Tag: Snopes News

Trump admin hasn’t proposed building interstate through Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Parks

July 12, 2026

Legislation introduced in Congress would designate U.S. Highway 287 as future Interstate 47, but …

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In the fall and summer of 2026, social media users claimed that Canada resold Chinese steel as Canadian to help China avoid U.S. tariffs. 

The rumor spread on Facebook and X (screenshot, screenshot). Snopes readers also contacted us to investigate its legitimacy. 

It is true that American businesses have accused Canadian companies — not the country’s government — of skirting tariffs by selling Chinese goods, including steel, as Canadian. In an August report, Trump’s administration also accused Canada of being one of “China’s biggest enablers” in helping evade tariffs in general through “transshipment,” or the shipment of goods from one country to another via a stop in yet another country.

In May, the Department of Justice reached a $19 million settlement with two Canadian companies over allegations that they “knowingly and improperly” failed to pay duties owed on steel manufactured in European and Asian countries, including China. The defendants denied the allegations and the settlement is not an admission of fault, but it also does not mean the United States’ allegations were unfounded, according to the court documents (Page 2). 

Snopes relies on independent verification and primary evidence for all of our conclusions. As of this writing, the courts have not determined that any Canadian company or government official has attempted to evade tariffs or help China avoid tariffs through this supposed scheme. Furthermore, there is not enough publicly available evidence that such a scheme has happened or is happening. As such, we have not rated this claim. 

We reached out to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Canada’s trade minister for the U.S., Dominc LeBlanc, for more information and await a response. 

It is also worth noting that the claims connected these allegations to the breakdown in U.S.-Canada trade talks in late summer 2026. That may be because Greer reportedly raised concerns to Canadian officials about the transshipment of Chinese steel through countries Canada is seeking new free-trade deals with.

Here’s what we know about the allegations:

US businesses accuse Canadian firms of avoiding tariffs

In December 2025, American industry leaders accused Canadian and Mexican firms of using cheap Chinese materials in ways that undercut U.S. businesses during a public hearing on the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. 

For example, here’s what Brandon Farris, vice president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, said, according to Page 135 of the official transcript for the Dec. 4, 2025 hearing:

Some producers of steel-intensive goods in both countries continue to rely on steel sourced from non-market, excess capacity nations such as China. From 2020 to 2024, Mexico’s steel imports from China rose by 59 percent, while Canada’s increased by nearly 75 percent. Just as Canada and Mexico have experienced rising imports from countries with chronic excess steel capacity, the U.S. has faced its own surge of steel products from both neighbors. 

Michael Salmon, CEO of Specialty Steel Works in Indiana, said that “China in particular continues to use Mexico as back door access to key U.S. markets, including steel” (Page 139). And Bob Wahlin, CEO of Stoughton Trailers, an American trailer manufacturer, said the United States must “close loopholes in the agreement” allowing “highly subsidized” Chinese steel to “enter the U.S. market from Canada and Mexico” (Page 244). 

DOJ, US government accusations against Canada 

The best publicly available evidence that at least some Canadian firms may be skirting tariffs on Chinese steel appears to be the previously mentioned Department of Justice settlement with two Canadian companies, Farjess and Royal Canadian Steel. 

According to the Justice Department’s complaint, the same people oversee Royal Canadian Steel and Farjess. Royal Canadian Steel imported steel into Canada and supplied that steel to Farjess (PDF pages 4 and 5).   

The DOJ alleged that Farjess and/or Royal Canadian Steel personnel removed labels on steel referencing a Chinese company in order to conceal the origin of the steel from customs officials (PDF pages 13 to 15). Allegedly, the companies replaced the Chinese labels with their own. Evidence submitted in court included scans of those labels (see Exhibits 7 and 8). 

While this scheme may have helped Chinese companies avoid tariffs, the Justice Department’s allegations focused on the benefits to the two Canadian firms — specifically, that they experienced “windfall profits” from the allegedly fraudulent activity (PDF Page 22). 

