Tag: Snopes News

Since the days immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. President Donald Trump, a native of New York City, has made numerous claims about what he saw that day and his involvement in the recovery efforts.

One such claim Trump has repeatedly made is his assertion that he was at Ground Zero within days of 9/11 and that he sent workers to the recovery effort at the site of the World Trade Center.

In September 2026, multiple X users debated the veracity of the claim. For example, one user (archived) wrote, “There’s no proof Trump sent a large group of construction workers to Ground Zero.”

Other popular (archived) posts (archived) said there was no evidence Trump, himself, went to Ground Zero and helped with recovery efforts.

Another X post (archived) alternatively claimed, “President Trump is dropping VIDEO PROOF for every Fake News outlet lying to millions that he was nowhere near Ground Zero after 9/11.”

(X)

Many Snopes readers searched the site to find out if Trump’s claims were true.

A couple of days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Trump told multiple news media outlets that he sent at least 100 workers to Ground Zero to help pull people and bodies out of the rubble, with 125 to 150 more on the way. However, Snopes has never been able to identify any public evidence that crews he hired helped in the immediate recovery of the 9/11 attacks. Since we cannot independently confirm with certainty whether Trump had crews on site somewhere, we are leaving this claim unrated.

Footage of interviews Trump conducted in the immediate days after 9/11 placed him within blocks of Ground Zero. Trump said in those interviews that he visited Ground Zero to encourage the workers he said he brought to assist with clearing rubble at the site. It was not possible to find evidence showing Trump helped clear the pile of debris at Ground Zero, as some posts disputed.

In a phone call with a local news media station immediately after the planes crashed into the Twin Towers, Trump said he watched the towers fall from the window of one of his buildings.

Trump’s September 2026 remarks

On Sept. 8, 2026, in a post on Truth Social (archived), Trump continued to maintain that he was at Ground Zero with construction workers after 9/11, clarifying that it was “obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter”:

The Failing New York Magazine wrote a story that I wasn’t down at the World Trade Center after the Tragedy of September 11th, because nobody saw me there. Well, I don’t think I would be the first thing on anyone’s mind but, I was there, obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter, with a large group of Construction Workers.

He then added he “was there as soon as the Law allowed.”

The president was referencing a New York Magazine article disputing his comments about where he was on the day of, and the days following, the attacks.

Trump also made this claim (archived) in a Fox News interview two days prior, in which he added the additional context that he was constructing a new building in New York City. This is the reason, according to Trump at a 9/11 anniversary event on Sept. 8, why he had workers who he could bring to the rubble of the World Trade Center:

I was building a big building in New York and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened and they had no hesitation. Everybody went down with me. We went down as a big group of people. It wasn’t too much we could do, I’ll be honest.

What Trump told the media in 2001

Trump spoke to the media multiple times a few days after 9/11. On Sept. 13, he told a German news channel, that he had more than 100 men down at the site of the World Trade Center and more than 125 on their way. According to the German-speaking reporter, the interview was conducted a few blocks from Ground Zero.

That same day, NBC News interviewed Trump at what appeared to be the same location as his interview with the German news channel. Trump said he had “hundreds of men inside working right now” and was bringing down another 125.

PBS has a recording of another Trump interview from Sept. 13, in which Trump said he had 100 workers helping to dig people and bodies out of the rubble at the World Trade Center, with another 100 to 150 workers “coming.” He told PBS that those workers were “digging out” at the site.

In another interview from that day, Trump told reporters his workers had been at Ground Zero “for about a day and a half.” He said they were men from his company and that a couple had gotten hurt while working at the site. He also said he was just down at Ground Zero and was there to support them.

The evidence

When Snopes first researched this claim in 2018, we spoke to Richard Alles, a retired deputy chief with the New York City Fire Department, who later served as director of 9/11 community affairs for the law firm Barasch McGarry Salzman and Penson. Alles said that in all his time he spent at Ground Zero as a New York City Fire Department battalion chief, starting 20 minutes after the buildings collapsed, he never saw a large group of workers whom Trump had hired at the site assisting with search and rescue efforts. “This is the first I’m hearing of it,” Alles said via phone call. “There would have been no need for that. Between police, fire and the construction crews, we had it all covered.”

Alles added that the construction crews he saw at Ground Zero helping rescue workers were from the trade unions and were not hired by Trump.

John Feal, founder of the 9/11 first responder health advocacy nonprofit the FealGood Foundation, told Snopes at the time that he responded to Ground Zero on Sept. 12, 2001, as a construction demolitions expert and that he didn’t see evidence of hundreds of workers hired by Trump at the site.

