Politics

Does a viral video show actual incinerators being installed at the "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in Florida? No, that's not true: The footage of large metal containers in the video was recorded in Minnesota in 2024. There are no media reports about incinerators being installed at the time of writing and a DHS spokesperson called the rumor "beyond disgusting".…

Does an image show the White House just "turned all red" and is this cause for a "major alert" somehow? No, that's not true: the photo used in a viral social media post is a screencap from a 2022 video. That footage showed the White House lit in orange to "raise gun violence awareness" on National Gun Violence Awareness Day.…

Did a TikTok video shared widely in July 2025 accurately claim that shackled bodies found in Europe were deportees from the U.S. that ICE had dropped into the ocean from planes? Here's what we know: Lead Stories has so far found no evidence to support that shocking claim. Initial reports in Spain were that police believed the corpses were North…

Did a federal judge in June 2025 give the green light to a $350 million class-action lawsuit against Rep. Nancy Pelosi by 500 January 6th defendants? No, that's not true: The story originated on a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer. A search of news archives showed that the rumor was not even inadvertently accurate. The claim appeared in a…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump write on Truth Social that he regretted taking "advise" from tech billionaire Elon Musk, and affirm that there was no "white genocide" in South Africa? No, that's not true: A screenshot shared widely in July 2025 was digitally edited. An archive of the president's account on Truth Social showed that such a post never existed.…

Was President Donald Trump's son Barron drafted into the military as of June 30, 2025? No, that's not true: According to the Selective Service website, the United States hasn't drafted anyone for more than half a century, as of this writing. Footage presented as a report by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, on the supposed drafting, was fake. The claim originated in…

Did White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt "end up exposing herself on live national TV" after NBC News correspondent Garrett Haake dramatically sought to "correct the record" during a briefing? No, that's not entirely true: In March 2025, Haake did briefly fact-check Leavitt's description of a federal judge as an Obama appointee. However, a widely-shared June 2025 blog post exaggerated…

Did crowds at Glastonbury boo and sing "God Save the King", drowning out a performance by Irish hip-hop group Kneecap, in June 2025? No, that's not true: A widely-shared video used audio from a different source to give the false impression that British festival-goers defied the band's Irish republican and pro-Palestinian messages. In fact, the original clip showed a soundbite…

Did a widely-shared video show a white man at a zoo, arguing with a Black woman over her anti-Donald Trump hat? No, that's not true: The people in the video were simply acting out a scripted scenario. The page that posted the sketch routinely publishes similar scripted scenarios, and is affiliated with Network Media, a company that rents out film…

Did the dissent in a June 2025 U.S. Supreme Court opinion mention a question about breakfast? No, that's not true: What appeared to be a screenshot of an excerpt from the dissent in one of the opinions issued on June 27 was, in fact, no more than a joke. The paragraph alluded to a long-standing internet meme called "The Breakfast…

Did the National Archives announce it would indefinitely restrict access of the general public to its facility in College Park, starting July 7, 2025? Yes, such a notice briefly appeared on the NARA website in connection with then-planned changes in the security protocol. Later, however, NARA's account on X said that the facility would remain open to the general public,…

Did Senator Elissa Slotkin ask Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth where his Bible was when he "banged your Fox producer while married to another woman"? No, that's not true: The quote shared on social media is a made-up meme. The official transcript and a recording of the exchange between Slotkin and Hegseth do not include the purported quote about the Bible…

Did Ali Khameini, Supreme Leader of Iran, post a congratulatory message on X.com, telling New York mayoral primary election winner Zohran Mamdani "Our work has only just begun"? No, that's not true: The owner of the account where the post first appeared followed it up with a comment that reads: "In case it wasn't obvious, I made it up." Khameini's…

Did Disney ban MAGA hats from their theme parks in June 2025? No, that's not true: The claim originated on Mouse Trap News, which describes its output as "satire and parody". We found no evidence to suggest that the rumor was even inadvertently true. The claim appeared in a June 18, 2025, post on Instagram. The embedded video bore the…

Did President Donald Trump post the board of Tesla should approve a new compensation package for Elon Musk, "ASAP" and to get him "P-A-I-D"? No, that's not true: A viral image that showed such a post was fake. The Truth Social post was not found on Trump's account or on a site that archives all his posts. The bogus Trump…

Did widely-shared social media posts accurately show that a Cuban singer who performed a pro-Donald Trump song was Yanet Correa, whose husband was later ordered to be deported by the Trump administration in 2025? No, that's not true: The woman shown singing "I will vote for Donald Trump" was Ana Pinelli Paez. The second woman, shown crying outside a Miami…

Does a viral video document Iranian missiles being made ready for an imminent launch? No, that's not true: It's an AI-generated video. Several visual artifacts call attention to the kinds of inconsistencies and illogical details found in AI images. Also, the missiles shown do not visually match any of the 25 missile systems Iran had as of June, 2025, according…

Did Dunkin' Donuts' CEO announce in June 2025 that a woke ad campaign cost the company $1 billion, forcing it to backtrack? No, that's not true: The story is fiction and copies the idea, but not the words, of a September 2024 spoof produced by a Facebook page specializing in satirical news stories. No evidence-based news organization has published or…

Did Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian publicly announce his resignation from office as of June 23, 2025? No, that's not true: As of this writing, no such dispatches appeared on websites of credible news outlets. The website of the Iranian president made no such public announcement. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on June 22, 2025.…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris say "If we elect Trump, we will be at war within 6 months" as multiple viral memes claim she did? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available proof she said it. None of the multiple versions of the meme provides the time or place when she is supposed to have said it. Had…