Zelensky-Trump Clash Sparks False Claim about Democratic Coaching
PLUS: Ailing Pope Targeted with Hoaxes; Conspiracy Theories Light Up After ICE Van Catches Fire
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Today:
Obama and Biden officials falsely accused of coaching Zelensky ahead of his contentious White House meeting
Pope’s medical crisis leads to hoaxes about a death coverup, Soros, and pedophilia
Ads for Adobe, Rocket Mortgage, and software company Monday.com fund false claim that Ukraine banned Truth Social
A burning ICE van in Philadelphia is exploited by liberals and conservatives alike
PLUS: An invitation to an exclusive briefing for Reality Check members
And More …
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron and Sofia Rubinson.
1. ‘Speculation’ Leads to Baseless Claim that Ex-Obama and Biden Aides Advised Zelensky to Confront Trump in Oval Office
By Sam Howard
What happened: Right-wing websites and social media users as well as Trump administration officials advanced a baseless claim that three Democratic former U.S. diplomats and an ex-National Security Council aide urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “be tough” with U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of the two leaders’ Feb. 28 meeting in the Oval Office. The meeting devolved into a shouting match that continues to reverberate around the world.
There is no evidence that the advisors — former Biden U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland under President Obama, and former Director of European Affairs for the U.S. National Security Council Alexander Vindman — spoke to Zelensky ahead of the Oval Office meeting or that they gave him advice. (Vindman, appointed by Trump during Trump’s first term, later said he experienced “bullying” and “intimidation” by Trump for complying with a Congressional subpoena to testify about a purported phone call in which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden — the key issue in the first Trump impeachment.)
Context: Zelensky met with Trump in the Oval Office on Feb. 28 to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war. The meeting turned hostile, with Trump accusing Zelensky of “gambling with World War III” and being “very disrespectful” to the U.S. In response to Trump’s comment, “Let me tell you, you don’t have the cards,” Zelensky said, “I’m not playing cards … I’m very serious. I’m the president in a war.”
A closer look: The claim that the four former officials coached Zelensky originated with a Feb. 28 X post from pro-Trump user @KeenanPeachy, who stated: “Blinken, Rice, Nuland, and Vindman conference call with Zelenskyy on the flight to DC advising him to ‘stand strong’ and ‘be tough’ and ‘don’t let Trump bully you’ seems to have backfired.” The post was issued at 1:49 p.m.
Never mind: Twenty minutes later, @KeenanPeachy added in a reply to her original post, “I am speculating, but obviously I’m correct. Obama probably on too.”
Despite this significant caveat, the claim that the four former officials had a conference call with Zelensky gained significant traction as a statement of fact on the right.
Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin, a Trump appointee, reposted an X post that stated, “Obama’s team including Anthony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, Susan Rice, and Alexander Vindman advised Zelensky to reject Trump’s deal in violation of the Logan Act,” adding, “Concerning. No one is above the law.” Martin’s repost garnered 4.5 million views and 58,000 likes in two days.
Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Richard Grenell reposted the same X post and stated, “This is very serious.” The repost received 3.9 million views and 107,000 likes in two days.
Conservative website the Washington Standard (NewsGuard Trust Score: 17.5/100) published an article titled “Could It Be Possible That This Was Zelenskyy’s Plan After All?” The article stated, “It later came out that Rice and Tony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, and Alexander Vindman may have been personally advising Zelensky to do this meeting in the way he did — that they recommended him to be hostile and to try to goad Trump into blowing up.”
Actually: As noted above, the originator of the claim had acknowledged she was “speculating.”
Rice issued a denial on X, stating: “For the record, I have never met Zelenskyy and never spoken to him. Ever. Or advised him or anybody around him. It’s a shame that you contend that it is in the U.S. national interest to sell out Ukraine and suck up to Putin.”
A spokesperson for Blinken told NewsGuard in a March 2025 email: “Former Secretary Blinken has had no contact with Ukrainian officials since he left the State Department, and any allegations to the contrary are false.”