The Trump Organization was building in New York City in 2001, according to the Skyscraper Center database on skyscrapers. In fact, it finished a series of residential buildings in the city at Trump Place between 1998 and 2004. He was also building the Trump World Tower residential building near the United Nations Headquarters that year.

However, it was not possible to find verifiable information about how many people, either directly employed by Trump or contracted to work on one of the Trump Organization’s projects, were working on these buildings and in New York City at the time.

A New York Times fact-check from July 2019 referenced Timothy O’Brien, the author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald,” who reportedly said the Trump Organization numbered “a little bit over a dozen people” at the time of the attacks, making it impossible to send as many workers to the relief effort as Trump claimed.

Neither the White House nor the Trump Organization responded to Snopes’ requests for corroborating evidence in 2018. This lack of response is consistent with past attempts by Politifact, The Washington Post, The New York Times and Politifact again to reach out to the White House and/or the Trump Organization to corroborate evidence of Trump’s claims.

Snopes contacted the Trump Organization by email to request evidence that its workers or contractors assisted in recovery efforts following the attacks on the World Trade Center. We will update this article if and when we receive a reply.

Snopes’ archives contributed to this report.

In 2026, the U.S. marked the 25th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. As U.S. President Donald Trump commemorated the occasion in a speech on Sept. 8, he claimed that he was rescued by firefighters in New York City just after the attack. 

Snopes readers asked us to confirm if Trump was indeed rescued by firefighters from the possible collapse of the United States Steel Building, a historic name for the building now known as One Liberty Plaza.

Other readers claimed Trump said firefighters pulled “him from the rubble at 9/11.” 

Posts sharing versions of the rumor appeared on platforms including Facebook and X.

Some posts incorrectly claimed Trump said the firefighters pulled him from the rubble at Ground Zero. That was a misrepresentation or misunderstanding of what Trump actually said.

On Sept. 8, 2026, Trump recounted his purported rescue by two firefighters during a speech (emphasis ours): 

I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened.

And they were — they had no hesitation. Everybody went down with me; we went down as a big group of people. Wasn’t too much we could do, I’ll be honest. It was raw; nobody had seen anything like it ever. We had other buildings — the United States Steel Building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is, it creaked a lot; it creaked, it still creaks, but it never came down. And I’ll never forget two firemen — we thought it was coming down on top of us and two firemen, big, strong guys — and I’m not the smallest guy in the world. They grabbed me under the arms, said got to get out of here, and they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do, I’m big.

They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said fellas, I can run myself. But they were amazing, but they thought it was coming down; it didn’t come down, US steel. 

Trump made several claims in this part of the speech: first, he said he “took the whole crew down” to Ground Zero to help after the attack. Second, he claimed that the “United States Steel Building was creaking” and in danger of collapsing on him. Third, he claimed he was saved by two firefighters. 

We investigated Trump’s claim that he went to Ground Zero with a group of workers immediately after the 9/11 attacks in a separate article and found no public records to support it, though we cannot rule out that it happened.

We have no evidence to support Trump’s claim that he was rescued by two firefighters at One Liberty Plaza, though television interviews place him in the vicinity in the aftermath of 9/11. As such, we leave this claim unrated until more information becomes available.

We reached out to the White House to ask about Trump’s location after the attack, the identity of the firefighters and more. The White House did not answer our questions and sent us the following statement from spokesperson Davis Ingle over email: 

President Trump spent the morning yesterday paying tribute to the heroic first responders who laid down their lives in service to others in the September 11th attacks and honoring their incredible families. The President was relaying his experience of a city reeling immediately after and in the days and weeks after the horrific attacks – and the fact that the failing legacy media is using this to try to attack him is a disgrace and yet another reason why Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low.

Below, we address the claims Trump made about being at One Liberty Plaza and his alleged rescue by firefighters.

Was Trump at One Liberty Plaza?

There is video evidence that Trump was near Ground Zero in the days after the attack, but we found no proof that he was actually inside the nearby One Liberty Plaza. Trump’s remarks are not clear about where he was standing when the building was supposedly creaking. 

The White House did not respond to our request for photo or video evidence of Trump’s proximity to One Liberty Plaza specifically. 

