Politics

Did a real Grindr outage take place in Dallas during the 2026 Republican National Convention, which began on Sept. 9, 2026? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for Grindr told Lead Stories it had no outages connected to the convention, and its status page did not show any either. The Downdetector website did show an increase in outage reports nationally…

Is Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly dropping his bid for re-election after learning he's lost 40 points in the polls among veterans? No, that's not true: The story is entirely made up. It originated from a network of self-described satire websites that place multiple disclaimers on their content saying that nothing they publish is real. The claim appeared in a post…

Does a viral composite image show the real list of candidates running for office from the Reform UK party? No, that's not true: While some of the people on the list are real Reform UK affiliates, a closer manual examination showed that the collage displayed multiple inconsistencies strongly pointing to AI, including the alleged candidates who either shared the same…

Did a microphone cast an uncanny shadow across the upper lip of Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party? No, that's not true: The image circulating on social media has been altered. The original photo from 2016 shows the microphone, but no shadow on Weidel's face. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by…

Did President Donald Trump post "No more free Niagara Falls for Canada" on his social media accounts? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of such a post. The claim appears to have originated with a fabricated screenshot that shows Trump supposedly threatening to cut off the flow of Niagara Falls to Canada…

Did New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani post on X in September 2025 that he, Mamdani, had an interview with conservative activist Charlie Kirk shortly before his assassination? No, that's not true: At the time, Mamdani hadn't taken office yet and, thus, he didn't have access to the official account of the New York City Mayor on X whose images…

Is the image that President Donald Trump shared of a United States Space Force Service Dress Uniform Next Generation the official uniform for the military branch? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the image shows the new official uniform for the Space Force. New ceremonial dress uniforms were introduced by the Space Force in Aug. 2026 but…

Does a viral image authentically portray Russia's Rossotrudnichestvo agency head Igor Chaika? No, that's not true: the picture was likely altered using AI to make the Russian official look bigger than in the original. Chaika's face and the logo of the Russian government media organization did not match what was seen in the video recorded in the identical settings. The…

Did President Donald Trump defend White House aide Natalie Harp after she posted nuclear codes on Instagram? No, that's not true: The claim originated on a website known for posting satirical news content, and there is no evidence that Harp actually posted nuclear codes on Instagram. No credible news organizations reported such an incident as of Sept. 9, 2026. The…

Did President Donald Trump write a Truth Social post declaring the "Moon a U.S.A. territory," saying it has "rare Moon metals"? No, that's not true: The claim was initially posted with a satire label. Searches across Trump's posts and an archived version of his Truth Social account did not show matches to the image social media users shared with an…

Did Donald Trump post an animated video where he is attacking Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with a hockey stick? No, that's not true: Trump did not post an animated video of him beating Carney with a hockey stick. Trump posted a static cartoon image on his Truth Social account wearing hockey gear and holding a stick while standing over…

Did Norway's prime minister rip apart U.S. President Donald Trump's Nobel Peace Prize letter with red-pen corrections? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre graded and corrected a letter from the American president. Also, while the wording attributed to Trump is correct, the president's communication with Gahr Støre came via text message,…

Does a viral image actually prove that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz posed on camera with Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: The earliest versions of the picture contained an invisible watermark, pointing to Google AI. Case and document numbers visible on early versions of the image did not match any records in the U.S. Department of Justice's Epstein Library. The…

Does a real video show an American carrier on fire after an Iranian missile strike in the Sea of Oman in early September 2026? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that an Iranian missile strike set a U.S. carrier on fire, and no credible news organizations reported such an incident as of Sept. 8, 2026. The video has…

Did President Donald Trump make a real post calling for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate Hunter Biden's cryptocurrency coin? No, that's not true: No record of such a post on Trump's Truth Social account exists. Additionally, there are no credible reports about the supposed statement. The claim was made in a post (archived here) published on X by…

Did President Donald Trump post a photo of himself in a military uniform covered in medals? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of such a post. There are also no credible reports that he shared a photo portraying himself in a military uniform covered in medals. The claim appeared in a post…

Did former U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George say, "Donald Trump absolutely needs to be hospitalized, I'm seriously concerned about his mental state"? No, that's not true: No evidence shows that George ever made such a statement. No credible reports from news organizations or other reliable sources support the claim. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Was a real photo posted on Donald Trump's Truth Social account, showing Robert De Niro posed with a "Trump Is My President" T-shirt? No, that's not true: The image is AI-generated. The Hive Moderation Content Detection tool rated the image 99.5% likely to be AI-generated and the OpenAI Verify tool detected the SynthID watermark indicating the image was made with…

Does a real image show Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wearing workout clothes in her kitchen? No, that's not true: The image is a manipulated screenshot from a video posted to her Instagram account, digitally altered to make her outfit appear as tight-fitting activewear. In the original video, Ocasio-Cortez is wearing a brown sleeveless dress with white polka dots.…

Did a story about House Speaker Mike Johnson moving Texas representative Jasmine Crockett's office into a filing room with no windows come from a real news website? No, that's not true: The rumor was first published by a known trollery network that adds satire labels to each of its pages. No credible media organizations reported the supposed story. The claim…