Tag: Snopes News

Claim:

Joe Biden’s administration cut 442 reporters from the White House press pool in 2023.

Rating:

What’s True

In 2023, the Biden administration tightened the requirements for obtaining an all-access White House press credential called a “hard pass.” After the stricter requirements went into effect, the number of hard passes issued dropped from 1,417 to 975, in part because many journalists chose not to renew them.

What’s False

The Biden administration’s changes did not cut or replace reporters in the “press pool,” a small group of journalists historically selected by the White House Correspondents’ Association to receive privileged access and travel with the president at almost all times. Trump’s administration announced that the White House would be in charge of picking that group in 2025.

What’s Undetermined

It’s unclear how many journalists were made ineligible for hard passes by the Biden administration’s tightening of the requirements.

On Sept. 18, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was banning journalists from the outlets CNN, MS NOW and Politico from accessing the White House. Journalists from the three outlets had their White House access revoked the following day, according to The Associated Press. The three outlets publish “fake news,” the president said of his unprecedented decision, which is already being challenged in court on First Amendment grounds. 

It’s not the first time Trump has sparked backlash over his efforts to meddle with the way the media covers him and his administration. 

For instance, on Feb. 25, 2025, then-White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that members of the White House press pool, a small group of rotating journalists who travel with the president at almost all times, would no longer be selected by the independent White House Correspondents’ Association, which was created specifically to prevent the president from restricting press access. 

Members of Trump’s administration now pick the press pool journalists themselves. 

Amid the 2026 controversy, posts popped up on social media purporting to compare Trump’s actions with those of his predecessor, Joe Biden. Snopes previously covered the claim in February 2025, and we are refreshing our reporting accordingly. At that time, the main source of the rumor was a Fox News article titled “FLASHBACK: Biden also changed White House press pool, cutting off more than 440 reporters’ credentials.” 

In September 2026, the conservative One America News Network, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and the White House itself spread the rumor.

In a news release on Sept. 21, the administration called press access to the White House access a “privilege, not a right,” and listed several examples of Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s administrations purportedly attempting to curtail press access. 

(Snopes previously reported on the allegations against the Obama administration.)

The actions simply are not comparable.

The Biden administration’s change tightened the requirements for obtaining a certain press credential. According to Fox News’ White House reporter Jacqui Heinrich, who is also the president of the WHCA, presidential administrations have always been in charge of press credentialing. 

Trump’s administration, meanwhile, first took control over which White House reporters travel with the president in the “press pool” (something a presidential administration had never previously been in charge of), and then banned specific outlets from the White House, something a presidential administration has never officially done.

What the Biden administration did

In 2023, the Biden administration tightened the requirements for the so-called “hard pass,” a yearly credential that allows a White House journalist to “come and go at will” when the White House is open, according to The Washington Post. That article listed the revised eligibility requirements under Biden as follows: 

• Employed by a news organization.
• Live in the Washington, D.C., area.
• Have gone to the White House for work at least once in the last six months.
• Have a press credential for either the Supreme Court, the Senate or the House of Representatives. 

Crucially, one-day press passes still remain available for all journalists, even those who do not meet the above requirements. 

According to Politico, the number of hard passes dropped from 1,417 to 975 after the new requirements came into effect simply because many journalists chose to not renew the pass — despite the stricter requirements, only one application was denied. A White House spokesperson told Politico that just before the change that “roughly 40 percent of hard pass holders had not accessed the White House complex in the prior 90 days.”

As such, it’s misleading to claim that the Biden administration “cut off” the credentials of more than 440 reporters. Reporters had the chance to renew their credentials, but some decided not to. It is unclear how many of the journalists who did not renew their hard pass credential did so because they wouldn’t qualify under the new guidelines (and again, such reporters could still attend news briefings with a day pass). 

What the Trump administration did

The Trump administration decided in February 2025 to put government officials in charge of picking the small rotating group of journalists who travel with the president — the people that “relay the president’s activities to the public,” as The New York Times wrote. 

The press pool, historically set by the WHCA, has been traveling with the president since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration in the 1930s and 1940s, according to the organization’s website. 

Because the general public might misunderstand the term “press pool” to mean “the large group of reporters covering the White House” instead of the small group of rotating journalists that travel with the president, it’s misleading to suggest that a change affecting the requirements for press credentials is comparable to giving the White House sole control of the makeup of the press pool.

