Tesla

Did President Donald Trump publish a post on X offering his "referral link" for a discount on a Tesla purchase? No, that's not true: The image purporting to show the Trump post was made-up. Searches across Trump's account on X and across news reports did not show any evidence he published the supposed offer in question. The claim appeared in…

Did "Democrat NGOs" set fire to Tesla Cybertrucks in Seattle on March 9, 2025? No, that's not true: The Seattle Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives told Lead Stories they are still investigating the overnight fires as of March 10, 2025. There is no evidence provided in a social media post that the fires on…

Did the Trump State Department come up with the idea to order $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles? No, that's not true: The original proposal to buy armored electric vehicles for the State Department came during the Biden administration in April 2024. The $400 million line item was included in a State Department Procurement Forecast Fiscal Year 2025 in…

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 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 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…

Is there evidence that California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered firefighters not to use Starlink modems while battling wildfires in the Los Angeles area in January 2025? No, that's not true: Newsom denied allegations he had ordered the modems to be confiscated in a post on X. Any firefighter who needs a Starlink device can get one through the Los Angeles…

Did Tesla batteries cause the fire at the Monterey, California, power plant on January 16, 2025 or was their presence related to it? No, that's not true: Fire officials said the fire at the Moss Landing facility started inside a building operated by Vistra Energy, not at a nearby Tesla battery storage area. A Vistra Energy spokesperson told Lead Stories…