Skepticism of US claims and Canada’s response 

CBC reported in 2025 that Eric Miller, an expert on Canada-U.S. trade policy with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said Canada is “nowhere near as much of a back door for Chinese steel as the American companies make it out to be.” 

Miller reportedly said Canada is “quite militant” about prevention of Chinese transshipment because it wants to protect its own access to the U.S. market. 

“Any objective look at Canada’s track record would say that repeatedly over the last decade, Canada has seriously put in place measures to try to control imports of Chinese steel,” the CBC quoted Miller as saying. 

Indeed, in July 2025, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced measures to restrict and reduce foreign steel from entering the Canadian market amid fears from Canada’s steel industry that it would be overwhelmed by an influx of Chinese steel newly subject to U.S. tariffs.

Claim:

Adding a stamp to a postage prepaid ballot will “force” the U.S. Postal Service to handle it as first-class mail instead of bulk.

Rating:

Context

The U.S. Postal Service said on its website that it handles prepaid and stamped mail-in ballots as first-class mail unless voters pay for priority or priority express services.

In September 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that adding postage to a prepaid mail-in ballot would “force” the U.S. Postal Service to treat it as first-class mail, a service that allows postcards and small envelopes to be delivered in one to five days. 

The claim circulated as states began sending out mail-in ballots for the 2026 midterm elections, despite the Trump administration’s ongoing court battles to enforce an executive order that would restrict voting by mail.

One Threads user who shared the claim wrote:

By adding a 1st Class Postage Stamp to your postage prepaid ballot, it will then force USPS to handle it as 1st Class Mail, instead of Bulk Mail! SHARE EVERYWHERE!

 

The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived) and X (archived). Snopes readers contacted us to verify whether it was true.

The claim was false. According to the USPS, the service always handles mail-in ballots as first-class mail unless voters pay for priority or priority express services. In other words, adding additional postage will not expedite the delivery of a standard mail-in ballot. 

The USPS included the following message on its webpage about “Election Mail” (emphasis ours):

Mailpieces containing a completed ballot are handled as First-Class Mail® service, regardless of whether they are prepaid by election officials or mailed with a stamp affixed by the voter. The only situation where a completed ballot is not handled as First-Class Mail is when the voter opts to pay for a premium service like Priority Mail® service or Priority Mail Express® service.

Who pays postage on a mail-in ballot varies by state. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan, nonprofit organization that represents lawmakers in the 50 U.S. states, 19 states and Washington, D.C. require local election officials to pay postage while voters in other states must pay.

In a June 2026 FAQ, the USPS said its policy directs employees to deliver ballots with insufficient postage and attempt to recoup the payment from the local election board.

Mail-in ballot return deadlines vary by state. The USPS advises that voters mail their ballots “before Election Day, and at least one week prior to the deadline by which your completed ballot must be received by your election office.”

Voters can check deadlines for returning mail-in ballots with their local election office. Some states also allow voters to deliver completed ballots to drop boxes that are emptied by election officials, which eliminates the need to use the postal service to vote.

At the time of this writing, the Trump administration sought to implement new federal regulations on mail-in ballots that could require states to submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal and follow a uniform envelope style. In an August 24, 2026, opinion, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with implementing the proposed regulations but did not rule on whether they were legal.

The Associated Press reported that “legal wrangling” continued over Trump’s executive order in lower courts. Therefore, it was unclear at the time of this writing if, or how, the proposed changes to mail voting would affect the 2026 midterm elections.

Despite having previously voted by mail himself, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized mail voting, including after he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Snopes’ archives contributed to this report.

Sources

Claim:

The White House website has a series of arcade-style games that let players catch and deport migrants and build a border wall, among others.

Rating:

In September 2026, many people online claimed the White House had created its own arcade games and made them available to play on its website, including a game that involved catching migrants. 

Screenshots of the alleged online game spread on Instagram (archived), Facebook and X (archived). Snopes readers asked us to verify the claim.