The White House’s announcement that it would control the press pool itself came not long after the Trump administration barred The Associated Press from the White House for not following its demand to replace the term “Gulf of Mexico” with “Gulf of America.” The AP sued to rejoin the pool, and a judge ordered in favor of the AP in April 2025.

Then, in September 2026, Trump pulled the press credentials (read: hard passes) of CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters.

There have certainly been cases where the president and the media find themselves at odds. Richard Nixon is said to have ordered a ban on The Washington Post after the Watergate scandal, which arguably served as precedent for Trump’s actions in 2026. 

However, Nixon’s administration never confiscated Post reporters’ credentials, according to a 2016 report from NBC News. George Condon, a long-term White House reporter and former WHCA president, told NBC News he could not think of any instance of a publication having its credentials pulled by an administration. According to Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, the Post simply was excluded from covering social events at the White House. 

Sources

Claim:

More than 20 African countries banded together to combat the spread of the Sahara Desert by planting a giant wall of trees to run across the continent. This wall will stretch for around 7,000 km coast to coast.

Rating:

Context

In 2007, more than 20 African countries partnered up in a project to tackle desertification through the spread of the Sahara Desert, which was conceived as a giant wall of trees meant to stretch from coast to coast of the continent. Over time, the focus shifted to smaller-scale planting programs that go beyond just trees. The official goal for the length of the “wall” was 8,000 km. Today, however, reports show that the project has done poorly.

For several years, an image of a stretch of green trees across the African continent has spread online purportedly showing an ambitious inititative called the “Great Green Wall.” 

Such a plan has been in the works since 2007 and involves the participation of numerous African countries. Its aim was to have trees extend like a belt across the Sahel region, which is at the base of the Sahara, in order to prevent the expansion of the desert due to climate change.

According to social media posts on Facebook and other platforms, more than 20 African countries are a part of this effort to plant trees across the continent from coast to coast:

(Facebook user Culture Collective)

The posts are mostly true, in that this is a real effort being carried out by African countries, though the stated length of the wall upon completion varies. According to recent news coverage, the initiative is perceived as an overall failure with only small success stories. 

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the project aimed “to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in one of the world’s poorest regions, the Sahel. Once complete, the Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet – an 8,000 km natural wonder of the world stretching across the entire width of the continent.”

The goal was to have the “wall” extend from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, by 2030. The now-defunct official website of the Great Green Wall inititative detailed the reasons behind all their efforts:

The catalyst for the Great Green Wall is the daily impact of desertification and climate change that is undermining the futures of millions of communities across Africa’s Sahel region.

Since the 1970s, the Sahel has been heavily affected by recurrent periods of drought. These droughts have threatened the livelihoods and future of entire populations across the region.

The lack of rain has led to the disappearance of livestock and the destruction of cereal crops. The great famines that rocked the Sub-Saharan region in the 80s each affected millions of people. In addition, the high population growth rate is increasing demand for food and pressure to gain access to other natural resources which are the basis for livelihoods and the survival of the rural population.

Millions of people – particularly rural youth – are currently facing an uncertain future due to the lack of decent rural jobs and continuous loss of livelihoods due to land degradation and falling yields.

But according to a 2021 Associated Press report, since the project’s inception in 2007, millions of the planted trees have died due to diminishing rains and rising temperatures. Only 4% of the project’s original goal has been met and around $43 billion is needed to complete it. Given these challenges, the focus of the project has shifted from planting just a wall of trees to a “mosaic” of smaller and more durable projects that emphasize community-focused solutions that support agriculture and prevent desertification.

The Great Green Wall’s old website claimed a number of successes. Senegal planted around 12 million drought-resistant trees in less than a decade, while 5 million hectares of degraded land was restored in Nigeria, and 15 million hectares in Ethiopia. A November 2021 report in the journal Nature Sustainability assessed the economic effect of the program and concluded that it was economically worthwhile:

The Great Green Wall programme is a colossal initiative to restore 100 million hectares of degraded ecosystems across 11 countries in the region […] We evaluated the economic costs and benefits of future land restoration projects under this programme. We applied different scenarios that account for both market-priced and non-market benefits from restored ecosystems and consider the heterogeneity of local decision-making contexts in terms of investment planning horizons, discount rates, and the time needed for the restored ecosystems to start yielding their benefits in full. The results show that every US dollar invested into land restoration yields on average US$1.2 under the base scenario, ranging from US$1.1 to US$4.4 across the scenarios. At most, ten years are needed for land restoration activities to break even from the social perspective, accounting for both market-priced and non-market ecosystem benefits. To fund all proposed land restoration activities, an investment of US$44 billion is needed under the base scenario (US$18–70 billion across scenarios). 

