Fact Check

Does a viral clip show authentic archival footage of U.S. President Ronald Reagan telling a story about his conversation with a child who wanted to solve homelessness? No, that's not true: Two AI detectors found that the clip utilized AI generated sound. The video recycled the recording of Reagan's last presidential address from the Oval Office, but in reality, he…

Did President Donald Trump cancel 20 truckloads of food en route to Ohio food banks and throw it away rather than give it to needy people? No, that's not true: While the U.S. Department of Agriculture in March of 2025 cut federal funding for local food purchased for food banks and schools, there is no evidence this required fresh food…

Did President Trump post a message to Truth Social about denaturalizing and deporting dual citizens as "traitors" under the espionage act? No, that's not true: A viral image purporting to be a screenshot of such a post was fabricated. The post did not appear on Trump's account. An example of the image appeared in a post on X (archived here)…

Did a March 2025 video demonstrate that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had issued an arrest warrant for 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton? No, that's not true: the video included two clips of Bondi mentioning the Clinton email controversy, but nothing to support a title which declared "Pam Bondi ISSUES ARREST WARRANT for Hillary Clinton." The Justice Department made…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump write "I am ending all the tariffs today against China, Canada and Mexico" in an April 1, 2025, post on Truth Social? No, that's not true: A screenshot shared by users on other social media platforms was fake. Trump has marked April 2 as a day on which his administration will roll out new tariffs.…

Is "leaked" audio of Elon Musk telling President Donald Trump that "Tesla is going down" authentic? No, that's not true: Five tests included in the University at Buffalo Media Forensic Lab's Deepfake-O-Meter rated probability that the audio file is AI-generated at between 97.8 to 100 percent. The posts promoting the audio as real do not include any supporting evidence. The…

Does video of a syringe with a retracting needle prove that "the elites" faked receiving vaccinations? No, that's not true: It is generic footage demonstrating the use of a prop syringe for use on stage or during filming. It did not document any high-profile individual using the dummy syringe to avoid vaccination. Entries on social media sharing the video in…

Did wrestler Dwayne Johnson, also known as The Rock, threaten to "punch" Elon Musk on X in March 2025, if the tech billionaire "doesn't leave America alone"? No, that's not true: A review of Johnson's posts doesn't confirm he ever published what was attributed to him. The claim originated from an obscure clickbait website whose disclaimer said that it "assumes…

Did a series of Facebook posts in late March 2025 offer genuine concern over Blasia Lackey, a teenager supposedly missing from various locations in the United States? No, that's not true: Such posts were examples of a known "bait-and-switch" scam, which garnered well-meaning shares of the original post before flipping its content to boost dubious real estate and marketing promotions.…

Did commentator Ben Shapiro criticize the work of American painter Georgia O'Keeffe for "not looking like anything"? No, that's not true: quotations attributed to Shapiro actually originated in a 2021 article by the self-described satire website The Hard Times, and were re-shared again in March 2025. Similarly, Shapiro never posted a video to YouTube with the title "Ben Shapiro DESTROYS…

Did United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer post on social media about the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on March 30, 2025, but fail to post about Mother's Day on the same day? No, that's not true: Starmer posted about Mother's Day on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. He also wished Muslims a blessed Eid-al-Fitr, the festival which marks the end…

Did basketball star Caitlin Clark reject a "$15 Million Offer" from Elon Musk? No, that's not true: Musk did not make the public statement the story said he did. It also contained several phrases from almost identical false stories about Dawn Staley and Patrick Mahomes that went viral earlier this month. Viral claims on social media were often accompanied by…

Did Laila Ali lose her life while giving birth in a Canadian hospital in March 2025? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the 47-year-old former world boxing champ and daughter of boxing great Muhammad Ali was pregnant in March 2025 or that she died while birthing a child. Ali posted a video on March 30, 2025, to…

Did Fox News report singer Arnel Pineda had been sentenced to life imprisonment? No, that's not true: The viral video with a misspelled title claiming the lead vocalist of Journey was sentenced to "life inprisonment" was never broadcast by Fox News. No other media have reported on the alleged news either. A viral video (archived here) published on March 25,…

Did Karoline Leavitt, Barron Trump, Patrick Mahomes, Dawn Staley, Connor McDavid and many others all surprise a high school janitor with an SUV for his long years of service? No, that's not true: Several clickbait sites use pictures of unrelated janitors and names of famous people to trick people into liking and sharing a story with fake details. Many of…

Has actor Will Smith died as of March 25, 2025? No, that's not true: Smith appeared alive in Philadelphia to celebrate the naming of a street in his childhood neighborhood "Will Smith Way" on March 26, 2025. A social media post on a Facebook group page created just a day earlier included a photo from an unrelated 2022 car crash…

Did actor Richard Gere leave the United States after Donald Trump became president and did he vow "never to return"? No, that's not true: The actor announced the move as far back as April 2024 when Joe Biden was still President and the national conventions still had to happen. The stated reason for the move was that Gere's wife is…

Did a viral video capture a motorist hitting a pedestrian after a road rage incident with a Tesla driver? No, that's not true: The driver who seems to have hit a pedestrian had been yelling at someone driving next to them in a non-Tesla pickup truck. Neither the sound in the video nor the original description of the clip mentions…

Does a "loophole in U.S. law" legally grant permission to noncitizens to vote in federal elections if they believe they are U.S. citizens? No, that's not true: A professor specializing in election law told Lead Stories that what was referred to on social media as a "loophole" described such a narrow exception that "it's hard to imagine whom it might…

Does an image authentically show a person with blue hair writing "fascist" on a Tesla Cybertruck? No, that's not true: The picture of the half-naked person is AI generated. It originated in a post from an account on X that says it publishes "trustworthy fake news & memes". The image originally appeared in a post on X (archived here) published…