Fact Check

Did FBI Director Kash Patel declassify records detailing Hillary Clinton's and Vladimir Putin's ties to the 'James Comey Scandal'? No, that's not true: The viral rumor originated from a comedian's page. Neither the FBI nor credible media organizations said anything about the purported "trove" of "intelligence documents". The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on July…

Did a widely-shared video authentically show Liberian President Joseph Boakai attacking the "racially prejudiced attitude" of his American counterpart Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The video included fake audio, likely the product of AI. The underlying footage of Boakai was in fact recorded in 2017. The video appeared in a July 10, 2025, post on TikTok (archived here) with…

Did a widely-shared video show a real Mexican soldier speaking to camera and saying "We're to help the people of Texas"? No, that's not true: The clip was produced using AI. The video contained telltale glitches such as the soldier's name badge reading "MEXICIO" instead of his name, and a small watermark in the corner of the video signified that…

Do viral photos really show a father with Down syndrome named Ben and his son Noah? No, that's not true: According to several detection tools the images were generated using artificial intelligence. Several variations of the pictures are making the rounds, but none of the ones reviewed by Lead Stories are real. An example of such an image could be…

Did X Engineering post that "bookmarks will be public for accounts that are not subscribed to X Premium" starting next week? No, that's not true: A falsified screenshot showed such a post made on July 10, 2025 but in reality it did not appear on the account. The faked screenshot originally appeared on a parody account on X. The faked…

Did Barack Obama spend 310 days, working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the White House running the country in 2024? No, that's not true: The meme spreading that claim originated on a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer and a warning that all the contents of the page are made up. The owner of the page is known…

Did President Donald Trump post a 435-word tirade about the public's interest in the canceled investigation into the clients of the dead child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: There have been no genuine Trump posts about Epstein on Truth Social since January 2024. The mock-up using Trump's Truth Social profile image was posted by a self-described humor…

Did U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren suggest that Mollie Tibbetts' family has "to remember we need to focus on real problems like illegal immigrants not being able to see their kids"? No, that's not true: The viral meme distorted Warren's 2018 comments on the case in which an undocumented worker was charged and later convicted of the 20-year-old woman's murder. During…

Did Democratic nominee and then-sitting Vice President Kamala Harris get 68 million votes in 2024? No, that's not true: In reality, she got more than 75 million, according to data on the Federal Election Commission website. That's fewer than Joe Biden's 2020 total of 81 million, but 7 million more than is claimed by a viral meme. The claim appeared…

Did President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post, ask the public to "focus on Mexicans and flooding" rather than whether he is "all over the Epstein files"? No, that's not true: A widely-shared screenshot which appeared to show such a message was, in fact, fake. A search of the president's TruthSocial account yielded no record of his having written…

Did a widely-shared X post about forgiving President Donald Trump "even if he rapes women and children" come from a real person named "Brad T. Faciti"? No, that's not true: The X account (@BadFaithAct) appears to be a trolling campaign that posts political satire. The profile picture appears to be AI-generated, and the profile contains a link to an AI…

Did Sky News publish a headline that read "Ice agents quitting in droves due to low morale, doxxing fears"? No, that's not true: The headline did not appear on the website of Sky News at the time of writing. It appears to have originated as a meme from the "South Dakota Department of Propaganda", a website with a satire disclaimer.…

Did Hillary Clinton tweet "WHAT THE FUCK???" in response to a Democratic Party tweet calling for the release of the Epstein files? No, that's not true: The Democrat.org tweet is real, but there is no evidence that the former secretary of state posted a reply. A search of Clinton's X account failed to find any usage of the F-word in…

Does a viral video show Israeli soldiers celebrating the 2024 release of comrades who had been detained in connection with charges that nine soldiers had raped a Palestinian at a desert prison camp? No, that's not true: The video was first posted to X on November 10, 2023 and depicts a rowdy party unrelated to the Sde Teiman camp rape…

Did a Texas city require residents to sign an "Israel loyalty pledge" in order to be eligible to get relief funds after deadly floods in 2025? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that any Texas town or county impacted by the deadly flooding of July 2025 established any such loyalty pledge. The meme making the claim did not…

Were the parents of Rep. Ilhan Omar ordered into immigration court to answer allegations that they falsified records to make them eligible for refugee status? No, that's not true: The meme spreading that claim originated on a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer and a warning that all the contents of the page are made up. The owner of the…

Did Italy withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, following the path of the United States? No, that's not true: As of this writing, the most recent version of the document, updated July 9, 2025, still names Italy as one of the treaty's participants. Neither the authorities nor credible media organizations reported the purported withdrawal. The claim appeared in a post…

Did a reporter ask President Donald Trump whether he would self-deport, in light of his plan to end birthright citizenship? No, that's not true: A viral video on TikTok fabricated quotes from an unnamed reporter. A clip of Trump saying "Don't ask me questions like that" was actually recorded in 2016, and had to do with his stance on abortion.…

Did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say she has "no reason" to cooperate with federal auditors? No, that's not true: The story originated on a Facebook page with a "Satire" disclaimer. The fake quote was part of a years-long series of fictional stories posted as rage bait by a liberal troll to generate traffic when conservatives comment on and repost fake articles that…

Does a video shared on social platforms show Greta Thunberg dancing to Madonna's "La Isla Bonita"? No, that's not true: A reverse image search revealed the video was created by a group of Ukrainian video makers known as Cucumber Mafia. The dancing woman does not look like Thunberg and appears to be much older than twenty-two, which was Thunberg's age…