Did President Trump just authorize FCC fines of up to $100 million for media outlets caught spreading lies? No, that's not true: That story originated on a satirical Facebook page. The owner of the page is known for tricking conservatives into liking and sharing made-up content. There were no fact-based news stories about the authorization of the kind of fines described in the post.
The claim appeared in a September 2, 2025 Facebook post (archived here) on the "America's Last Line of Defense" page under the title "It's about time someone held them accountable for their lies." It opened with a photo of Trump with the wording:
Trump authorizes fines up to $100 million for "media misconduct."
"We need to take action to stop the lies."
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken by Lead Stories)
As seen in the screenshot above, the shared image showed a logo of "America's Last Line of Defense" in the middle that reads, "Nothing on this page is real."
The homepage of the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook account (archived here) clearly states, "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propoganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real," as this screenshot shows:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken by Lead Stories)
The page says it is run by "Busta Troll," which is the nickname of Christopher Blair.
Christopher Blair is a self-professed liberal from Maine who, for years, has run networks of websites set up to troll conservatives with made-up news items in order to get them to share his posts. A 2018 BBC profile called Blair "the Godfather of fake news," describing him as "one of the world's most prolific writers of disinformation."
The account is part of a network of satire websites and those pages display satire disclaimers and predominantly 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 without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Blair's stories have been widely copied by spammy, foreign website networks seeking to profit by spamming American conservatives with clickbait headlines.
The claim was picked up by other social media accounts without the America's Last Line of Defense satire logo disclaimer, as this one posted on the @macfeenew X.com account (archived here) shows:
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just authorized FCC fines of up to $100 MILLION for media outlets caught spreading lies.
-- John McAfee 🇺🇸 News (@mcafeenew) September 3, 2025
For years, CNN, MSNBC, and the rest of the fake news cartel thought they could smear, lie, and manipulate without consequence.
That era is OVER. 💥
The media... pic.twitter.com/HdV6OyQfeD
Had Trump authorized such fines, it would have been major news. A Google search (archived here) found no other reports of this claim, only other news reports of Trump and fines not having to do with any he imposed. Similarly, the Yahoo! News index of partner news sites and news services (archived here) showed no legitimate news reports of Trump authorizing the FCC to fine media outlets $100 million.
