Trump Comments Spark Election Conspiracy Theories from the Left
PLUS: Conservatives Fabricate Biden Pardon; Liberals Lament Fake Sale of TikTok to Meta
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Today:
Two Trump statements spark election rigging conspiracy theories from the left
Conservatives falsely claim Biden pardoned Jan. 6 police officer who shot a rioter
Ads for Volvo, Land Rover, and St. Jude fund false Kremlin claim that Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska took luxury trip to Switzerland
Fake evidence cited to show that Meta bought TikTok
And More …
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron and Sofia Rubinson.
1. Liberal Social Media Users Point to Trump Comments to Falsely Claim Election Fraud
By Macrina Wang

What happened: Critics of President Donald Trump are pointing to comments he made during an inauguration eve rally to claim he admitted that Elon Musk rigged the 2024 election.
While it’s unclear what Trump’s comments meant, local election officials say the election was fair and that there is no evidence of vote tampering of any kind.
A closer look: Some liberal social media users cited two separate comments from Trump’s Jan. 19 victory rally to advance this false narrative. Here’s a breakdown of those statements.
Part one: Trump said during his speech that X owner Elon Musk, his close ally and a major funder of his campaign, “knows computers better than anybody. All those computers. Those vote-counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide.”
Democratic X user @RickChapterTwo stated in a Jan. 20 post: “Trump just confessed that Elon manipulated the ‘vote-counting’ computers in Pennsylvania to make sure he won.” The post received 6.4 million views and 94,000 likes in one day.
Actually: It’s not clear what precisely Trump meant when he said that Musk “knows those computers.” Trump did not explicitly state that Musk rigged or manipulated the vote, and there is no evidence that any such fraud occurred or could have occurred. You can watch a clip of this segment of his speech here:
Pennsylvania’s Department of State press secretary Matt Heckel told NewsGuard in a Jan. 22 email: “Just as they have in previous elections, Pennsylvania counties ran a safe and secure election.” Heckel added that voting machines “are never connected to the internet so they cannot be hacked,” and that “for every single vote cast in this election, there was a voter-verified paper ballot to confirm each vote was counted accurately.”
As previously reported in Reality Check, some commentators continue to allege that Musk used his Starlink satellite internet system to hack the “vote-counting” computers. As noted, officials say that the voting machines are not connected to the internet.
Part two: Trump said, “It’s only because they rigged the election that I’ll be your president representing you there.”
Citing this comment, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas said in a Jan. 19 X post: “So Trump is rambling on about he and Elon rigging the election?! Am I missing something or is he confessing to yet another damn crime?!” The post received 6.9 million views and 133,000 likes in two days. (Crockett’s office declined to comment.)
Actually: Trump’s comment about the “rigged” election was part of a tangent he went on about the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics. You can watch a clip of his segment here:
In the comments, rather than admitting fraud, Trump was instead spreading a false claim of his own: that the 2020 election was rigged. His point seemed to be that as a result of him not being elected for a second term in 2020, he was able to be elected in 2024, so will be in office during the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics, both in Los Angeles.
Top officials have stated the 2024 election was fair and free, as was the 2020 election. A Nov. 6, 2024, statement from Jen Easterly, the then-director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said that the agency had “no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”
The White House did not respond to NewsGuard’s request for comment.
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2. I Beg Your Pardon? Conservatives Concoct 11th-Hour Biden Reprieve for Capitol Police Officer Who Shot and Killed a Jan. 6 Rioter
By Sarah Komar

