Politics

Did President Donald Trump post a Truth Social message that included: 'What part of "LEAVE THE REFINERIES ALONE!" did Volodymyr Zelenskyy not understand?' No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of the post. No established news outlets reported that his account shared the message at the time of publication. The claim appeared in…

Is U.S. Vice President JD Vance scheduled to meet Pope Leo XIV after the pontiff's surgery, as of Oct. 16, 2026? No, that's not true: The story originated as a joke from a self-described satire account. Neither Vance's official accounts nor established news outlets carried any announcement of such a visit. The claim initially appeared in a post (archived here)…

Does a viral video of ships closely grouped together in a body of water actually show the Strait of Hormuz in the fall of 2026? No, that's not true: A topographic analysis matched the distinctive coastline in the video to the area around Chittagong, Bangladesh, a busy port regularly drawing large groups of vessels. Stock photos from established image databases…

Does a real photo show the moment a woman wearing a "Release the Epstein files" shirt was punched by Trump supporters? No, that's not true: Two online tools concluded the image was created using AI. However, it closely resembles a real-life incident at an October 2026 Trump rally in Youngstown, Ohio, but the woman shown in news photos of that…

Does a real video show a woman shooting robbers from her car? No, that's not true: The clip appears to be a digital recreation of a June 2021 road rage incident in South Florida in which a man driving one car opened fire on another. The video and others like it digitally swap one person's likeness for another's, but the…

Did President Donald Trump accuse Ukraine of midterm election interference after Russian bot farm strikes? No, that's not true: The story originated on The Betoota Advocate, an Australian satirical news website. There is no evidence that Trump ever made such an accusation or issued a statement matching the claim, and no media coverage supports it. The claim appeared in an…

Did Donald Trump actually post a reply to 'Peter Girnus' who previously pretended to be a member of the Nobel Committee? No, that's not true: The screenshot displayed the wrong handle for Trump's Truth Social account -- @notRealDonaldTrump instead of @realDonaldTrump. Neither a search of his Truth Social account nor an archive of his posts showed any such reply. The…

Did President Donald Trump post a video montage showing real lion and tiger attacks on people to Truth Social? No, that's not true: He posted a montage of five clips, of which three were AI-generated, on Oct. 13, 2026. Of the remaining two clips in the montage, one shows a documented 2018 incident and the other, dating back to at…

Does a real photo show then-President George W. Bush, then-Vice President Dick Cheney, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Osama bin Laden sitting together? No, that's not true: The image is an edited version of a photo taken at the Pentagon on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the 9/11 attacks. Osama bin Laden was edited into the original photo,…

Was a post about how the Nobel Peace Prize committee rejected Trump's bid written by a Nobel committee member? No, that's not true: The author, Peter Girnus, is not listed among the five members of the 2026 Norwegian Nobel Committee. He is a social media content creator who describes himself as a "satirist." His posts typically use a boastful style,…

Is time-stamped surveillance camera footage from James Talarico's house real? No, that's not true: The image is AI-generated, according to analysis by online detection tools. One tool assessed the image as 99.9% "Likely to be AI-generated," while another indicated it was created using OpenAI tools. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @RheinAmacher account on X on…

Is there evidence Jared Kushner, a businessman, U.S. special envoy for peace and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, was one of the people who recently bought .si domain names? No, that's not true: there is no evidence that Kushner recently acquired any .si domain names, which use Slovenia's country-code top-level domain. Affinity Partners, Kushner's investment firm, told Lead Stories that "Jared…

Did President Donald Trump's Truth Social account post a 503 "Service Unavailable" error referencing Yandex? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of the post, and no established news outlets reported that his account shared the error message at the time of publication. The fake post appeared to have originated from a political…

Did "The Simpsons" predict that President Donald Trump would take a picture with a glowing orb? No, that's not true: The image is from a short posted to the official Facebook account of "The Simpsons" after the real picture of Trump was taken. This "prediction" has been debunked since 2017. The claim was made in a post (archived here) by…

Do real photos show Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wearing a bunny costume or an off-the-shoulder cocktail dress? No, that's not true: Hive Moderation found all of the images highly likely to be AI-generated. Searches with Google Lens did not find any copies of these images originating from a verified source. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @cryptocyberia…

Did "South Park" tease an episode featuring Susan Dell and did she rage in response? No, that's not true: The image of Dell appearing with the characters from the TV show is AI-generated and was made by a digital creator. Neither the show nor Dell had posted any messages about such an episode at the time of writing. The claim…

Was an email to Jeffrey Epstein in the Epstein files ending in "Love ya" written by Marco Rubio? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Rubio wrote the email, whose "From" field and signature section are redacted. No authentic photos or official records link Rubio to the Epstein files or establish an association between him and Epstein. The…

Does a recording released on social media prove Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was treated at an Ohio mental health facility? Here is what we know: The facility released a statement saying that Talarico "has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope." Talarico posted a message on X saying that he has never been to Ohio. Talarico's campaign released…

Does a real video show the moment a Houthi missile hit a Saudia airliner parked near an airport terminal in Riyadh? No, that's not true: A Saudia airliner really was destroyed in attacks at the King Khalid International Airport on Oct. 8, 2026, but the footage of the missile blowing the plane apart is fabricated. Real photos and videos do…

Does a video show a Muslim passenger being removed from a Southwest Airlines plane after threatening to blow up a Nashville-to-Fort Lauderdale flight in early October 2026? No, that's not true: The video is from more than seven months earlier, on March 6, 2026, when the flight was diverted to Atlanta to "respond to a possible security matter," which was…