The report added that “violent conflicts in the Sahel are estimated to reduce the accessibility to these degraded ecosystems from 27.9 million hectares to 14.1 million hectares.”  

While originally only 11 countries were a part of the effort, more than 20 African nations have participated. This video from September 2020 detailed some of the projects and their effect:

A 2026 NPR report called the inititative a “cautionary tale” of poor planning and a lack of local participation. The report investigated 15 projects in Senegal, Djibouti and Chad, finding some more successful than others. A majority of the sites visited were unable to survive in the long term. 

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Claim:

U.S. President Donald Trump called the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran “small potatoes.”

Rating:

Context

Some people sharing the quote claimed Trump was specifically referring to the deaths of 18 service members during the conflict. He was in fact referring to the conflict itself.

A rumor circulated online in September 2026 that U.S. President Donald Trump had called the Iran war, initiated by the United States and Israel in February 2026, “small potatoes.”

Users shared the claim on social media and Reddit. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., shared the purported quote and added, “Tell that to the families of the 18 troops we’ve lost, the hundreds of wounded servicemembers, and the Americans suffering every single day from record high prices.”

The quote was correctly attributed to Trump. 

Trump made the statement during a news conference in the Oval Office on Sept. 4, during which he signed executive orders related to the cattle industry. 

The news conference was available to view on the White House’s official YouTube channel. The comment in question begins around the 25-minute mark after a reporter referred to Vice President J.D. Vance’s statement that he did not consider the conflict in Iran a war and asked, “Can you explain to the American people if this is not a war, what exactly is it?”

Trump responded (emphasis ours):

A lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict. Because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing. We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela we lost nobody, in this we lost 18 people. And in Vietnam we lost 100,000 people, and in other conflicts you lost tens of thousands of people.

Trump continued by elaborating on some of the military operations the United States has enacted since the start of the conflict. He said, “It’s a military conflict, but it’s very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war.”

Asked directly by the same reporter whether he considered the deaths of 18 service members to also be “small potatoes,” Trump said he’d met their families and had gotten “very friendly” with some and again mentioned the number of deceased from past conflicts to compare the size of the numbers.

Media outlets widely reported Trump’s response, including CNN, The Associated Press and USA Today.

Some social media posts called out Trump’s comment and claimed he specifically called the number of deceased service members “small potatoes.” In truth, he made the comment about the conflict itself, not specifically the number of service members killed..

We reached out to the White House for further comment on the criticisms of Trump’s statement and will update this article if we receive a response. 

Claim:

A Facebook post accurately described 13 acts of kindness carried out by U.S. President Donald Trump before he ran for office.

Rating:

What’s True

Of the 13 reported acts of kindness in the Facebook post, nine were true, mostly true or probably true.

What’s False

Two of the claimed acts of kindness were false, and one was unproven. Lynne Patton, a former Eric Trump Foundation employee whom Trump appointed to roles in both of his presidential administrations, carried out one of the reported acts.

In September 2026, a Facebook post (archived) circulated online that listed 13 claimed “acts of kindness” that U.S. President Donald Trump purportedly carried out before running for office. 

The introduction to the post read:

For thirty years before he ran for office, Donald Trump quietly paid mortgages, flew sick children across the country, and wrote checks to strangers who needed help. You will not find those stories on the evening news. So here they are.

Start with what people who knew him before politics say. He has never had a drink. He has never smoked. He has never used drugs. He built his business on long hours, and the people who worked for him will tell you he outworked all of them. Nobody called him a bigot until the day he announced for president. That timing tells you something about the accusation.

Now to the record.

The claim about Trump’s reported acts of kindness spread on Facebook (archived, archived), X (archived) and Threads (archived). Snopes readers contacted us, asking if the claim was true.

Of the 13 reported acts of kindness in the Facebook post, nine were true, mostly true or probably true, two were false and one was unproven. One of the alleged acts was actually carried out by Lynne Patton, a long-time employee of the Eric Trump Foundation whom Trump later appointed to roles in both of his administrations.

Given the above, we rate this claim a mixture of true and false or unproven elements. Below, we investigate each claim in the post.

Annabel Hill’s farm: True

In 1986, a Georgia widow named Annabell Hill was about to lose the family farm at a foreclosure auction. Trump saw her story on the news, picked up the phone, called the auction, and stopped the sale. Then he sent her the money to keep the farm.