Nuland told NewsGuard in an emailed statement: “This is complete fiction. I have had zero contact with President Zelensky since I left government in March ’24.”
NewsGuard also sent multiple requests for comment to Vindman on March 3, but did not receive any immediate responses.
An Exclusive Briefing for Reality Check Members
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Members also get a FREE copy of the definitive book on the misinformation crisis, The Death of Truth by NewsGuard Co-CEO and bestselling author Steven Brill ($30 value), free access to NewsGuard's browser extension that shows reliability ratings for 11K+ news sites right in your browser ($25 value), and unlimited access to our members-only content and archives.
2. False Claims About Pope Francis Multiply Amid Ongoing Health Crisis
By Sara Badilini, Giulia Pozzi, and Sarah Komar
What happened: As Pope Francis battled pneumonia in a Rome hospital, misinformation spreaders seized on the public interest in his condition to advance false claims about the pontiff.
A closer look: NewsGuard has identified three false claims about Pope Francis that have gone viral in recent days, two of which first emerged in 2023.
Premature death: Social media users are claiming that the Pope has died and that the Catholic Church is covering up his death, a baseless claim that began circulating a week into his hospitalization on Feb. 14.
On Feb. 22, X user @FabVultaggio shared a post stating that the Vatican announced that the Pope suffered a respiratory crisis and said, “He’s already dead btw that’s just protocol.” The post received 181,000 views and 4,600 likes in five days.
On Feb. 26, QAnon conspiracy account @Florenpatriotaq posted on X: “Pope Francis died yesterday, Tuesday, February 25, 2025, but the Vatican did not announce it to the public. They will continue to hide his death. On Monday, March 3, 2025, they will announce his death.” The post garnered 1.5 million views and 11,000 likes in a day.
Actually: In a March 3 statement, the Holy See Press Office said: “Today, the Holy Father suffered two episodes of acute respiratory insufficiency.… In the afternoon, non-invasive mechanical ventilation was resumed. The Holy Father remained alert, oriented and cooperative at all times. The prognosis remains guarded.”
Earlier on March 3, the Holy See Press Office stated, “Pope Francis slept well throughout the night.”
Soros connection: Then there is the false claim that Pope Francis named Alexander Soros, son of billionaire and Democratic donor George Soros, as a cardinal.
The claim emerged on a Spanish news site AlertaDigital.com on Dec. 28, 2023, in an article that stated, “Pope Francis has just appointed Alex Soros, 37, a history graduate and billionaire heir of George Soros, a cardinal deacon of the Catholic Church.”
The claim reemerged in February 2025 amid the news about the Pope’s health. For example, an X post by Italian user @GiorgiaSalvagn1 shared a screenshot of text from the article, garnering 2,700 views and 80 likes in three days.
Actually: Catholic law mandates that only those ordained as priests may be appointed as a cardinal, and Soros is not a priest. Also, priests and cardinals must be Catholic, and Soros is Jewish.
The Spanish website that made the claim in 2023 issued a “clarification” one day after the article was published, stating that it “joke[d] with our readers about the appointment of Alex Soros as cardinal.”
Child sex crimes: Social media users have resurfaced a false claim from 2023 that Pope Francis stated, “God loves pedophiles, he created them for a reason and he has reserved a special place for them in heaven.”
This claim originated in an article from ThePeoplesVoice.tv (Trust Score: 0/100) published on Feb. 20, 2023, which stated, “Pope Francis has scandalized victims of sexual abuse by declaring that pedophilia is a mysterious illness and we must not judge those who are suffering from it.” The article included a screenshot of a supposed post from the Pope’s official X account stating, “God welcomes pedophiles in his heavenly kingdom.”
A Feb. 23, 2025, X post by Italian user @CDoppioconti shared a screenshot of the Pope’s supposed quote and added, “[Is he] gone?” The post garnered 71,300 views and 850 likes in five days.
Actually: A search by NewsGuard and other fact-checking organizations, including Chilean fact-checker FactCheck.cl and Italian fact-checker Facta.news, found no credible evidence that the Pope ever made the statement about pedophiles. In fact, he has described child abuse as “psychological murder” and a “monstrosity.”
