Politics

Does a social media post include an authentic photo of former New Mexico Magistrate Judge Joel Cano standing pantsless in flip-flops with Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, the Venezuelan man he is accused of hiding from U.S. immigration officials? No, that's not true: The original image, in which Cano is fully clothed, was included with documents filed March 28, 2025, in federal court…

Does a viral video authentically portray U.S. Vice President JD Vance talking about "parodies" and "accusations" after visiting the Vatican hours before the death of Pope Francis? No, that's not true: The original sound was digitally replaced in the clip. The recording was first published nine months before the pontiff's death. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump show a Fox News host a Trump 2028 hat placed on the wall in the Oval Office? No, that's not true: The viral video was digitally altered. The original Fox News segment showed Trump unveiling the Declaration of Independence. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on April 25, 2025. It…

Did the New York Times fail to mention Nascimento Blair's kidnapping conviction and prison sentence in an April 2025 article about his deportation from the United States to Jamaica? No, that's not true: the authors mentioned the conviction and 15-year sentence in detail, and in several different parts of the article. Blair was convicted of first-degree kidnapping in 2006, released…

Did The Sun publish a video claiming Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle sold Princess Diana's iconic revenge dress to Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska for $2.9 million in April 2025? No, that's not true: There is no such story or video on The Sun's website or social media. The quote from "Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams" in the video was cut…

Did President Trump say in a Truth Social post on April 23, 2025 that he would sign an order to change the name of New Mexico to New America? No, that's not true: The post does not exist on Trump's Truth Social timeline and there is no evidence it ever did. The post includes the claim that the president visited…

Did President Donald Trump hide an acrostic message - spelling out "JD KILL POPE" - in an April 18, 2025 post to his Truth Social account three days before the death of Pope Francis? No, that's not true: The paragraph, marked in red to show a supposed acrostic message, was never posted by Trump's Truth Social account. The counterfeit screenshot…

Did U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi threaten that anyone saying "Fuck Trump" may get "15 years in El Salvador" for doing that? No, that's not true: The viral image with the supposed quote was not an authentic screenshot of Bondi's interview. In the picture circulating on social media, the contents of the lower banner were digitally replaced with a made-up…

Did the Trump Organization begin selling "Trump 2028" baseball hats in April 2025? Yes, that's true: social media posts and photographs accurately depicted a real listing on the website trumpstore.com, which is the the official retail website of the Trump Organization. The hats were listed at a price of $50. The claim that official "Trump 2028" hats had gone on…

Did the account of the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. on X post a cartoon depicting U.S. President Donald Trump as having a tariff-related tantrum? No, that's not true: As of this writing, the account's entries did not include that image. Answering Lead Stories' questions, an embassy spokesperson denied that either its official account on X or any other account…

Did JD Vance's sister take to social media to ask internet trolls to stop saying the Vice President killed Pope Francis? No, that's not true: The video is one of a series by comedian Blair Erskine in which she has played roles such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's baby sitter and a Trump voter waiting in the cold for a…

Did the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 in April 2025? No, that's not true: We found no mention of any such approval on the website of the FDA or Department of Health and Human Services, or on either entity's social media accounts. An FDA guide stipulating that the agency did not recommend ivermectin…

Did now-retired soccer player Megan Rapinoe lose her job at ESPN after one day in April 2025? No, that's not true: The story originated from a network known for publishing made-up stories with satire labels. As of April 23, 2025, no credible sources had reported Rapinoe was fired. The claim originated from an article (archived here) on the Dunning-Kruger Times…

Did Tom Cruise mock Nicholas Riccio, husband of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, at an awards ceremony in Los Angeles in 2025, and did Leavitt and Riccio publicly expose Cruise on stage? No, that's not true: A YouTube video recounting the story was no more than fantasy fiction. We found no record of any such incident at any awards…

Did the U.K. newspaper The Guardian publish an opinion column withe the headline "The next Pope must be Muslim or there will be violence on the streets of Europe" by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, in April 2025? No, that's not true: A screenshot that appeared to show such an article was originally published by an account on X that says it publishes…

If the 2025 draft of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act is enacted, will 69 million married American women be unable to vote without getting a new official ID, as opponents have said on social media? The bill aims to prevent non-citizens from voting by requiring in-person registration with citizenship and ID documents in hand. SAVE Act sponsors say…

Did Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene post that "evil is being defeated", shortly after the death of Pope Francis was announced on April 21, 2025? Yes, that's true: Screenshots of the X post were shared widely online, especially among those critical of what they interpreted as a celebratory reference to the death of the pontiff. The Georgia Congresswoman also wrote that…

Was U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's sister charged in the city of Yonkers in New York in April 2025 in connection with a supposed attack on a Tesla dealership? No, that's not true: She has no sister. The claim originated from a source known for spreading made-up stories. It was first published by an account with a satire label. The claim…

Did authentic security camera footage show U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer kissing Waheed Alli, a television entrepreneur and prominent supporter of the governing Labour Party? No, that's not true: The video, which was shared widely in April 2025, was clearly fake, and likely a product of generative AI. The clip contained several tell-tale glitches typical of AI-generated videos. The video…

Did President Donald Trump post a "Happy Easter" message to social media in which he attacked "Radical Left Lunatics," "WEAK and INEFFECTIVE judges", and former president Joe Biden? Yes, that's true: Widely shared screenshots of the post were authentic, and taken from Trump's April 20, 2025 post on Truth Social. Trump mentioned MS-13 gang members, and described Biden as a…