In 100 Days, 20 False Claims About Trump Drew 134 Million Views
PLUS: You Won’t Be Sent to El Salvador for Cursing at Trump; Doctored Photo Shows Many Blue Suits at Pope’s Funeral
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In today’s edition:
During the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, Donald Trump was the focus of 20 viral false claims that received more than 134 million views and that ranged from the wonky to the zany, a NewsGuard review found. Most of the falsehoods about Trump, it turns out, were pushed by his own supporters.
Also, in the latest example of satire taking on a life of its own, a comedian claimed that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that anyone who says “F--- Trump” would be sent to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Bondi said no such thing, but that didn’t stop many social media users from reacting in outrage.
Finally, after Trump drew criticism for wearing a blue suit to Pope Francis’ black-suit funeral, social media users shared a photo showing that many men at the funeral were dressed the same way. But some pictures are not worth 1,000 words.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Sofia Rubinson and Eric Effron.
1. 100 Days, 134 Million Views of False Claims About Trump
NewsGuard has identified 20 false claims about President Trump during the launch of his second administration — most of them pushed by his supporters
As the second Trump administration hits its 100-day mark on April 29, NewsGuard has identified 20 false claims about Donald Trump that have gone viral, collectively accumulating at least 134.5 views and 3.8 million likes across multiple social platforms.
A NewsGuard analysis of the 20 false claims found that they range from the bizarre — such as the claim that Trump cut off former President Barack Obama from receiving royalties for the name “Obamacare” — to the policy-oriented, such as the claim that Trump canceled taxes on overtime pay.
The origins and the motivation behind the claims were similarly varied, with some deriving from pro-Kremlin influence campaigns, others from satirical websites, and others from TikTok “engagement farms” looking for clicks.
Most of the falsehoods relating to Trump (14) were largely circulated by pro-Trump social media users, who typically cited the false claim as evidence of Trump’s support for the middle class. For example, the claim that Trump eliminated taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits was pushed by a number of conservative influencers and one member of Congress, Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna, who wrote on Feb. 26, “Congratulations America, tonight we finally put an end to tax on tips and tax on overtime!” It collectively generated more than 18.7 million views and 302,400 likes across social platforms. Rep. Luna’s office did not respond to a NewsGuard email requesting comment.
Other claims pushed by pro-Trump partisans included that Trump raised the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour and that he shortened the standard workweek to 32 hours. Together, these two claims amassed at least 14.7 million views and 426,500 likes on TikTok and X, primarily boosted by TikTok “engagement farms” — a practice in which users seek to attract views with short videos using AI-generated voiceovers.
NewsGuard traced two elaborate falsehoods that spread through fabricated videos to Russia’s “Matryoshka” influence campaign — a pro-Kremlin network that disguises disinformation as originating from legitimate news sources, as previously reported in Reality Check. These videos respectively falsely claimed that Trump imposed tariffs on uninhabited islands because Ukrainian oligarchs registered companies there to embezzle U.S. military funds and that the Trump administration banned the use of all pro-Ukrainian slogans.
Two of the 20 claims originated from satirical sources that were intended to dupe conservatives, and they apparently succeeded.
The satirical Facebook page “America’s Last Line of Defense” ran an article claiming that under Trump, FEMA shifted $2 billion that the Biden administration had allocated for migrant relief to hurricane recovery aid instead. The group states on its About page that “Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined.” Yet, a conservative X user @MilaLovesJoe issued a post stating, “FEMA said they were out of money and couldn’t help North Carolins. Today Trump moved $2 billion from money used to support illegals to the people of North Carolina.” The post received 1.6 million views and 115,000 likes.
America’s Last Line of Defense also runs a satire site called The Dunning-Kruger Times, which published an article stating that the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency had blocked royalty payments to former President Barack Obama for the name “Obamacare.” Proponents of this claim cited a “little-known clause” in the fine print of the 2010 healthcare law that guaranteed Obama $2.6 million annual royalty payments.