Trump’s claim that the building was in danger of collapse was incorrect. Right after the attack, many reportedly expressed concerns that the building would collapse, but officials at the Department of Buildings debunked the claims. According to an October 2001 New York Times report, the building remained structurally sound even on Sept. 12:

”There are no structural concerns with this building,” said Ilyse Fink, the director of communications for the city’s Department of Buildings, reinforcing a message she has delivered almost daily since Sept. 12. ”It is not and was not in danger of collapse. The building is structurally sound.”

Did firefighters save Trump from a potential building collapse?

Given that we do not know exactly where Trump was around One Liberty Plaza, and that we know the building was never in danger of collapse, it is not clear which building and which firefighters Trump was referring to in his Sept. 8 speech.  

The White House also did not respond to our question about the identity of the firefighters. Without any firefighters corroborating Trump’s account, this claim remains unproven. 

In sum, while we know Trump was in the vicinity of Ground Zero in the days after the attack, we do not have evidence that he was in One Liberty Plaza, nor that he was rescued by firefighters. We also know that the building was not in danger of collapse. Trump did not mention other buildings in his remarks. 

Snopes has fact-checked many of Trump’s claims in the aftermath of 9/11. 

Claim:

Shortly after Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in September 2025, his wife, Erika Kirk, announced she was pregnant with their third child.

Rating:

Months after Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025, a rumor circulated online that his widow, Erika Kirk, had announced she was pregnant shortly after her husband’s death.

The claim about her supposed pregnancy resurfaced (archived) about a year after Kirk’s killing, with many people online noting that the baby should have been born by then.

Some social media users speculated it was an example of the “Mandela Effect” — a phenomenon that occurs when people collectively misremember reality.

“Wait wasn’t erika kirk supposed to be pregnant or is that some kind of mandela effect?” one TikTok user asked in July 2026. The post (archived), which received more than 4.2 million views as of this writing, was captioned: “It’s been well over 9 months.”

Dozens of Snopes readers searched searched the site for answers.

While Erika Kirk has repeatedly talked about the two children she had with Charlie Kirk, there’s no evidence that she announced she was pregnant again after her husband was assassinated. The rumor has persisted since the shooting took place. We first looked into it in September 2025 and found no evidence that it was true. 

In November 2025, during an interview with conservative commentator Megyn Kelly, Erika Kirk said that she and Charlie Kirk had wanted four children. 

“I was praying to God that I was pregnant when he got murdered,” she said. “I was like, oh goodness, that would be the ultimate blessing out of this catastrophe.” 

She did not confirm she was pregnant at any point during the interview.

Despite dozens of false claims — often generated using artificial intelligence tools — that Erika Kirk announced she was pregnant after her husband died, Snopes found no evidence in publicly available sources that she made such an announcement.

For further reading, we previously investigated claims that Erika Kirk lost her children in a custody battle and that she had an affair with U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

Real Charlie Kirk quote about Black pilot qualifications circulates online

Sept. 12, 2025

During a 2024 podcast episode, Kirk said, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, ‘Boy, I ho …

Read More

Claim:

A screenshot authentically shows a social media post from U.S. President Donald Trump that said, “Unless Canada agrees to pay a 100% TARIFF on Niagara Falls, we will be turning off the tap to the falls. That’s right — NO WATER FOR CANADA!”

Rating:

A rumor circulated online in September 2026 that U.S. President Donald Trump shared a social media post threatening to turn off the water to Niagara Falls, a natural landmark famously shared by the U.S. and Canada, unless Canada agreed to pay a “100% tariff.”

People on social media shared a purported screenshot of a Truth Social post that appeared to show Trump complaining about trade relations with Canada. The text read (emphasis ours):

NO MORE FREE NIAGARA FALLS FOR CANADA! For far too long, Canada has been enjoying our water, our views, our tourists, and our great American waterfall — NIAGARA FALLS! They get the Canadian side, they take the mist, the water, and billions of dollars from tourism, all while treating the United States unfairly on trade, lumber, energy, and so many other things. It’s a total disgrace! Effective immediately, unless Canada agrees to pay a 100% TARIFF on Niagara Falls, we will be turning off the tap to the falls. That’s right — NO WATER FOR CANADA! We have the control. We have the valves. We can reduce the flow, or shut it down completely, and we will if necessary. Canada has been taking advantage of the United States for decades, getting a world-famous natural resource basically for free while insulting our country and making it harder for American businesses. That ends now! If they want the water, the mist, the tourism, and the beauty of Niagara Falls, they must pay 100% or they don’t get it. No more free rides, no more unfair treatment, and no more taking advantage of the United States. AMERICA FIRST! KEEP OUR WATER IN AMERICA! Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

President DONALD J. TRUMP

The alleged post circulated online as Trump escalated an ongoing trade war with Canada, leading many Snopes readers to ask us whether it was real.