Snopes investigated this claim in September 2026 and found it to be true. According to reporting at the time, Hill’s farm had been up for auction twice. Her husband, Leonard D. Hill, died by suicide in February 1986 to try to save the farm using the payout from his life insurance. That sum did not cover the debts, and his widow faced a second auction that September.

That was reportedly when Trump stepped in, called the bank to block a foreclosure auction and started fundraising for Hill. The fundraising was successful, with Trump himself covering at least $39,000 of the $170,000 needed. Because of the fundraising efforts, Hill’s family was able to keep the farm.

A private plane for Andrew Ten: True

In 1988, an Orthodox Jewish family in Los Angeles had a three-year-old son named Andrew Ten who needed treatment in New York. The boy could not survive without a full life-support setup, and no airline would carry it. His father asked Trump for help. Trump put the family on his own jet and got them there.

Snopes previously investigated this claim in 2015 and found it to be true based on a report published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 1988 that said Ten’s father had appealed to Trump for help transporting his ill son to access medical treatment in the New York area. 

The Times of Israel later reported that Ten died in 1998. In 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined Ten’s father, Harold Ten, in an alleged scheme to “profit from the imminent deaths of terminally ill patients in nursing homes and hospice care.”

Trump sent plane to fly Marines: False

In 1991, two hundred Marines came home from Desert Storm to Camp Lejeune and found out the military had no aircraft to fly them the rest of the way to Florida. Trump’s airline, the Trump Shuttle, made two runs between North Carolina and Miami and got every one of them back to their families.

Snopes previously investigated this claim in 2016 and found it false. Though some Marines did fly from Miami to North Carolina on a Trump-branded plane after Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Trump did not own Trump Shuttle or its planes at the time because he had defaulted on the loans he used to buy the fleet. Rather, the military chartered some of the planes that still bore the Trump logo to fly the Marines without involvement from Trump.

A flat tire and a mortgage payment: False

In 1995, a passing driver in New Jersey pulled over to help change a flat on Trump’s limo. Trump asked what he could do in return. The man only wanted flowers sent to his wife. A few weeks later, the story goes, the flowers came with a note saying the couple’s mortgage had been paid off. People have been repeating that one for three decades.

This claim is an urban legend that Snopes first debunked in 1998. It has also circulated using other celebrities’ names. According to an Aug. 15, 1997, report in the Toronto Globe and Mail, an assistant at Trump’s New York office told the paper the story “isn’t true.”

Mar-a-Lago welcomed Black people and Jews: True

In 1996, Trump sued the town of Palm Beach, Florida. The town had been leaning on his Mar-a-Lago club for one reason. He let in Jewish members and Black members, and the older clubs did not. Abraham Foxman, who ran the Anti-Defamation League at the time, said Trump shined a light on the ugly side of Palm Beach that the glitter usually hid. Foxman also said other clubs started admitting Jews and Blacks after Trump forced the issue.

Snopes investigated a similar claim in 2016, finding it true that Trump allowed Black people and Jews to access Mar-a-Lago while other clubs in Florida did not. The Wall Street Journal reported in 1997 that after Trump sued Palm Beach alleging discrimination against his club because it admitted Black and Jewish members, other clubs had started to admit Jewish patrons.

However, the WSJ reported in April 1997 that Palm Beach denied it was discriminating against Mar-a-Lago because of its membership and that restrictions imposed on the club were part of a zoning matter. The outcome of the lawsuit was unclear.

Ultimately, Trump’s decision to allow Jewish and Black members turned out to also benefit his business, helping him fight Palm Beach’s restrictions and also allowing him to attract a different crowd than existing clubs already catered to. 

According to the Wall Street Journal article, Foxman did speak the quote the Facebook post attributed to him, saying Trump “put the light on Palm Beach. Not on the beauty and the glitter, but on its seamier side of discrimination.”

Money for a girl with brittle bone disease: True

In 2000, Trump was watching Maury Povich and saw a little girl named Megan who lived with brittle bone disease. He said her attitude got to him. He called the show and sent her family a large check.

According to a recording of a Dec. 19, 2000, episode of “Maury,” the talk-show hosted by Povich, an 11-year-old girl named Megan and her mother received a check and video greeting from Trump.

The clip of the show Snopes viewed did not elaborate on Megan’s illness or the exact size of Trump’s check. During the clip, Trump called Megan “beautiful, inside and out” and told her to “keep up that attitude.”

Povich, when handing over Trump’s check to Megan, said Trump didn’t give out “chump change” and referenced “all those zeros” but did not say the exact amount.

