Fact Check

Does a video show Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, reacting to the $50M bounty announced August 7, 2025 by the US Department of State by challenging the Trump administration to come and get him at the presidential palace? No, that is NOT true. The video shows Maduro giving a speech on July 30th, 2024, after a self-declared victory in the presidential…

Did President Donald Trump announce the clearance of homeless people from all 50 states? No, that's not true: Trump declared on his Truth Social account, "the Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY," in reference to Washington, D.C. He issued an executive order on August 11, 2025, declaring a crime emergency in the District of Columbia. He said his administration had…

Did Tesla remotely deactivate rapper Big Huey's Cybertruck in August 2025? No, that's not true: The company denies it. The screen message, reading "return to dealer", is clear evidence of a hoax, since Teslas are not sold through dealerships. The "cease and desist letter" accompanying the purported deactivation showed an incorrect current title for Tesla's legal counsel. The claim appeared…

Is a photo showing Melania Trump kissing Jeffrey Epstein an authentic image and was it "unseen" until aired by Stephen Colbert? No, that's not true: The photo is not real and it was not shown on an episode of CBS's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." The Hive Moderation AI content detection tool rated the image as 99% fake. The…

Is that viral video of an adult gorilla beating up a crocodile authentic footage of the adult protecting a juvenile gorilla? No, that's not true: Sseveral visual artifacts that are evidence of common shortcomings of video concocted by generative AI. Among them, a white halo around the gorilla's outline, unnatural stiffness of the crocodile, and a fight in mud that…

Has the woman photographed wearing a pink hijab posing next to a swastika been identified as Linda Sarsour, senior advisor of the Zohran for NYC campaign? No, that's not true on two counts. Linda Sarsour is not the senior advisor of the NYC mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani -- the "senior campaign advisor" is Zara Rahim. The photo of the…

Is a video showing a man falling through a hole in a cruise ship waterslide authentic? No, that's not true: The video of a real ABC news report of the Icon of the Seas waterslide accident was edited to add a digitally-created fake clip at the beginning. The original video only shows water flowing from a hole after the man…

Does a video marked "Real Footage" show a bloody attack by a dolphin on a marine park trainer named Jessica Radcliffe? No, that's not true: The video caption and title both say the footage is real, but the account that published it describes its content as "Realistic AI visuals | Viral edits". Several glitches in the scene, such as people…

Did the WNBA issue a requirement mandating all its teams to use safety nets separating the courts from the viewers to protect players from sex toys thrown at them? No, that's not true: The rumor was initially posted by a self-described satire account. The picture from the entry that purportedly showed newly installed nets was digitally manipulated to add them.…

Was Silas Kruger identified as the gunman in the shooting near the Emory University campus? No, that's not true: The gunman, who was killed at the scene, was officially identified as Patrick Joseph White by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation the next day. Before the shooter's identity was made public, internet trolls used the breaking news event to post a…

Did former President George W. Bush refuse to accept the pension benefits for which he is eligible? No, that's not true: A 2016 report from the Congressional Research Service documents Bush accepted pension and benefits. At the time of the report, George W. Bush had already received over eight million dollars in benefits since leaving office. There has been no…

Did Donald Trump Jr. post a meme of President Trump throwing a dildo onto a women's basketball court from the roof of the White House? Yes, that's true. President Donald Trump's son posted the meme August 7, 2025 on his official Instagram account. It combines a real photo of Trump Senior standing on the White House roof with a photo…

Does a video purporting to show an eight-year-old girl asking the court to "severely punish her stepfather" for the murder of her sibling, four-year-old "James Andrew", authentically capture a real-life scene? No, that's not true: The clip was a compilation of unrelated video and photo materials recorded at different times and locations. In reality, the girl's speech addressed the killing…

Does a "Breaking News" video of a church fire document an arson-caused fire at a church in Quebec, Canada? No, that's not true: The fire happened 10 months before the video was posted. Official reports at the time noted a private developer was developing housing on the site and the origin of the fire appeared to be a container next…

Did Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth share a video in which pastors said women should not be allowed to vote? Yes, that's true: Hegseth shared a link to a CNN report that interviewed leaders of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which his own church is a part of. One pastor said he supports the repeal of the 19th amendment…

Did President Donald Trump order background checks on Democrats to be made public, showing cases of assault, domestic violence and insider trading? No, that's not true: The post spreading that Trump rumor and the false list of cases came from a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer and a warning that all the contents of the page are fabricated. The…

Is Roland Beainy, the co-owner of Trump Burger restaurants in Texas, being deported? Here is what we know: A spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency told Lead Stories that ICE officers arrested Beainy on May 16, 2025, and he was placed into immigration proceedings. He was released from custody on bond by an immigration judge while the…

Did three former U.S. presidents -- Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton -- reject Secret Service detail assigned under the Trump administration for being "DEI hires"? No, that's not true: The rumor was first published on a self-described satire website. No professional journalistic organization reported on any such claim. The rumor originated from an article (archived here) published on…

Did a California aquarium collapse, killing 50 people, as was claimed in a viral Instagram reel? No, that's not true: A disaster of that magnitude and novelty would have been a worldwide news story and there is no record of such an event in news publications in or out of California. The Instagram account that posted the video consists of…

Did Barack and Michelle Obama sell their Martha's Vineyard estate to Les Wexner, a money management client of Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true. The home that Wexner purchased on Martha's Vineyard in July 2025 had been rented for Obama summer vacations from 2009 to 2011, while Obama was president. Though they later bought an estate on Martha's Vineyard, that…