Tariffs

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…

Did Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, say, "Jesus Christ didn't have electricity either and he did just fine" while explaining President Donald Trump's tariff policies? No, that's not true: None of Leavitt's press briefings before the purported quote appeared online included that remark. There is evidence that the supposed quote originated in a joke response from a Reddit…

Did Panama approve waiving the fees for U.S. government vessels passing through the Panama Canal? No, that's not true: The president of Panama denied the claim made by the U.S. State Department account on X. The body that manages the Canal has said that it had "not made any adjustments to these fees." The claim appeared in a post (archived…

Did President Donald Trump sign an executive order on February 3, 2025, announcing the purchase of 2 billion doses of COVID shots from Moderna and Pfizer? No, that's not true: The order established a sovereign wealth fund, a government-owned fund that directs funding from various resources. In a video of the signing, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick recalled purchasing pandemic-era…

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 Canada plan to stop sending energy to the United States in February 2025 because of President Donald Trump's tariffs? No, that's not true: After a call between the two leaders on February 3, 2025, both Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump said separately that tariffs were delayed for 30 days. As of this publication, Canada did not say…

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 President Donald Trump's son Eric Trump post a message on X about the "American Golden Age" and threaten "the gloves are off" to those who "defy" it? No, that's not true: Social media posts that claimed Eric Trump deleted the post "within 20 mins" contained a fake screenshot that had a telltale lower case "k" in the view count.…

Did President-elect Donald Trump post a map of Finland on Truth Social? No, that's not true: A manual review of his account did not show such an entry as of this writing, January 14, 2025. The map in question did not correctly reflect current Finnish borders nor those in the year seen in the image. The claim appeared in a…

Did Canada ban President-elect Donald Trump from entering the country as of November 2024 because of his felony conviction? No, that's not true: A person is only declared inadmissible when they try to cross into the country, and no credible source reported that Trump tried to enter Canada before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited him in Florida. Contrary to…