(@CoffinItUp on X)

The post was fake. Searches of the president’s Truth Social and X accounts, as well as an online archive of Trump’s Truth Social posts, revealed no such post.  

Addtionally, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo returned no relevant results from reputable news outlets. If the president had really said he planned on “turning off the tap to the falls,” journalists with reputable news outlets such as The Associated Press or Reuters would have widely reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence. That was not the case.

A reverse image search of the screenshot in question found only other social media accounts posting the same fake image.

The fake screenshot included a watermark for Real America’s Voice, a conservative media outlet that highlights community contributions. However, a search of ARV’s social media accounts and website revealed no mention of a Trump post discussing Niagara Falls. 

The fake post circulated amid the United States’ trade war with Canada, which has led to tit-for-tat tariffs on goods from both countries.

It appeared the fake post was created to poke fun at these events, including a real social media post from Trump about renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.”

Snopes could not determine the origin of the fake post or whether it was intended as satire, but its tone and relevance to current events matched the style of other fake Trump posts with satirical origins.

Trump alone couldn’t simply “turn off the tap” for Niagara Falls, as its water is managed by the 1950 Niagara Treaty, which established a committee that “oversees the water flow over the Niagara Falls for display purposes” and “determines the amount of water available for generating power.” 

The committee reports to both the U.S. and Canadian governments “and is comprised of government and private sector interests, such as Ontario Power Generation,” according to the Government of Canada’s website. 

For further reading, we fact-checked a claim that Trump posted an animated video of himself repeatedly hitting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with a hockey stick.

Claim:

U.S. President Donald Trump has promised $5,000 to every American adult if the Republicans win majority control of the Senate and House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections.

Rating:

Context

Trump has floated similar ideas before that have not led anywhere as of this writing. Furthermore, the president cannot unilaterally give Americans government money without congressional approval, nor is it clear how he would pay the approximately $1.2 trillion cost.

As the 2026 midterm election season kicked off, social media users claimed U.S. President Donald Trump said he would give every American adult $5,000 if Republicans win majority control of the government. 

The claim spread on X and Reddit. Many of the posts included clips of Trump appearing to make such a promise. Other posts suggested that such a promise would amount to bribery. 

Trump did, in fact, make this pledge during the Sept. 9 Republican National Committee midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, with the added condition that Americans would have to spend the money in the United States. As such, we have rated this claim as true. 

However, such a proposal would require congressional approval and would cost approximately $1.2 trillion, making it an unrealistic promise. 

Shortly after Trump’s comments, Vice President JD Vance suggested in a Fox News interview that U.S. tariff revenue could pay for the so-called “Trump dividend” (see 5:50). However, credible estimates suggest the United States hasn’t made anywhere near enough through tariffs to cover such a dividend.  

While Congress signed off on one-time cash payments to Americans under the first Trump administration amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the president has floated similar ideas during his second term that have not materialized as of this writing. For example, he said he “loved” the idea of paying Americans a percentage of any money saved by the short-lived Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The president also said on Truth Social in November 2025 that he would pay a “dividend of at least $2,000” to “everyone.” 

Multiple readers asked us if the “Trump dividend” counted as bribing people to vote, or paying for votes, which is illegal under federal law. Vance defended the dividend idea against such allegations during his Fox News interview (see 5:28).

“The president is saying, if you keep it going, to the American people — if you keep us in power and allow us to continue to do these things, then you will share in some of the benefit of this incredible wealth that we are creating in the United States of America,” he said at 6:25. 

Defenders of the proposal may also say that the dividend is akin to politicians’ promises to cut taxes or offer varying benefits if they win. Without more details about how this proposal would actually work in practice, it’s impossible to say if a court would consider it bribery. Legal experts are reportedly skeptical that the pledge itself was illegal. 

In an emailed statement, the White House did not answer any of our questions requesting additional details about the dividend idea. Instead, spokesperson David Ingle said: 

Trump’s promise 

Trump’s full speech at the Republican National Committee midterm convention is widely available online through reputable news outlets such as The Associated Press. 

Here’s what he said about cash payments, starting at 57:10: 

If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate — both of them — because of our economic — tremendous economic success, like, in history, we’ve never had anything like what’s happening. But because of our tremendous strength and success, economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000. Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders, or like last year, when I gave our great members of the military $1,776. 