In 2020, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Trump’s campaign shared a news release that highlighted several moments he reportedly supported Americans with disabilities. One of these highlights was about Megan and said she had brittle bone disease.

Jennifer Hudson stayed free at Trump hotel: Probably true

In 2008, Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother, and nephew were murdered in Chicago. Trump moved Hudson and her family into his Chicago hotel at no charge and had his security team watch over them while they grieved.

Snopes previously investigated this claim in 2016. E! Online reported on Oct. 31, 2008, that Hudson checked into the Trump International Hotel & Tower on Oct. 24, following the murder of her mother, brother and nephew by her former brother-in-law.

The outlet reported that Trump himself was paying for the stay, something Trump also told People magazine on Nov. 10. It was unclear how long Hudson stayed at Trump’s hotel.

Hudson has never publicly refuted Trump’s claim that he paid for her stay or named herself or anyone else other than Trump as having paid.

A check for bus driver who saved woman from suicide: True

In 2013, a Buffalo bus driver named Darnell Barton saw a woman standing at the edge of a bridge. He stopped the bus, walked over, put an arm around her, and talked her back to safety. Trump read about it and mailed Barton a check, because he thought a man like that deserved a reward.

Snopes found this claim to be true in 2016. A Buffalo radio station reported photos from a ceremony on Nov. 7, 2013, during which Barton received the $10,000 check (archived) that Trump had promised on social media after Barton’s Oct. 18 rescue of an apparently suicidal woman he spotted while driving his bus.

Money for a Marine arrested in Mexico: True

In 2014, Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi spent seven months in a Mexican prison after he took a wrong turn at the border with legally owned guns in his truck. President Obama never placed the call to Mexico that the sergeant’s family begged for. Trump sent Tahmooressi a check for $25,000 to help him rebuild his life once he got home.

Snopes previously investigated this claim in 2018. We found at the time that Tahmooressi was arrested after he crossed the Mexican border while carrying guns and ammunition that he legally owned in the U.S. — but wasn’t permitted to carry in Mexico — and was imprisoned for seven months. 

We could not substantiate his claims about abuse and mistreatment by Mexican authorities that also circulated at the time.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs reported on Oct. 31, 2014, that Tahmooressi had been released from Mexican jail. Trump pledged (archived) on social media on Nov. 10, 2014, that he would send Tahmooressi a check for $25,000. We reported in 2016 that Trump made good on his promise the next day, writing to Tahmooressi:

You have served our country with fortitude and dignity, and we are fortunate to have someone like you as a brave Marine and protector of our wonderful nation. We are proud of you and I wish you and your family the very best for many years to come.

According to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and reporting by the Los Angeles Times, Republican and Democratic politicians alike had pushed for Tahmooressi’s release. Any involvement or lack thereof by then-President Barack Obama was unclear.

College money for beauty queen’s son: True

In 2016, Melissa Young stood at a Trump rally in Wisconsin and cried while she thanked him. She had competed as Miss Wisconsin USA in 2005, then got sick with an illness that has no cure. During her worst stretch, a handwritten note arrived from Trump calling her the bravest woman he knew. She said the doors Trump opened for her ended up giving her Mexican-American son a full ride to college.

During a Trump campaign rally in Janesville, Wisconsin, on March 29, 2016, Young told the then-candidate that his organizations, including the Miss USA pageant and the since-defunct crowdfunding platform FundAnything.com, had helped secure her Mexican-American son a full ride to college.

Young, who competed as Miss Wisconsin in the Miss USA pageant in 2005, said she suffered from an incurable illness and that at one point when she was in hospital, Trump sent her a handwritten letter addressed to the “bravest woman I know.”

In 2016, Snopes reported on Young’s story and the open letter to Trump she posted on Facebook (archived) in July 2015. That letter explained that Miss USA 2005 Chelsea Cooley had started a fundraiser for Young’s son after attending the launch of FundAnything.com, which would allow him a full ride to college.

It was unclear whether Trump personally paid anything into Cooley’s fundraiser for Young’s son. (The claim does not say specifically that he did.)

Young posted (archived) on Facebook in August 2026 that her son would be a high school senior that coming school year.

Lynne Patton’s reply to claims Trump was racist: True

That same year, Lynne Patton, a Black executive at the Trump Organization, put out a video answering the people calling her boss a racist. She admitted she had fought addiction for years. She said the Trump family never pushed her out. They stood by her the whole way.

