Politics

Did President Donald Trump cancel taxes on all overtime starting Monday, March 31, 2025? No, that's not true: The video used in a social media post making the claim is from a September 12, 2024, campaign rally when Trump vowed to make overtime pay exempt from federal taxes if he were elected. As of March 25, 2025, congressional Republicans were…

Did the U.S. State Department deny Dr. Anthony Fauci's passport renewal application in March 2025? No, that's not true: The original source of that claim about the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was an article on a website that describes its own content as "fiction" and "satire." The article attributed quotations to two fictional…

Did a federal judge named Howard Gates have a verbal battles with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2025, culminating in his dramatic courtroom arrest at her behest? No, that's not true: the video, and others like it, were no more than fan fiction and did not describe real events. Lead Stories found no record of a federal judge named…

Does the mugshot of a weeping teenager show identify someone arrested in connection with one of the March, 2025 attacks by vandals on Tesla dealerships and Tesla vehicles? No, that's not true: the mugshot was published nine years earlier. It appeared in 2016 reports about the arrest of Anthony J. Zingale, of Grafton, WI, for alleged sexual assault of a…

Does a viral post prove that 84% of electronic devices spotted at the joint Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rally in Colorado can be definitively linked to Kamala Harris campaign events and protests for other causes? No, that's not true: The post didn't offer a replicable analysis of the data. Two organizations mentioned in it among the supposed sources said…

Was former U.S. president Barack Obama caught "laundering money through the Cayman Islands" for private gain in March 2025, as a social media post claims? No, that's not true: The viral post misrepresented the words of a guest on the Joe Rogan podcast. That person was talking about U.S. government funding of a "Cuban Twitter", not about Obama's direct involvement…

Did basketball coach Dawn Staley reject a $10 million donation from Elon Musk in March 2025? No, that's not true: Neither Musk nor Staley made any public statement about any donation. An AI detector concluded that the text of the story, including bogus quotes, was high likely to have been generated using AI. The story originated in a March 23,…

Does a video clip authentically show DOGE employees breaking into government offices, with one of them saying "ChatGPT could do all your jobs"? No, that's not true: The viral clip was taken from a video from Youtube channel that publishes scripted prank videos. The title of the original video called it a "fake DOGE prank". The clip was uploaded in…

Is "leaked" audio of Vice-President J.D. Vance in which he complains about Elon Musk authentic? No, that's not true: Several AI detection tools and Vance's Communications director both say the audio is fake. The TikTok video where the audio seems to have originated from misspelled Vance's name as "Vence". The oldest copy of the viral audio appears to be this…

Does this photo show a real person described as a "liberal" in some social media posts vandalizing a Cybertruck? No, that's not true: The picture of the half-naked person dressed in weird rainbow colored clothes is ai generated. It originated from an account on X that says it publishes "trustworthy fake news & memes". The image appeared in a post…

Did President Trump unveil a framed copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper hung up behind curtains in the Oval Office to Laura Ingram during a tour? No, that's not true: The footage was digitally manipulated to replace the Declaration of Independence that can be seen in the original video. The edit is visible with the naked eye as the document appears…

Did King Charles III give official notice that he has revoked U.S. independence, effective immediately, will reign as monarch and that "The nincompoop you've elected as President will go to gaol", as social media posts claim? No, that's not true: There was no official statement to that effect from the British monarch. No such statement appeared on Buckingham Palace social…

Did actor James Woods post an authentic copy of a tweet by Congresswoman Maxine Waters in which she misspelled impeach as "inpeach" and confused a urine test with an IQ test, supposedly responding to President Donald Trump calling her "Low IQ Maxine"? No, that's not true: Woods posted to his X account a copy of a fake tweet that was…

Did a CIA document in the unsealed JFK assassination files name British actress Penelope Keith as the lone killer? No, that's not true: The purported investigative document naming Keith as the "lone shooter" cites her work in the BBC TV comedy series "The Good Life," which did not start airing until 1975, at least 10 years after the investigation ended.…

Did Arlington National Cemetery remove Gen. Colin Powell's profile from the cemetery's website in March 2025? A spokesperson for the cemetery told Lead Stories that the cemetery had removed a category relating to African-American service members, but that Powell's profile had been moved to two different sections of the website. Lead Stories confirmed Powell was still present in the sections…

Did Barron Trump post a tweet on X about DOGE auditing the National Cancer Institute because they hadn't found a cure yet after 88+ years of research? No, that's not true: A viral screenshot of such a post appears to have originated on a now deleted X account that did not belong to Barron Trump. According to media reports, Barron…

Did Damon Imani appear on the February 24, 2025 episode of "The View" to verbally spar with co-host Sunny Hostin over the term "Woke", as a social media post seems to show? No, that's not true: Imani has never appeared on ABC's morning show. He is a producer, artist and commentator who creates and publishes digitally altered videos placing himself…

Was a man named Jerce Reyes Barrios, described as a soccer player from Venezuela on social media, deported from the U.S. to El Salvador? The story was reported by ABC News, citing the man's attorney. Filings in U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. spell out Barrios' account. Here is what we know so far. The story appeared in a post…

Did President Donald Trump speak to Fox News about a "Tesla medbed," calling it an "incredible piece of technology"? No, that's not true: Medbeds -- a term for a device that can carry out miraculous healing and age reversal and defy mortality -- do not exist. Footage which appeared to show Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany interviewing Trump on the…

Does this viral video show scenes of protest in Istanbul with "tens of thousands" demonstrating against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan? No, that's not true: The footage dates back to 2024 and is related to a papal visit to East Timor. It has nothing to do with current events in Turkey. The claim about the video appeared in a post on…