Elon Musk

Did Elon Musk pay for an ad that aired during the Super Bowl that claimed the U.S. Agency for International Development spent $2 million on German llama racing and other nonsensical spending? No, that's not true: No ads aired during the Super Bowl from Elon Musk about outlandish things the agency was supposedly spending millions of dollars on, including llama…

Did the Canadian government threaten a "100 percent tariff on Tesla" in February 2025? No, that's not true: While the federal government in Ottawa was considering its options, the Department of Finance Canada said," The claim is false." Instead, proposals to impose a 100 percent tax on Teslas came from individual Canadian politicians, not the government itself. The implied claim…

Is a grayscale video of various celebrities wearing a t-shirt featuring a Star of David on a hand giving the finger to Kanye West a real ad? No, that's not true: The AI generated video, set to the tune of Jewish folk song "Hava Nagila", appears to show Scarlett Johansson, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Spielberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Sacha Baron Cohen, David…

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…

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.…

Did a reporter ask House Speaker Mike Johnson during a February 5, 2025, news conference if the politician thought "unelected government officials are dangerous, but unelected billionaires making policy decisions is fine"? No, that's not true: A social media post representing this exchange is fabricated. There is no record of this question-and-answer in a broadcast of the press conference or…

Did CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper appear on Canada's CBC News to endorse a set of "crypto trading secrets" supposedly launched by Elon Musk? No, that's not true: A CNN spokesperson told Lead Stories that a video which appeared to show the endorsement was "fabricated and manipulated." AI detection tool Hive Moderation found the video and audio were likely created…

Did an article accurately report that Elon Musk bought a gift for a child whose mother, a Starbucks cashier, was "struggling to buy a gift for her daughter"? No, that's not true: An article linked in the post that made this claim included an image with clear indications of having been AI generated. Furthermore, this story has been repeated with…

Does an authentic photograph show President Donald Trump posing with Elon Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inside the White House? No, this image is fake: An AI generated image detection tool determined with 98.7 percent likelihood that the image was generated by AI. There is no evidence all three men were together at the White House or in…