[…]

But the only condition on the payment of this dividend that we’re going to be making — so it’s $5,000 to every adult. The only caveat I have is that the dividend we’re making must be spent in the United States of America. We don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money. We don’t want you going to China, to Germany. You gotta spend the 

In other words, if the Republicans win — if you win — we might not win. The reason the Democrats don’t do that, is because they don’t do tariffs. They don’t take in money. All they know is poverty and how to ruin our country, but we’re making a fortune. So, if the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000. It will be called the ‘Trump dividend.’ 

Claim:

In 2026, some families of 9/11 victims signed a petition aimed at excluding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani from the 25th-anniversary commemoration ceremony of the attacks.

Rating:

Context

Some social media posts sharing the claim suggested that the petition represented the views of all of the families of the 2,976 people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There was no evidence that’s true.

In September 2026, as the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks neared, a claim (archived) circulated online that some families of 9/11 victims had signed a petition aimed at excluding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani from the 25th-anniversary ceremony commemorating the attacks.

For example, an X user shared a video of people gathering at New York City Hall and wrote:

A growing coalition of 9/11 victims’ families, first responders, and elected officials are calling on Mamdani to skip the Memorial Ceremony this Friday

An online petition urging organizers to block or reconsider Mamdani’s attendance has garnered over 100,000 signatures

Despite this Mamdani has reaffirmed his commitment to attend

Similar claims about people signing the petition also circulated on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived).

Claims circulated after the New York Post reported (archived) on a petition it said sought to “ban” Mamdani from the 9/11 anniversary commemoration.

That petition was real and had more than 100,000 signatures at the time of this writing. Giovanni Galante, whose wife died in the 9/11 attacks, started the petition, which asked organizers of the 25th-anniversary commemoration ceremony to “carefully consider whether Mr. Mamdani’s participation would align with the intention of the ceremony and the expectations of the families most directly affected by the tragedy.” Meryl Mayo-Marshall, whose husband died on 9/11, also told local media she had signed the petition and shared her comments in a Facebook post.

On Sept. 8, New York City councilmember Joann Ariola posted photos (archived) of a group of 9/11 victims’ families handing the petition in at city hall.

Given the above, we’ve rated the claim that some families of 9/11 victims signed a petition aimed at excluding Mamdani from the ceremony as true. 

Contrary to what some posts suggested, there was no evidence that the petition and its request to consider excluding Mamdani from the 9/11 commemoration ceremony represented the views of all of the families of the 2,976 people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In July, Galante reportedly estimated that up to 7,500 relatives of victims had signed the petition, but he told the self-described progressive Substack newsletter Popular Information that his estimate was not based on the actual list of signatories.

Snopes contacted Galante to request confirmation of the information he gave to the New York Post and Popular Information but did not receive a response by the time of publication. We also contacted Cheri Sparacio, a 9/11 victim’s wife who reportedly helped organize the petition, to ask about her involvement and await a reply.

When asked about the petition, a spokesperson from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum that was organizing the 25th- anniversary commemoration ceremony told Snopes in an emailed statement: 

We have intentionally worked to keep the commemoration free of politics because remembering those we lost on 9/11 should never be a partisan issue. Government officials from across the political spectrum, including every sitting president, governor, and mayor since 9/11, have attended the ceremony simply to bear witness — they do not deliver remarks and are asked to remain in a designated area.

The spokesperson did not reply to questions about whether the museum invited Mamdani to the ceremony and, if so, whether it would consider rescinding that invitation or asking him not to participate.

At the time of this writing, Mamdani had told reporters he expected to attend the ceremony. He told (archived) WCBS on Sept. 7:

What I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11th, and a focus also on the first responders who gave everything they could to this city and to the people who came together to try and help their fellow New Yorkers. And so, in the days to come, my focus will be on attending events that memorializes that incredible courage. And I will be there on Friday at the memorial just as I was last year.

Petition objects to Mamdani’s opinions, associations

According to the petition, family members of 9/11 victims were concerned about Mamdani’s “public positions, associations, and responses to rhetoric” that they perceived as not respectful of the victims, not recognizing the gravity of the 9/11 attacks and said failed to reject the “ideologies that contributed to such violence.”

The petition said that Mamdani had not condemned the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” which it said “many interpret as endorsing or normalizing violence.”

In a June 29, 2025, interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” then-Democratic candidate Mamdani repeatedly sidestepped requests to condemn the phrase, instead saying that it was not “language I use” but that the role of a mayor was not “to police speech.”

