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 Troll." At the time this fact check was published, that page was managed by "Busta Troll."
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook on January 24, 2025, by a page affiliated with America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) at the time it was shared.
The post featured a text box that read:
Elon Musk has donated $10 million to help J6 families 'jump-start their lives.'
This is how the post appeared on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Tue Jan 28 10:06:20 2025 UTC)
The page that shared the post, America Loves Liberty, is self-described as a "Media" page run by "Busta Troll." A details section reads, "Not nearly the real news for today's conservative," as shown in the screenshot below:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Tue Jan 28 22:21:20 2025 UTC)
According to a status update shared on the page on January 28, 2025, the page was previously "operating under the ALLOD banner," or America's Last Line of Defense umbrella, as shown in the screenshot below:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Tue Jan 28 22:23:29 2025 UTC)
The same text post with different colors was also shared (archived here) by America's Last Line of Defense page on Facebook on January 25, 2026. The page is self-described (archived here) as a "network of trollery" whose "Intro" section reads:
The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery.
Nothing on this page is real.
About ALLOD
America's Last Line of Defense is a network of satire websites started by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair (archived here) from Maine, also known as "Busta Troll," along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. They primarily publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook.
The Facebook pages that are affiliated with ALLOD show disclaimers of satire.
Every site in the network has an "About" page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with 'comedy':sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that omit the satire disclaimer and other hints the stories are fake.
No credible news reporting supports this claim
A Google News keyword search (archived here) of thousands of credible media outlets on January 28, 2025, returned no credible reporting to support Musk's supposed donation. Similarly, a Google keyword search on the same day did not corroborate the $10 million that was said to have been donated to "J6 families." However, several reputable outlets did report that the Tesla founder had donated millions to Republican causes.
Read more
Other Lead Stories fact checks involving Busta Troll can be read here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of the claims that originated from ALLOD websites can be found here.