Musk publicly donate $10 million to help the families of January 6 participants "jump-start their lives," as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: The post was published by a page affiliated with America's Last Line of Defense, a network of satire websites run by a self-professed liberal troll who uses various made-up names including "Busta…

Does Elon Musk not "do" patents as claimed in a Facebook post by NeuroVigil chairman and CEO Philip Low? No, that's not true in at least several documented cases: a search of the U.S. patent office website showed 14 patent documents with Musk's name on them. Several of the documents also listed the names of other people as inventors, alongside…

Is a photo of a swastika spray-painted on a Tesla car in Austria related to current events involving Elon Musk in 2025? No, that's not true, the photo has been online since at least 2023. It showed just one car out of 19 that were damaged in a Vienna vandalism incident that involved several non-Tesla vehicles as well. The picture…

Did Elon Musk promise a "major shake-up" at MSNBC, vowing to fire host Joy Reid, as a social media post said? No, that's not true: This first appeared in an article on a website with a satire disclaimer that's known for publishing fabricated content. The post's caption also identifies its content as "RATED SATIRE." The claim appeared in a post…