The petition noted other examples of Mamdani’s alleged lack of respect for 9/11 and its victims, including alleged political influence from his father, whose academic work has analyzed the rise and impact of suicide bombers and terrorism.

The petition also said Mamdani had “praised” the Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj. Mamdani faced criticism from Republicans after meeting with Wahhaj in October 2025 (archived, archived, archived).

Wahhaj, who has denied any terrorism links, once appeared on a court-ordered list of “unindicted persons who may be alleged as coconspirators” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, according to Andrew C. McCarthy, the lead prosecutor in the case. McCarthy wrote in October 2025 that prosecutors never alleged that Wahhaj was “a co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing or the overarching terrorism conspiracy.” He described the kind of list in which Wahhaj was included as “overly inclusive.”

Mamdani defended his meeting with Wahhaj to journalists, saying Wahhaj had previously met with other New York City mayors. Mamdani appeared to suggest that critics were placing undue emphasis on the fact that he and Wahhaj are both Muslims.

The petition also objected to Mamdani’s appointment (archived) of Ramzi Kassem as New York City’s chief counsel. Kassem represented Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi, who pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses involving a 2002 al-Qaida attack on a French-flagged oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. Al-Darbi later became the only prisoner released from the Guantánamo Bay detention camp during the first administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

For further reading, Snopes has investigated a number of claims about the 9/11 attacks.

Sources

Claim:

An image collage of six police booking photos circulating online in September 2026 authentically shows Vermont faith leaders who were arrested after protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Rating:

Context

The faiths represented among the protesters include a Quaker, two Protestant pastors, one Unitarian Universalist minister, one Methodist pastor, an Episcopalian priest and an Episcopalian archdeacon.

In September 2026, social media users shared an image collage of six mug shots and claimed the people depicted were among seven Vermont faith leaders who were arrested after protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The collage circulated on Threads and Facebook (screenshotted). 

These six mug shots are authentic and legitimately show faith leaders who were arrested after protesting ICE. Their mug shots are available on the Vermont State Police’s official news releases page and several of the faith leaders provided Snopes with comments that corroborated the version of events circulating online.

As such, we have rated this claim as true.

A seventh faith leader, a Quaker named Catherine Bock, was also among those arrested. Her mug shot was not included in the collage.

Faith leaders attempt to stop work at ICE center 

In an email, Rev. Rebecca Girrell, one of the protesters and a Methodist pastor, said the faith leaders were arrested on charges of trespassing after entering the ICE National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center in Williston, Vermont, which is located in a private business park. 

According to ICE, the surveillance center is where the agency “analyzes data in numerous law enforcement and immigration databases to develop leads on removable noncitizens” that are then provided to field offices. 

Vermont State Police’s news release (archived) also notes that the arrestees were protesting ICE (emphasis ours):

These individuals were among a group of people who entered the building to protest federal agencies — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement — that occupy space there alongside private businesses and a medical office. The building owner said the individuals were trespassing, refused to leave when asked, and requested that police remove them from the property.

State police, working in conjunction with the Williston Police Department, responded and spoke with protest leaders. That discussion led to several people leaving the inside of the building, while the others indicated they’d need to be arrested.

Girrell said the protesters were attempting to prevent ICE from being able to surveil and target their neighbors, “at least for a few hours,” in an act of civil disobedience, or a form of protest involving the nonviolent refusal to obey certain laws. By blocking the entrances to the ICE portion of the building, Girrell said they prevented employees from entering for their morning shift, shutting down the office temporarily. 

While a team of protesters on public property outside the building were not arrested, the faith leaders were blocking doors to the ICE office from inside the building, according to Girrell. 

“We sang, prayed, held silence, and read names of people killed in interactions with ICE,” she wrote. “At the time of the arrest, we knelt in silence. Five of us complied with arrest, and two clergy ‘went limp’ and were carried out by police.” 

Who are the arrested faith leaders? 

The names listed in the Vermont State Police news release match the names attached to the police booking photos circulating online, as shown below: 

The individuals arrested are:

• Catherine Bock, 78, of Burlington, VT
• Jessica Derise, 54, of Williston, VT
• Rebecca Girrell, 47, of South Burlington, VT
• Elizabeth Gleich, 36, of Middlebury, VT
• Karen Johnston, 58, of Colchester, VT
• Earl Kooperkamp, 69, of Bradford, VT
• Susan McMillan, 65, of Colchester, VT

Girrell confirmed that each of the seven arrested were faith leaders. They all also have public affiliations to religious orders, allowing the independent verification of their identities. The six mug shots circulating online all show ordained clergy. The remaining person, Bock — whose mug shot was omitted from the collage circulating online — is a Quaker and thus from a religious affiliation that does not ordain clergy.