Together, these claims received at least 2.4 million views and 177,500 likes in posts that did not acknowledge their satirical origin.
On the other side of the political divide, the most viral negative false claim about Trump stated that he froze federal student aid and food assistance programs. The Trump administration has not halted federal student loans or food aid. Nonetheless, the claim amassed over 8.3 million views and 148,000 likes on X and Bluesky.
Trump detractors also pushed the false claim that Trump fired 3,000 air traffic controllers one week before a deadly airplane-helicopter crash near Washington in January 2025, garnering 5 million views and 64,000 likes. Thousands of federal workers were laid off during the first weeks of Trump’s second term, but air traffic controllers were not among them.
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2. No, Pam Bondi Did Not Threaten People Who Slur Trump with 15 Years in El Salvador Jail
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Liberal social media users are falsely claiming that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said during a Fox News interview that Americans who say “F--- Trump” will be sent to a notorious El Salvador prison.
A closer look: Anti-Trump accounts shared a screenshot showing Bondi being interviewed on Fox News’ “Hannity,” with an on-air graphic reading, “Bondi: ‘We hear you say ‘F--- Trump,’ and that’s 15 years in El Salvador.’” The supposed quote was an apparent reference to El Salvador’s “Terrorism Confinement Center,” a notorious prison where the Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants without due process.
Liberal Threads user @progressivepower shared the image and said: “The U.S. Constitution grants citizens the right to protest peacefully, dictator-wannabe Trump does not. … #protest.” The post received 26,700 views and 2,600 likes in five days.
An X post by anti-Trump user @JessicaUSAF shared the image and said, “F--- Trump.” The post received 1.8 million views and 68,000 likes in four days.
Actually: NewsGuard found no credible reporting that Bondi had made the supposed comment or anything similar. Indeed, the claim originated as satire.
Bondi did appear on “Hannity” on April 16, 2025, but a screenshot of the segment was altered to add the graphic featuring the fabricated quote.
The image was first posted on April 18 on the Facebook page of liberal comedian and comedy writer James Schlarmann. Schlarmann, who has 195,000 Facebook followers and describes himself on his page as a “satirist,” regularly posts satirical images attributing fake quotes to politicians and public figures, typically targeting conservatives.
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3. Wardrobe Malfunction: Doctored Photo Shows Sea of Blue Suits at Pope’s Funeral, Reflecting Trump’s Controversial Fashion Choice
By Hilary Hersh
What happened: Pro-Trump social media users are sharing an image showing multiple men wearing blue suits at Pope Francis’ April 26 funeral, in response to criticism that Trump showed disrespect by wearing a blue suit instead of the expected black suit.
Context: Trump wore a sapphire-like blue colored suit to the pope’s April 26 funeral, drawing criticism from some media outlets and social media accounts. Vanessa Friedman, chief fashion critic for The New York Times, wrote that “amid all the black and Cardinal red, it popped out like a sign.”
A closer look: An altered photo showing at least 15 people wearing blue soon spread among conservative social media users.
X account @libsoftiktok, which frequently advances far-right content, posted the image and stated: “NEW HOAX JUST DROPPED. ‘Trump broke the rules and stood out by wearing a blue suit to Pope Francis’ funeral!’ Reality.” The post garnered 2.7 million views and 55,000 likes in two days.
Conservative X account @hodgetwins reposted the Libs of TikTok post and added, “All they do is lie,” apparently referring to the media. The post received 104,800 views and 3,300 likes in one day.
Actually: The image was digitally manipulated to show multiple mourners dressed in bright blue suits.
The original image, taken by The Associated Press’ Markus Schreiber, clearly shows that the vast majority of attendees wore black suits.
An analysis by fact-checking organization Lead Stories (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100) found that the suits of multiple high-profile attendees had been altered to appear blue, including the suit worn by former President Joe Biden.
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