Patton, who was at the time the vice president of the Eric Trump Foundation, spoke at the July 20, 2016, Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Before she took the stage, a five-minute video essay played in which Patton criticized “repeated and reprehensible” attempts to “align my boss and his family with racist hate-mongering groups campaigns and messaging” (time code 0:14).

Patton called the Trump family, “one of the most generous, compassionate and philanthropic families I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing” (time code 0:39).

Patton’s video essay and following appearance did not include mention of addiction. This part of the claim may have come from her later media appearances. For example, in April 2025, Patton discussed her history with cocaine addiction with Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife, on Fox News. During that interview, Patton also talked about how the Trump family had supported her through her addiction.

After Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, he appointed Patton to a role in the Department of Housing and Urban Development overseeing a region covering New York and New Jersey. During his second administration, Trump appointed Patton as deputy assistant to the president and director of minority outreach.

Patton previously served a suspension from government work for a violation of the Hatch Act, which regulates the partisan political activities of federal employees, during her time at HUD.

Cancer treatment for campaign volunteer’s father: Mostly true

Also in 2016, a young Illinois volunteer named Shane Bouvet told reporters that Trump had stepped in to cover his father’s cancer treatment. His father, Donald Bouvet, beat the cancer. Trump has stayed in touch with the family ever since.

Trump met with Bouvet and his father, Donald, on Feb. 9, 2018. The president said he had first read about Shane Bouvet in The Washington Post ahead of his January 2017 inauguration.

The Post reported at the time that Bouvet was a Trump supporter and volunteer social media coordinator for the Trump campaign in Illinois. The article noted that Bouvet’s father had cancer and that Bouvet and his mother both faced layoffs and difficulties finding well-paid work.

Trump said in February 2018:

I said, “I’d like to meet him.” Nice young man, had a lot of difficulty. And I gave him some money for himself — $10,000. His father, Donald — good name — was suffering and really on a pretty final path toward losing his life with cancer. Shane took the $10,000, and, rather than spending it on himself, he gave it to his father.  And his father went to a very good cancer clinic or hospital because he was at hospitals before and they didn’t do so well.

Trump continued:

And they did a fantastic job, and Donald is now cancer-free. And I think it’s an incredible story where a son would give 100 percent of the money to his father, who he loves, obviously.

As such, though Bouvet ended up spending Trump’s money on cancer treatment for his father, Trump suggested that was not how he intended the money to be spent when he gave it to Bouvet. It was unclear whether Trump remained in contact with the Bouvet family at the time of this writing.

Loans to Black entrepreneurs: Unproven

And there is a story that has floated around New York business circles for years. A Black business owner could not get a loan anywhere in the city. Someone told him to go see Trump. Trump lent him the money and told him to pay it back when he could. The man came back later with a check and said the business was doing well. Trump tore the check up.

Snopes could not determine the source of this rumor. An oft-cited source was the Joe Brown, a former TV judge, who appeared on a podcast in 2019. When asked on the podcast whether Trump was a racist, Brown said (time code 1:07:43):

I don’t think so. I have talked to a number of Black entrepreneurs who, back in the late ’80s and ’90s were, early ’90s, were trying to get financing. They couldn’t. Somebody told them to go check with Donald Trump. So they come back and tell me they got a loan from Donald Trump. He gave him a term loan: Show up with the interest in the principal [unintelligible] but they had to go see him in person. They independently relayed this tale that when they saw him he said, “That’s what you’re supposed to pay me, this is our agreement?” say “Yeah,” and then tore the check up, shook their hands and “Congratulations, now run your business.”

We found no evidence that Trump, his campaign or individual business owners had ever publicly confirmed giving or receiving such loans. We attempted to contact Brown to ask if he could put us in contact with Black business owners who received loans from Trump in the early 1990s. We also contacted the Trump Organization to ask about the rumor. We await replies to our queries.

Snopes’ archives contributed to this report

Sources

Brown, Bridget. “Live Updates: Trump Goes After Supreme Court for Rejecting His Push to Restrict Mail Ballots.” AP News, 15 Sept. 2026, https://apnews.com/live/supreme-court-mail-ballots-trump-news-updates-09-15-2026. Accessed 18 Sept. 2026.

“President Trump Adds His Own Name to the Kennedy Center.” NPR, 18 Dec. 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/12/18/nx-s1-5648519/kennedy-center-name-change-trump. Accessed 18 Sept. 2026.

