Election

Did Denmark announce a "500% tariff on exports of Ozempic to the USA" in January 2025? No, that's not true: The claim derived from a parody post on LinkedIn that was not labeled as such. There was no such announcement on Danish government websites and no media outlets indexed by Google News reported on any such story. The claim originated…

Did CNN report the January 29, 2025, plane crash in the Washington, D.C., area hours before it occurred? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the news outlet refuted the claim. A Google spokesperson said sometimes the timestamps in search results may be wrong. CNN published and aired the news for the first time roughly 40 minutes after the crash…

Was the helicopter involved in the midair collision near Washington, D.C., on January 29, 2025, a police helicopter? No, that's not true: Local police refuted the claim shortly after the crash. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the helicopter that collided with a civilian plane was operated by the U.S. military. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Is a video of a man failing to buy a sandwich with an EBT card at a Subway restaurant from January 2025 and related to the federal funding freeze announced by the Trump administration that month? No, that's not true: The footage was online at least half a year before the second Trump presidency. As of January 29, 2025, the…

Did Whoopi Goldberg, Megan Rapinoe and Taylor Swift announce they were leaving the United States, presumably after Donald Trump's return as president? 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 review of the social media accounts of Goldberg, Rapinoe…

Did Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, publicly say in January 2025 that he "will leave the USA if the Epstein Client List is released"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no credible reports to support Gates' supposed announced departure. Court materials detailing Jeffrey Epstein's contacts were made public in January 2024. Neither Gates nor any reputable news organization…

Does a collection of still images demonstrate that other politicians have made the same gesture as Elon Musk did at the closing of his speech at President Donald Trump's inauguration rally in 2025? No, that's not true: These photos do show real moments in time, and they are authentic -- but they do not capture the full context in which…

Does a video show an Orange County, California, election worker committing electoral fraud by scanning ballots three times? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the Orange County Registrar of Voters denied the accusation of fraud, saying the video "shows an Orange County election worker scanning a batch of ballots three times, but only saving the batch once." The first…

Does a video show President Donald Trump saying that the 2024 presidential election was rigged with the help of Elon Musk? No, that's not true: In the speech excerpted in the video, Trump's remark about rigging referred to the 2020 presidential election, which he has repeatedly and falsely claimed was not legitimate. In the speech, he made a vague remark…

Does a video show President-elect Donald Trump supporting Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore after his arrest on January 16, 2025? No, that's not true: The video where Trump praises Moore was originally posted on Trump's official Facebook account in late August 2023, predating Moore's arrest by nearly six months. It has nothing to do with Moore's arrest in January 2025.…