Bock said in a phone call that her Quaker community knew she planned to protest and were in full support, but that she was acting from her “own conscience.”

She added that this was her fourth time protesting at the ICE facility and that she plans to attend future events, including actions scheduled from Oct. 4 to 9. She then said she saw parallels between ICE detention and her parents’ experiences escaping Nazi Germany. 

“I think that most people don’t want to see their brothers and sisters treated the way that ICE has treated people,” Bock added.

Revs. Derise and Gleich are Christian Protestant pastors. 

“As clergy, my faith does not allow me to remain silent while neighbors are dehumanized, detained, or separated from those they love,” Derise said in an emailed statement. “I protest peacefully because every person bears sacred worth, no government agency is beyond moral accountability, and solidarity must be practiced – not merely preached.”

Johnston is a Unitarian Universalist, a liberal religious tradition that unites people based on shared values, rather than a single creed. In an emailed statement, Johnston, a minister, said her faith’s values “call me and all people of conscience and faith to actively not cooperate with the system of cruelty that is fueled by this ICE spy center.” 

Kooperkamp is an Episcopalian priest and McMillan is an archdeacon from the same faith. In an email to the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont congregation, the diocese’s bishop, Shannon MacVean-Brown, expressed support for their protest. MacVean-Brown said the protest was planned “as a nonviolent action by a broad grassroots coalition of Vermont faith leaders.” 

“As Christians, we are called not only to bear witness to injustice but to act. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor, that is not a passive action. It is constant, immediate, and proactive,” MacVean-Brown’s statement reads. “Civil disobedience, which has a long history in our country and in the Episcopal Church, is one way we actively love our neighbors.” 

The email also includes a statement from McMillan, which says America’s “national leaders” claim to be Christian while authorizing “heinous and immoral policies.” 

“Every day, from this building, ICE surveils, determining which man, woman or child should be targeted. And then that person, or someone mistaken for that person, or a brown skinned person who happens to be nearby, is kidnapped, incarcerated without due process, and their life destroyed,” McMillan’s statement says. “If Jesus were here in the US today, he could easily be caught in this trap and deported. This is not Christianity and I have to fight this cruelty in every way I can.” 

ICE did not immediately return a request to respond to the faith leaders’ criticisms of the agency. Snopes also reached out to Gleich for her thoughts on the protest. We await a response. 

Claim:

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines called WNBA fans in Minneapolis a “bunch of disgruntled lesbians.”

Rating:

In September 2026, a claim circulated online that former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, who is now a conservative pundit, called Women’s National Basketball Association fans in Minneapolis “a bunch of disgruntled lesbians.” 

The purported quote spread on X (archived), Facebook and Instagram (archived), along with clips of Gaines. She reportedly said:

I went to the WNBA game in Minneapolis… it was a bunch of disgruntled lesbians. It felt like the entire arena was booing Sophie Cunningham.

Gaines did indeed make the above remarks on Fox News’ “The Big Weekend Show” on Sept. 5. As such, we’ve rated this claim as a correct attribution. 

Gaines was responding to a question from host Tomi Lahren, who asked why the WNBA wouldn’t define a “woman.” We have reproduced the exchange below (emphasis ours):

Lahren: …but what I find here so interesting is the WNBA with a “W” in their name, they won’t define a woman. And I can’t figure out if it’s because they have players that are currently playing that wouldn’t fit that definition … or is it because they don’t want to anger what they feel is a large part of their fanbase that is LGBTQ? Or is it a little bit of both? 

Gaines: I’m sure it’s a little bit of both. I can tell you. I went to the WNBA game in Minneapolis. Which you can expect … what the fanbase as it pertains to the WNBA in that city looks like. And it was a bunch of, like, disgruntled lesbians. And I think that the WNBA as a league, organizationally they recognize that. It felt like virtually everyone in that arena, first of all, you audibly heard it, anytime Sophie was subbed in, stepped on the court, touched the ball, threw up a shot, her name was announced on the loudspeakers … you heard the entire arena boo. It felt like they had been advised to only put people on the jumbotron who were draped in their trans flag … And the general public knows that is not indicative of real life. 

The full episode has been archived and the exchange takes place after 2:38 p.m. 