The White House has launched an official government arcade featuring games designed to promote Trump administration policies. One has you play as a Border Patrol agent rounding up migrants. Another, called “Build the Wall,” asks players to defend the border from what the game literally calls the “coming horde.” This is not some random MAGA website or parody. It is official White House messaging on a .gov website, turning immigration enforcement and the detention of human beings into a game. We have officially entered the dystopian arcade portion of the timeline.

An X post shared footage from the alleged game:

The claim is true. The White House published a series of arcade-style games on its website on or about Sept. 3, including ones in which players are tasked with building a border wall and deporting unauthorized migrants. We found the games at the URLs whitehouse.gov/arcade (archived) and arcade.gov. 

The White House advertised the games in a social media post (archived) with the caption: “CAN’T STOP WINNING. 🎮 Build the wall. Deport. Fill a Trump Account.” A promotional graphic shared by the account appears to copy the logo font of Sega, a video game company, but replaces the company’s name with “MAGA,” referring to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”: 

There are several games available in the White House arcade as of this writing, including one called “Flappy Bill” that tells players to keep a piece of legislation in the air as a bald eagle flies past national monuments. 

Another game, called “Build the Wall” (archived), is captioned “Protect the border from the coming horde” and encourages players to stack falling bricks against green zombies running toward a wall. It also has an arrow with a sign saying “Southern Border.” 

The above game’s similarities to Tetris, a video game involving falling blocks, prompted a response from that company. Tetris posted on X: “The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of ‘Build the Wall’. P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously.”

A third game, “Rio Run” (archived), tells players to “Patrol the line along the river. Pick up every crosser in the lot. Never double back over the line.” When we clicked on the game and lost, a label came up saying “0 deported.” 

(arcade.gov)

Other games make players “sort the school lunch to Make America Healthy Again” or fill fake Trump savings accounts with money.

As of this writing, the games are still available on the White House website. 

For further reading, Snopes has previously reported on other online PR campaigns from Trump’s White House, including when it posted Spider-Man-inspired graphics of immigrants trapped in webs next to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. 

Outbreaks of cyclosporiasis, E. coli and salmonella sickened thousands of people across the U.S. in summer 2026, prompting widespread concern about the country’s food quality.

Searching for a reason behind the contaminated food, some people pointed to Project 2025, a sweeping proposal to overhaul the federal government released by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.

Posts appeared on social media claiming that Project 2025 recommended lower safety standards for food production. “Just a quick reminder that making food unsafe was a part of Project 2025,” some posts claimed. 

Other posts alleged more specifics, asserting a specific chapter of the roughly 1,000-page document at the center of Project 2025 (“Chapter 13”) outlined ways to create “food insecurity by cutting safety nets and slashing regulations and restrictions on food production.”

Snopes has done much reporting on Project 2025, including a report on the close ties between its authors and U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. The administration’s decisions have often mirrored ideas in the Project 2025 document, which touches on everything from immigration to abortion to climate change.

The claim linking Project 2025 to foodborne illnesses implied the following:

1. Project 2025 called for slashing food safety regulations and/or oversight.
2. The Trump administration followed those recommendations.
3. Those changes led to the recent outbreaks of foodborne illness.

To investigate, we reviewed the Project 2025 document, looking for passages that allegedly recommend cuts to “safety nets” or regulations that could make food less safe to eat. We also reached out to the Heritage Foundation and federal agencies in charge of food safety and regulations, the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration, and are waiting for replies.

Compared to other policy issues, the document contains very few ideas for changing the country’s food system. It uses vague language while discussing food safety and regulations, making its directives largely up for interpretation by the reader. For example, it calls for the federal government to limit the USDA’s role in food production without any specifics. 

Specifically, Project 2025 calls for changing regulations on three products — baby formula, red meat and poultry and genetically modified foods 

At no point does the document explicitly call for loosening food safety rules on a grand scale, nor outline budget and staffing cuts for the USDA or FDA. It also does not mention iceberg lettuce, jalapeño peppers, frozen blueberries or other foods that caused the wave of foodborne illnesses.

Complicating this assessment more, there’s no evidence to prove Project 2025 directly inspired any decisions by the Trump administration. The president has frequently attempted to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation’s effort, despite its overlap with many of his policies. 

