No, Mexican President Didn’t Boost L.A. Unrest
PLUS: Southwest Airlines’ Phantom ICE Raid; Trump Did Not Ban Teslas
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In today’s edition, we show how a quote from the president of Mexico was distorted to link her to the unrest in Los Angeles; we dissect a false rumor that a Southwest flight was diverted for an ICE raid; we uncover an AI-generated video of Trump supposedly banning Tesla production in the U.S.; and we debunk a TikTok-fueled concoction that Trump eliminated property taxes for older Americans.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Sofia Rubinson and Eric Effron.
1. Mexican President Falsely Accused of Fueling L.A. Protests
By Chiara Vercellone and Eva Maitland
What happened: Conservative and pro-Russian social media users are citing an outdated video of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to claim that she encouraged the protests in Los Angeles — a move that was portrayed as foreign interference in domestic U.S. politics.
A closer look: Accounts claiming that Sheinbaum called for protests in the U.S. cited a clip of her stating: “If necessary, we’ll mobilize. We don’t want taxes on remittances [money sent from Mexicans in the U.S. to family back home] from our fellow countrymen. From the U.S. to Mexico.”
As protests over U.S. immigration raids erupted in Los Angeles on June 6, conservative commentator Benny Johnson posted a clip of Sheinbaum’s speech and added, “BREAKING: Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum is now calling for protests in the United States.” The post garnered 5.6 million views and 37,000 likes in one day.
On June 8, pro-Trump website WLTReport.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 0/100) published an article titled “Mexican President Calls For More Protests In The United States,” which stated, “President Sheibaum’s [sic] statement comes as thousands of rioters have hit the streets of Los Angeles and New York City to protest ICE raids on illegal immigrants.”
Russian state-owned site Rg.ru published an article on June 9 that stated: “The protests continued into Sunday evening, with many participants waving Mexican and Palestinian flags and holding signs condemning ICE. … Fuel was added to the fire by the news that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum openly called on the Mexican diaspora in the United States to protest, which is an unprecedented case in relations between the two countries.”
Actually: The quote from Sheinbaum was taken from a May 24, 2025, press conference, 13 days before the start of the Los Angeles protests.
Sheinbaum’s remarks focused on a 3.5 percent tax proposed by the Trump administration on any income Mexican immigrants in the U.S. send to their families in Mexico. Sheinbaum said in the speech: “It is unjust that on top of the taxes they [Mexicans in the U.S.] pay on their income, that there would be a tax on the money they send to their families here. That cannot be the case.” Sheinbaum did not address the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Reacting to the L.A. protests, Sheinbaum told reporters on June 9: “We do not agree with violent actions as a form of protest. Burning police cars appears to be more an act of provocation than of resistance. We condemn violence, no matter where it comes from. We call on the Mexican community to act pacifically and not allow itself to be provoked.”
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2. No, a Southwest Airlines Flight Was Not Diverted for an ICE Raid
By Sam Howard
What happened: Liberal social media users are falsely claiming that a Southwest Airlines flight was diverted to Nashville International Airport so that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could raid the airplane.
Context: On June 2, a Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Dallas was diverted to Nashville, according to a statement issued by the airline.
A closer look: The next day, social media users shared a video that supposedly was from the flight, showing what appeared to be law enforcement officers escorting a hooded passenger off the plane. The plane featured the Southwest Airlines logo.
You can watch the video here:
A post from liberal Facebook page “NY Individisible / Empire Must Fall” included the video with the caption: “A @southwestair flight was reportedly diverted from Houston [sic] to Nashville under the excuse of needing to refuel but passengers soon learned it was actually for an 🧊raid. … This is how cruelty gets normalized: one ‘fuel stop’ at a time.” The post received 109,000 views and 950 likes in two days.
While many posts advancing the claim came from progressives decrying ICE’s supposed involvement, others came from conservatives praising the agency’s purported actions.
Lauren Witzke, a producer for the 2022 anti-vax documentary “Died Suddenly,” stated in a June 3 X post: “A Southwest flight headed to Dallas was reportedly rerouted midflight to Nashville for an ICE raid…. Kudos to these ICE officers for going above and beyond to ensure that invader never reached their destination.” Witzke’s post received between 1 million and 1.1 million views and 5,400 likes in two days.
