Elon Musk shared a chart on X purportedly showing more than 398 million eligible numbers in the Social Security database. Online posts misconstrued the figures to wrongly claim they showed how many people are receiving benefits, which would exceed the U.S. population. The Social Security Administration reported more than 68.4 million recipients in 2024.
In a half-hour inaugural address, newly sworn-in President Donald Trump twisted some facts while painting the last few years under his predecessor, Joe Biden, as a time of “decline” and promising “the golden age of America begins right now.”
President Joe Biden granted pardons and commutations to more than 1,500 individuals on Dec. 12. Social media posts wrongly claim those pardoned included a Chinese national, Shanlin Jin, imprisoned for child pornography. Jin was granted clemency as part of a prisoner swap last month that freed three Americans held for years in China.
Despite a mostly civil debate between Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the two disagreed repeatedly not just on policy, but also on the facts. We referee some of those competing claims, and other factual missteps by the vice presidential candidates.
The highly anticipated debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was a combative event in which facts were repeatedly trampled and distorted.
On a night when the focus was on safety and unity at the Republican convention, a number of GOP leaders also offered up some misleading and false claims we have seen before.