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 Adobe, Monday.com, and Rocket Mortgage Fund False Claim that Zelensky Blocked Truth Social in Ukraine
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.
What happened: Programmatic ads for Adobe, Rocket Mortgage, and software company Monday.com were delivered to a NewsGuard analyst on an article published by PacificPundit.com (Trust Score: 0/100) that advanced the false claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blocked Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social in Ukraine after facing criticism from the U.S. president.
A closer look: The Feb. 20 article, titled “Dictator Zelenskyy Blocks Truth Social in Ukraine,” stated, “Apparently [Zelensky] blocked Truth Social in Ukraine after Trump called him out for not holding free and fair elections in his country… Sounds like a dictator type move to me, but what do I know.”
Actually: Zelensky did not ban Truth Social in Ukraine.
The Truth Social app is only available in the U.S. and Canada with limited use in some other countries. There is no evidence that the network has ever operated in Ukraine.
In a Feb. 20 statement to the Agence France-Presse (Trust Score: 100/100), a spokesperson for Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, said, “Reports that Truth Social was blocked in Ukraine are false — Truth Social has never been available in Ukraine.”
NewsGuard found that PacificPundit.com previously advanced false claims about U.S. politics, including that the 2020 U.S. election was “rigged.”
A Monday.com spokesperson told NewsGuard in an emailed statement: “While we take steps to control where our ads appear, some placements are determined by an automated algorithm. Our advertising policy prohibits placement on politically affiliated sites, so we are actively investigating how this occurred. We will immediately add this site to our exclusion list to prevent future occurrences.”
Representatives for Adobe and Rocket Mortgage did not respond to NewsGuard’s emailed requests for comment.
Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s related Misinformation Fingerprint here.
(Disclosure: NewsGuard is among the companies that license data that would help advertisers only advertise on reliable, brand suitable news sites.)
If you see something, say something
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. Both Sides Are Wrong: Liberals and Conservatives Say ICE Minivan Was Set Ablaze by Anti-Trump Activists
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Social media users on both the right and left are spreading the false claim that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) van was deliberately set on fire in Philadelphia to protest Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
A closer look: Amid a focus on ICE raids in major U.S. cities, footage of an ICE minivan burning on a Philadelphia street on Feb. 18 led conservatives to condemn the supposed arson as an act of left-wing terrorism while liberals celebrated the incident as a symbol of anti-Trump resistance.
Conservative commentator and pro-Trump Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk shared a clip of the burning van and stated, “BREAKING: A minivan operated by ICE has reportedly been set ablaze during operations in Philadelphia. If found to be intentional, which it appears to be, this is literal leftwing terrorism to make sure our country continues to be invaded.” Kirk’s post received 2.1 million views and 28,000 likes by Feb. 27.
Liberal X user @DurrutiRiot posted a video of the burning van with the caption: “ICE deportation vehicle going up in smoke today in Philadelphia. It’s community direct action against Trump’s racist state. Solidarity comrades. Don’t play with us Trump, cos you play with fire.” The post garnered 93,000 views and 1,900 likes by Feb. 27.
Actually: An ICE van did catch fire in Philadelphia on Feb. 18, but city and ICE officials said the fire was accidental.
Philadelphia Fire Department spokesperson Rachel Cunningham told fact-checking site LeadStories.com (Trust Score: 100/100) that the city fire marshal’s office responded to the fire in south Philadelphia because a government vehicle was involved. “Upon speaking with the driver of the vehicle, the Fire Marshal determined that this fire was accidental,” Cunningham said. “Thankfully, no one was injured, and our Fire Marshal found no indication of foul play or suspicious circumstances.”
In a Feb. 19 statement to Agence France Presse (Trust Score: 100/100), ICE spokesperson Tanya Roman said that the fire started after the van “experienced mechanical issues.” Roman said the fire’s cause “is unknown, but no foul play is suspected at this time.”
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