Actually: Asked about the diverted flight, Southwest Airlines spokesman Lynn Lunsford told NewsGuard in a June 4 email, “This was not an ICE raid,” adding that the plane was diverted “to address a possible security matter.” Lunsford declined to elaborate, saying, “As a matter of policy, we do not discuss security.”
Nick Beres, a reporter for Nashville TV station WTVF, said in a June 2 Facebook post that the diversion of the flight was due to a bomb threat. He added: “All of the passengers de-planed and baggage was removed to be checked again and the entire plane was swept for explosives. Nothing was found.” Beres’ Facebook post did not mention ICE.
Beres also reported, “I’m told the wife of one of the passengers called in the threat to say her husband had a bomb.” The husband was “initially taken into custody in Nashville” and the FBI met with the unnamed woman, who was “expected to face federal charges,” Beres said. In an email exchange with NewsGuard, FBI Nashville public affairs officer Elizabeth Clement-Webb declined to comment on the incident or whether charges were filed. “As a matter of policy, the FBI can’t confirm or deny investigations,” she said in a June 9 email.
It is not clear whether the video cited above supposedly depicting an ICE raid in fact captured authorities removing the man whose wife allegedly caused the bomb scare.
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3. Trump Deepfake Bans Tesla Production
By Nicole Dirks
What happened: Social media users, capitalizing on the public feud between President Donald Trump and his former confidant Elon Musk, are sharing an AI-generated video that falsely depicts Trump as banning Tesla production in the U.S. The same video shows Trump supposedly accusing Musk of having “stabbed him in the back” by “lying about my involvement in the Epstein files.”
Context: When Musk left his role as special White House advisor in late May, he voiced his opposition to the significant spending in the Trump-backed federal budget bill. The rift escalated into a full-blown public feud in early June, when Trump and Musk traded insults on their respective social media platforms, Truth Social and X.
At one point, Musk expressed agreement with a post calling for Trump to be impeached, and he claimed without evidence in a since-deleted post that Trump is “in the Epstein files,” referring to documents compiled by federal authorities during investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A closer look: In the video, the Trump deepfake states: “Today, I am here to announce that I will be banning the production of all Teslas in the United States of America effective immediately. As everyone knows, Elon stabbed me in the back a couple of days ago and went crazy on his platform X, lying about my involvement in the Epstein files, so I can’t have that snake Elon making money in this country while I’m the president…”
You can watch the video here:
X user @ExSecular posted the video and added, “This is getting dirtier by the day.” The video garnered 579,700 views and 2,200 likes in one day.
Pro-Musk X user @Shamsher_Ali posted the video and stated: “President Donald Trump banned Tesla production in the USA. This happened when a drama-driven leader got selected through propaganda, this is poor governance. Stay calm and be strong @elonmusk @Tesla.” The post received 15,600 views and 35 likes in one day.
Actually: As noted above, the video is an AI deepfake. Trump did not ban Tesla production or say that Musk “stabbed him in the back.”
The video appears to have originated in a June 8 Instagram post by @dangerousaireturns, an account affiliated with a user who goes by “DangerousAi” on multiple platforms and who states in a YouTube account description that he posts “AI Parody content.” The accounts spreading the Trump video did not label the clip as AI-generated.
NewsGuard ran the video through AI detection software Hive, which determined that the video was 99.9 percent likely to be AI-generated.
In a June 7 NBC News interview, Trump called Musk’s Epstein accusation “old news,” adding: “This has been talked about for years and years. And as you know, I was not friendly with Epstein for probably 18 years before he died. I was not at all friendly with him.”
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4. Social Media Accounts Collect Revenue by Spreading Fake Trump Plan to Stop Property Taxes for Older Americans
By Sarah Komar
What happened: TikTok and X accounts that regularly share fabricated news stories to attract engagement and thus revenue are spreading the falsehood that President Donald Trump is eliminating property taxes for American homeowners aged 65 and older.