Semones, Evan. “Kennedy Center Closes Amid Financial Crisis and Trump Name Dispute.” Al Jazeera, 15 Sept. 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/15/kennedy-center-closes-amid-financial-crisis-and-trump-name-dispute. Accessed 18 Sept. 2026.

Sloan, Steven, and Ashraf Khalil. “Kennedy Center Board Votes to Close Over Finances and Trump Dispute.” AP News, 15 Sept. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-center-closure-board-trump-ruling-1dfbfaac695f6817719477101b971a54. Accessed 18 Sept. 2026.

“The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Our Story.” Www.Kennedy-Center.Org, https://www.kennedy-center.org/our-story/. Accessed 18 Sept. 2026.

Travers, Karen, et al. “Trump Says Kennedy Center Could Be ‘Ripped Down’ If He Doesn’t Get ‘Recognition.’” ABC News, 17 Sept. 2026, https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-kennedy-center-ripped-recognition/story?id=136513298. Accessed 18 Sept. 2026.

WEISSERT, WILL. “Trump Says He’s Firing Kennedy Center Board of Trustees Members and Naming Himself Chairman.” AP News, 8 Feb. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-kennedy-center-board-chairman-firings-21cd0018c6e9f591d59becea8573d8c0. Accessed 18 Sept. 2026.

Kennedy-Center.Org, 2021, https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/honors/. Accessed 18 Sept. 2026.

Did Trump Use a Concrete Wall Metaphor During a 2004 Commencement Speech?

Jan. 10, 2019

Donald Trump in 2004: “‘If there’s a concrete wall in front of you, go through it, go over it, g …

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Claim:

A meme accurately cites facts and fundraising figures in comparing prosecutors charging Lindsay Clancy with killing her three children, with Clancy receiving more than $1 million in fundraising, and the story of Emma Schols sustaining severe burns while rescuing her six children from a house fire, then receiving only $42,000 in fundraising.

Rating:

What’s True

The meme provides some factual information about both stories and, as of this writing, an accurate GoFundMe tally of donations earmarked to defray Clancy’s parents’ travel and housing costs as they attended the trial. Also, it’s true that a Swedish news outlet reported that a church deacon in that country organized a fundraiser equaling, at current currency conversion rates, about $42,000. However …

What’s False

… the meme omits additional fundraisers and sponsors who pledged to help rebuild Schols’ home, according to information found in the same Swedish news outlet mentioned above and her 2022 book.

In late summer 2026, people shared a meme pitting a story of heroism involving a mother named Emma Schols against that of Lindsay Clancy’s murder case.

Schols’ story of heroism, which involved saving her six children from a house fire and sustaining severe burns in the process, appears on the meme’s left side, with a fundraising figure of $42,000. 

The right side features Clancy, the mother at the center of a highly-publicized Massachusetts murder trial — which ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4, 2026 — in which prosecutors charged her with killing her three young children, along with a purported GoFundMe fundraising figure exceeding $1 million.

On Sept. 15, an Instagram user posted (archived) the meme, which reads under photos of Schols: “Mother pulls all 6 of her children out of raging house fire, going back in three times despite burns covering 93% of her body. Money raised: $42,000.” Clancy’s caption reads: “Mother kills all 3 of her children by strangling them to death with exercise bands. Claims she is victim. GoFundMe: $1,044,318+.”

(@davidjharrisjr via Instagram)

Other users shared the meme on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived) and X (archived).

In sum, Schols’ book and news media outlets’ reporting confirm the meme features a few specific facts but also omits key information. For these reasons, we have rated the meme’s content as a mixture of true and false information.

Snopes emailed Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s attorney, and Schols to request comment.

Breaking down the Schols-Clancy meme

Schols, who lives in Sweden, saved all six of her children in a Sept. 3, 2019, house fire, taking three trips to remove all of them from the inferno. Her 2022 coauthored book, “Ärren bär jag med stolthet: branden i Edsbyn och livet efteråt,” which translates to “I Carry the Scars with Pride: The Fire in Edsbyn and Life Afterwards,” tells her harrowing story, including the fact that 93% of her body sustained burns, as the meme claims.

In September 2019, Swedish news media outlet SVT, quoting church deacon Christer Schwartz, reported Schols’ fundraising total at 400,000 Swedish krona, or at current exchange rates about $42,000. According to that report, Schwartz’s fundraiser was one of several on Schols’ behalf but no other figures were reported. 

On top of Schwartz’s and other fundraisers, a February 2020 charity hockey match reportedly collected an additional 200,000 Swedish krona ($21,000). Schols says in her book that people and companies also initially pledged to sponsor the rebuilding of her house, though she adds some of those sponsors pulled out after she separated from her partner.

