January 28, 2025
President Donald J. Trump has been subjected to more manufactured Fake News hoaxes than any president in history, and it hasn't gotten any better in his second term.
Here are just a few:
- HOAX: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), and media outlets claim President Trump's directive to pause radical, wasteful government spending means an end to Medicaid, food assistance, and other individual assistance programs.
- FACT: Individual federal assistance programs — such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and other important programs — are explicitly excluded, as was made clear by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and a memo from the Office of Management and Budget. Only unnecessary spending — such as DEI, the Green New Scam, and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest — are included in President Trump's directive.
- HOAX: Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) and Chicago Public Schools officials claimed, without bothering to verify, that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had conducted a "raid" at a local elementary school — a false claim echoed by media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune.
- FACT: It was actually the U.S. Secret Service investigating a threat unrelated to immigration.
- HOAX: A "physicians advocacy group" was widely cited as opposing President Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
- FACT: The "advocacy group" is an astroturfed partisan organization funded by prominent left-wing donors — and accepts fake signatures.
Donald J. Trump (2nd Term), White House Press Release - Debunking Latest Fake News Hoaxes Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/376059