What happened: Conservative social media users are claiming that immediately before leaving office, Joe Biden issued a pardon for the U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, a Donald Trump supporter who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
A closer look: This false claim emerged on Inauguration Day, when Biden issued multiple preemptive pardons, covering, among others, members and staff of the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection as well as the police officers who testified before the panel. Later that day, after Trump was sworn in as president, he pardoned some 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters and rally organizers.
The claim about the Biden pardon appears to have originated in a now-deleted X post from conservative X user @amuse that stated: “PARDON: Biden has pardoned Michael Byrd for the murder of Ashli Babbitt. The pardon applies to every police officer interviewed by the J6 Committee for ALL crimes committed before, on, or after J6.”
In a Jan. 20 X post that garnered 4.5 million views and 65,000 likes, conservative user @EndWokeness said, “Ashli Babbitt was an Air Force veteran who served this country for 12+ years and won awards for her Iraq service. Ashli was 5’2”, 115 pounds, unarmed. Lt. MICHAEL BYRD shot her in the neck. Biden just pardoned him.”
Actually: The officer, Michael Byrd, was never charged with a crime, and Biden did not issue him a preemptive pardon.
During the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, authorities say that Byrd shot and killed Babbitt, who was part of a mob trying to breach barricaded glass doors and enter a lobby that leads to the House of Representatives chamber.
The U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. and the U.S. Department of Justice investigated the shooting and did not file charges against Byrd. A 2021 Capitol Police internal investigation concluded that Byrd’s actions were justified and “potentially saved [House] Members and staff from serious injury and possible death.”
No pardons naming Byrd appear on a complete pardon list posted on the Justice Department’s website. Moreover, Byrd did not testify before the Jan. 6 committee, according to a NewsGuard review of the committee’s website and final report.
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. Brand Victims of the Week: Ads for Volvo, Land Rover, and St. Jude Children’s Hospital Fund New False Russian Claim Targeting Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska
In this Reality Check feature, NewsGuard identifies global brands that support the spread of misinformation by unintentionally funneling programmatic advertising dollars to sites that repeatedly peddle false claims. Unless advertisers use inclusion or exclusion lists to place their programmatic ads, these ads will appear on websites regardless of their trustworthiness.
This week: A NewsGuard analyst based in the U.S. was shown programmatic ads for Volvo, Land Rover, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on an article published by EADaily.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 12.5/100). EADaily.com is a Russian news website that pushes pro-Kremlin propaganda and has repeatedly advanced false claims about the Russia-Ukraine war. The Jan. 16, 2025, article claimed that Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska visited St. Moritz, Switzerland, using the Moldovan presidential plane.
The Moldovan government told NewsGuard that it does not have a presidential plane, as its president always flies commercial. Official Ukrainian social media posts show Zelenska attending public functions in Ukraine at the time she was supposedly in Switzerland. (Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprint for this claim here.)
Representatives for Volvo, Land Rover, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital did not immediately respond to NewsGuard’s emailed requests for comment.
(Disclosure: NewsGuard is among the companies that license data that would help advertisers only advertise on reliable, brand suitable news sites.)
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If you see or hear something that you think may be provably false, please alert NewsGuard via realitycheck@newsguardtech.com and we'll do our best to get to the bottom of it. Note: Tips should not include content that you simply disagree with, however strongly.
4. Meta Critics Point to Fake Evidence that the Company Bought TikTok

What happened: Left-leaning TikTok users are citing fabricated evidence that Facebook owner Meta bought TikTok in January 2025, a move that was portrayed as aligning the social media platform with Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.
Context: On Jan. 18, TikTok went offline in the U.S. due to an impending federal ban on the Chinese-owned social media platform. The app was restored within 12 hours after Trump stated that he would issue an executive order to delay enforcement of the law, which he signed the next day.
A closer look: Some liberal social media users speculated that Trump colluded with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to purchase the platform, citing the supposed removal of “CEO” from TikTok chief Shou Chew’s profile as well as a supposedly new, verified TikTok account for Facebook.
A TikTok beauty influencer, Daus Mendoza, said in a Jan. 20 video: “Hey Shou [Chew], quick question. Why the f--- doesn’t it say CEO of TikTok anymore? I would love some answers. And now suddenly, Facebook has a TikTok account, which was so quickly to get verified by the way. We’re f-----. … I swear to God if they start changing this app. We all know who bought the app. We know.” The post received 8.8 million views and 1.4 million likes in two days.
TikTok account @uncappedcreations, belonging to a left-leaning artist, posted a video on Jan. 19 that stated: “Meta bought TikTok. Because tell me why the f--- Facebook has a TikTok.” @uncappedcreations then urged people to leave all Meta apps, create their own app, or “talk with coded talk like we already do, and still keep the momentum going on how we are an oppressed society.” The post garnered 619,700 views and 24,100 likes in three days.
More context: Meta owner Zuckerberg, who attended the Trump inauguration and sat in the VIP section in front of Trump’s cabinet picks, appears to be trying to present a more Trump-friendly posture. Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and earlier this month, Zuckerberg announced that Meta would terminate its fact-checking program, a move lauded by Trump and pro-MAGA commentators.
Actually: The supposed “evidence” supporting the claim that Meta bought TikTok does not hold up.
Chew’s biography on his TikTok account has not included “CEO” since at least Feb. 20, 2022, according to the earliest available archived version of his profile.
Facebook has had a TikTok account since at least March 13, 2022, the first time the profile was archived.
At a White House press event on Jan. 21, Trump said he was open to the prospect of Elon Musk or Oracle’s Larry Ellison buying TikTok. The executive order gives ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, 75 days to find a U.S. buyer. Trump did not mention Zuckerberg as a potential buyer.
Meta did not respond to NewsGuard’s emailed request for comment. NewsGuard sent a comment request to TikTok through its media inquiry form but did not receive a response.
Reality Check is produced by Co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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