As for Clancy, The Associated Press, Reuters and other outlets reported she admitted strangling her children with exercise bands on Jan. 24, 2023, and pleaded not guilty to her initial charges, which included three counts each of first-degree murder, strangulation and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors later dropped the strangulation charges, saying they were redundant to the murder charges.

The organizer of the Clancy case GoFundMe (archived), titled “The Musgrove Family Fund,” described the purported recipients of the fundraiser as Clancy’s parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove, citing their hotel, travel and relocation costs to stay close to their daughter over more than three years. The in-question meme does not mention Clancy’s parents, instead making the allegation that Clancy herself will one day collect the funds. At last check, the fundraiser had grown to more than $1.2 million with a goal of $3 million, bringing in more than 35,900 individual donations.

The meme adds that Clancy has claimed she’s the victim. During her criminal trial in summer 2026, Reddington, her attorney, said “there is evidence of lack of criminal responsibility” and suggested “a required finding of not guilty should be entered on the case.” He repeatedly argued Clancy suffered from postpartum psychosis, a disorder an estimated one or two in 1,000 women experience after giving birth that can include delusions, depression, hallucinations, insomnia, paranoia and other changes in behavior. Prosecutors, on the other hand, argued she knew what she was doing.

Schols’ harrowing rescue story

On Sept. 3, 2019, Schols awoke before 6 a.m. in her home to early-morning light shining through her window, with the faint memory of minutes earlier hearing some of her children playing in another room.

In Schols’ book, which we translated to English, she said her then-partner, Anders, was working a night shift, leaving her to sleep alone. She wrote of the morning, “Great, I think, now I have a few minutes to lie down and catch up before I have to start my morning routine.” 

Moments later, the book recounts, she felt a very different sense of “fear, panic and desperation” when one of her children screamed from downstairs, “Help, mom, there’s a fire. There’s a fire in the TV room!” 

She wrote, “To make sure all the children have woken up, I scream at the top of my lungs: ‘Everyone has to get out of the house!’”

In the minutes that followed, Schols first managed to guide her young children Albin and Oliwer out the front door, then looked for William, Melwyn and Nellie. After seeing William and showing Melwyn to safety, she made it to her youngest child, Mollie, who was standing in her crib with a full diaper. 

Schols became unable to move from the flames covering her body. She wrote, “If I have managed to give birth to six children, I will swear to get six children out of this burning house,” and that she gathered strength, picked up Mollie and looked to escape. She described William as positioning a ladder they happened to have left out from a long-neglected painting job as their method of escape from the balcony.

Once outside, Schols described hearing her dog, Sally, inside making noises and thinking of her cat as well. A neighbor, seeing burns all over Schols’ body, told her it was too late to save her pets.

Several Swedish outlets published news of the fire on the same day.

Following extensive hospital stays for her burns and a period of rehabilitation, Schols returned home.

In her book, Schols wrote of Schwartz, the deacon, organizing the fundraiser following the fire. A Facebook post from days after the incident mentions Schwartz by name.

Schols said locals helped find clothes for her children, writing, “I am struck by the incredible care that exists in our country.” Other examples of that care included “Playing for Emma,” a charity hockey match organized in Schols’ honor in February 2020. Schols wrote about the match, as well as her family’s home insurance situation at the time of the fire:

On Sunday, February 2nd, a tribute match will be held for me, where the money raised will go to help me and my family get back on their feet. For all the years we have had home insurance, but just a month or so before the accident, we had, due to our financial situation, fallen behind on that particular bill. This fact is something I am ashamed of today. As I have been mulling this question over here in the hospital. This very month, when the house burns down, we were forced to skip that bill. What are the odds of that?

Later in December 2020, the Swedish Heroes Gala awarded Schols the title “Lifesaver of the Year.”

Near the end of her book, Schols wrote that some companies and people sponsoring the rebuilding of their former home pulled out after she and Anders separated.

To close her book, Schols thanked numerous locals and medical personnel, as well as her family, former partner and friends, saving a message for her children for last:

My biggest thanks go to William, Nellie, Melwin, Albin, Oliwer and Mollie. I may have saved your lives, but you are the absolute biggest heroes in this whole story. You are my everything and I love you with all my heart.

For further reading, we previously reported on other matters involving donations, including a rumor alleging prison inmates donated over $4,000 to a Kansas school district’s lunch debt.

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