‘Tesla Rage’ Incidents That Never Happened
PLUS: Kristi Noem’s Prison Visit Was Legit; Honda Did Not Fire Workers Due to Tariffs
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Today:
Right-wing accounts cite out-of-context video and an AI-image as evidence of anti-Tesla violence
Liberal social media users falsely claim that Kristi Noem faked her visit to a Salvadoran prison
Honda did not lay off 9,000 U.S. workers ahead of Trump’s tariffs
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron and Sofia Rubinson.
1. These Tesla Attacks Cited by Right Wing Sources Never Happened
By Sarah Komar
What happened: MAGA accounts are spreading two false claims — one using a miscaptioned video and the other an AI-generated image — to advance the claim that unhinged liberals are attacking Elon Musk’s Tesla vehicles.
Context: Yes, Tesla vandalism reports have risen as Musk has championed controversial federal funding cuts and aligned himself with the MAGA movement. CBS News (NewsGuard Trust Score: 90/100) reported that there were at least five reported Tesla vandalism incidents in March in New York City alone. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi warned that the Justice Department considers such acts “domestic terrorism” and will prosecute perpetrators.
A closer look: However, at least some of the conservative outrage over the Tesla backlash is based on two of the most provocative incidents that never happened.
1. Ruse road rage: Conservative accounts are sharing a video of a heated road rage incident, claiming it shows a furious liberal yelling at a Tesla driver before hitting a scooter rider in a crosswalk.
You can watch the video here:
The claim appears to have originated with a March 28 X post by pro-Trump user @Maga4liberty, who posted the clip and said: “Liberal Male Karen runs over little girl in a rage against Tesla! WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE.” The post garnered 4.2 million views and 43,000 likes in three days.
Conservative meme account @ImMeme0 said in a March 28 X post featuring the video: “Retard enraged by a Tesla driving next to him hits a pedestrian. Democrats are out of their f---ing minds!” The post received 734,000 views and 10,000 likes in three days.
Actually: No Teslas were involved in the incident.
Near the end of the video, the man who was yelled at by the supposed “liberal” and who filmed the video that is now being shared on social media, shows the back of his windshield to reveal that the car is a pickup truck with an open cargo bed. Tesla does not manufacture any trucks with open beds, according to its website.
The earliest version of the clip NewsGuard found, a March 27 Instagram post by @diesels.ig, made no mention of Tesla. It was simply captioned, “Maybe just focus on driving, you can’t handle both.”
2. An AI vandal: Some conservatives also shared a photo purporting to show an overweight, blue-haired liberal spray-painting “FASCIST” on a Tesla Cybertruck.
Pro-Trump X user @akafaceUS posted the photo alongside the text, “I don’t care anymore... Throw these people in prison for 10+ years.” The post garnered 120,500 views and 3,800 likes in two days.
The Facebook page for the Albany County Republicans posted the image and stated: “Whatever this person is for, we’re against. Modern Dems.”
Actually: The photo is an AI-generated fake.
Lead Stories (Trust Score: 100/100) found, and NewsGuard confirmed, that the image is 99.9 percent “likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content” according to AI detection tool Hive.
The first account to publish the image, X user @DrClownPhD, states in its bio that the account posts “Trustworthy fake news & memes.”
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2. Kristi Noem’s Salvadoran Prison Video is Real, not a Green-Screen Fake
What happened: Liberal social media users are falsely claiming that a March 2025 video of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem inside a Latin American prison was staged with a green screen.
Context: Kicking off a tour of three Latin American countries on March 26, Noem visited the Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum security prison in El Salvador. She used the setting to tout the Trump administration’s strong anti-illegal immigration stance.
The prison holds hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who were deported from the U.S. in early March under unproven allegations that all were affiliated with Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang accused of committing violent crimes throughout the U.S.
A closer look: Noem posted a video on X of herself standing in front of a cell containing dozens of inmates. “If you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face,” Noem said in the video.
You can watch the video here:
Liberal accounts immediately claimed that Noem was not really at the prison and had faked her appearance by superimposing a prerecorded, looped footage of incarcerated men on a green screen behind her.
Liberal X user @cturnbull1968 stated: “There is something squirrely about this video. She’s been superimposed into a video of the Salvadorian prison that’s on a loop.” The post garnered 3.1 million views and 12,000 likes in one week.
Anti-Trump X account @SeditionistGop posted a still image of the video along with a digitally edited version of the image that replaced the prison behind her with a green background. The user stated: “The prison video background is a loop OBVIOUSLY. At about the 17 second mark, the video ends and the loop begins.” The post accumulated 12,500 views and 90 likes in a day.
Actually: The video is authentic, according to a NewsGuard analysis of the clip.
NewsGuard ran the video through media verification tool InVid and found no signs of digital tampering.
The men in the background do not appear to be on a repeating loop while Noem speaks. Rather, the men make natural, unsynchronized movements throughout the clip, confirming that the footage was not played multiple times during Noem’s remarks.
Credible news outlets, including The Associated Press (Trust Score: 100/100) and Reuters (Trust Score: 100/100), published photographs of Noem inside the prison and in front of the same cell where the video was recorded.
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
3. No, Honda Did Not Lay Off 9,000 U.S. Workers Ahead of Trump Tariffs
By Nicole Dirks
What happened: Left-leaning social media users are falsely claiming that the Honda Motor Company laid off 9,000 U.S. workers, calling the move proof that President Donald Trump’s plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on all cars and car parts imported into the U.S. are resulting in the loss of American jobs.
A closer look: The claim appears to have originated in a since-deleted March 27 X post by Canadian user @CoffeyTimeNews, who frequently shares anti-Trump commentary.
“Honda just laid off 9,000 American workers,” the account stated. “GM and the others will soon follow.” The post received 1.2 million views and 15,000 likes in one day.
Liberal Threads user @dobieblue stated on March 27: “Thanks to trumps tariffs Honda just laid off 9,000 American workers.” The post garnered 1,800 likes and 345 reposts in five days.
Actually: The claim is baseless. It appears to be a misrepresentation of reports from months earlier about another Japanese car company.
In November 2024, Nissan Motor Corporation announced that it planned to cut 9,000 jobs globally after reporting a loss in the third fiscal quarter of the year.
NewsGuard found no reliable reports that Honda laid off any U.S. workers in March 2025. Honda corporate communications manager Marcos Frommer told NewsGuard in a March 2025 email, “Honda has no plans to lay off workers in the US.”
X user @CoffeyTimeNews, who apparently originated the claim, issued a “correction” in a follow-up post and said the claim was based on a misunderstanding of the Nissan planned layoffs. He stated, “CNN reported Honda this morning, but it’s actually Nissan.”
NewsGuard did not find any such CNN report and @CoffeyTimeNews did not respond to a direct message asking what report he was referring to.
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