Gaines was referring to Sophie Cunningham, a WNBA player with the Indiana Fever, who has expressed opposition to transgender players’ participation in women’s sports. Gaines and Cunningham have also been photographed (archived) together. 

For further reading, Snopes has covered numerous satirical posts and claims about Gaines.

Sources

Claim:

The voter registration website VoteSafe.org was funded by Elon Musk’s America PAC and it collects and shares users’ personal information.

Rating:

In September 2026, social media users circulated warnings about a website called VoteSafe.org, an online voter registration hub that allegedly collects and shares users’ personal information.

Posts on platforms such as Facebook (screenshot), Threads and Bluesky also claimed America PAC — the political action committee tech billionaire Elon Musk founded — operates and funds VoteSafe.org. Snopes readers contacted us to verify this claim. 

VoteSafe.org is, indeed, funded by Musk’s America PAC, and according to the website’s privacy policy, it may collect and share users’ personal information. (VoteSafe.org also offers a way for users to opt out of having their personal information shared with third parties.) 

As such, we have rated this claim as true. 

The VoteSafe.org privacy policy page lists only one third party by name that it shares data with: a “business partner” called Western Creative Group. The company has no online presence; its Wyoming business license lists a law firm as its agent and organizer. The Washington Post reported in 2024 that Musk passed $20 million to “an advertising firm called Western Creative Group” to promote the idea that U.S. President Donald Trump “opposed a federal ban on abortion.”

We reached out to the law firm, Bailey Stock Harmon Cottam Lopez, to ask about its association with Western Creative Group and will update this story if we hear back. Snopes also asked America PAC for a list of third parties the political action committee shares information with. We await a response. 

It is also worth noting at least one Snopes reader asked whether Musk pays for Vote.org. Vote.org, another voter registration website, was established long before Musk’s VoteSafe.org. Unlike VoteSafe.org, Vote.org is run by a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and its tax filings and list of board members indicate that Vote.org has no affiliation with Musk. 

The similarly named official government voter registration page is vote.gov, as the “.gov” domain indicates. 

Elon Musk’s America PAC linked to Vote Safe website

The America PAC website (archived) prominently features a description on its homepage that says, “PAC Founded by Elon Musk.” According to Federal Election Commission data, the vast majority of America PAC’s funds come from Musk. 

The America PAC website also includes a banner that sends users to the VoteSafe.org webpage. 

On the VoteSafe.org webpage (archived), there are several additional indicators that America PAC funds VoteSafe.org. For example, the copyright notice at the bottom of the webpage says “AMERICA PAC.” Underneath the notice, a disclaimer reads: 

More on VoteSafe.org’s privacy policy 

VoteSafe.org’s privacy policy, last updated Aug. 29, 2026, says America PAC “may collect, use and disclose” contact information and data about users political interests, employment, demographics, social media and internet activity to third parties, including but not limited to its “business partners.” 

For example, here’s the privacy policy’s explanation on what America PAC may do with contact information: 

Contact Information. This may include your name, physical address, email address or telephone number.

• How We May Collect It: Directly from you; passively; or from third parties.
• How We May Use It: To provide and improve our Platform; to understand your interests; to communicate with you; for marketing purposes; for legal and security purposes; to combine information; as otherwise permitted by you or as we may notify you; or as directed by you.
• How We May Disclose It: Internally; on our Platform; with our business partners; with our service providers; with third parties for marketing purposes; with any successors to all or part of our business; to comply with laws or to protect ourselves; for other reasons we may describe to you; or as directed by you.
• We may share this information with our business partners for targeted marketing purposes or sell this information to our business partners. For more information about your right to opt out, please click here.

While the VoteSafe.org privacy policy references selling user information, it’s unclear whether America PAC directly sells information to third parties for monetary gain. That’s because — as the privacy policy notes — some U.S. privacy laws have broadened the “sale” of information to mean more than just a monetary exchange. 

In California, for example, the “sale” of information can involve any exchange of a consumer’s information “by a business to a third party” for any “valuable consideration.” 

There’s no clarification in the VoteSafe.org privacy policy about whether America PAC sells consumer information for money or for other reasons, aside from “targeted marketing purposes.” 

It is unclear how many third parties have received information from America PAC. The political action committee’s privacy policy notes that under California law, the state’s residents have the right to ask once a year “whether we have shared personal information with third parties for their direct-marketing purposes.” 

“To make a request, please submit a request via info@theamericapac.org,” the policy says.