As a result of the ambiguity and unknowns, Snopes did not rate the veracity of the claim.

When asked if Project 2025 impacted the administration’s thinking on food safety regulations, a White House spokesperson said Trump had “nothing to do with Project 2025.” 

Project 2025 aside, the Trump administration has made sweeping changes to the USDA and FDA in its purported attempt to eliminate unnecessary government spending. The departments have faced budget cuts and eliminated thousands of jobs related to food safety. 

Snopes asked the White House for its response to the claim that those changes created conditions for the wave of foodborne illnesses. The White House spokesperson said “FDA inspectors and other critical frontline personnel” at the USDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which traces foodborne illnesses, were not affected by the staffing reductions. 

Reporting by reputable journalists at ProPublica and other news outlets refuted that claim.

For example, in April 2025, ProPublica reported that the FDA lost workers who support inspections of “everything from dairy farms to seafood processors to blood banks,” including people “responsible for safeguarding food.”

What Project 2025 says

Project 2025 dedicates an entire chapter to the USDA, and it includes recommendations outside of the agency’s work overseeing the country’s food supply chain. For example, the chapter suggests more restrictions on people’s access to SNAP food assistance and the national school lunch program.

It paints broad strokes while recommending changes to food regulations, proposing that the USDA “remove obstacles imposed on American farmers and individuals across the food supply chain” (Page 293).

As far as specifics, the document calls for changing regulations on baby formula that “unnecessarily delay” manufacturing and sales in an attempt to combat shortages (Page 302). The document says that change should be considered a priority.

A second detailed recommendation pertains to poultry and red meat. Currently, poultry and red meat can be sold across state lines if it was packaged in a facility inspected by the USDA, with limited exceptions for certain small businesses. The USDA may approve state-level agencies to inspect facilities handling red meat and poultry, but those facilities may only sell products within the state. 

Project 2025 calls for a new law to allow state-inspected facilities to sell meat across state lines (Page 305).

Finally, Project 2025 recommends removing “obstacles for agricultural biotechnology,” an obfuscated way to say it supports the production of genetically engineered foods. 

In 2016, Congress passed a law requiring all genetically engineered food to be labeled as such so consumers know what they’re eating. 

Project 2025 argues that that legislation was “just a means to try to provide a negative connotation to GE food.” The document encourages the USDA to “embrace” genetically engineered foods (it’s unclear how or by doing what) and push for a repeal of the 2016 mandatory labeling law (Page 307).

While the Trump administration has dramatically reshaped agencies that regulate food safety, as far as Snopes can tell, it has not implemented any of those proposals related to baby formula, red meat and poultry and genetically modified food.

We examined other chapters

Some social media posts pointed to “Chapter 13” of the Project 2025 document in their claims about food production, though that section is about the Environmental Protection Agency — not food or farming. It contains nothing about food safety or regulations.

Next, we considered a chapter dedicated to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA.

While that chapter discusses the FDA for several pages, it makes no mention of the FDA’s authority as a food regulator. 

Almost two full pages discuss abortion medication. Other sections propose increasing people’s access to generic drugs; allowing the import of some vaccines from other countries; streamlining the approval process for some laboratory tests; and reducing the pharmaceutical industry’s connections to the agency.

We also investigated the document’s proposed changes to the CDC. 

Those passages are fully dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic and abortion policies and do not reference the agency’s work to track foodborne illnesses.

USDA, FDA changes under Trump

The Trump administration has made large-scale changes to the USDA and FDA through budget cuts and dramatic staffing reductions, largely as part of the Department of Government Efficiency initiative led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that began in early 2025. 

According to the Office of Personnel Management, the USDA has lost 5,129 employees in departments involved in food safety since the start of the 2025 fiscal year. The FDA lost 4,624 employees across the same timespan. 

The Trump administration has also changed how agencies in charge of food safety can implement new rules. 

For example, Trump issued an executive order early in his second term that requires such agencies to repeal 10 existing regulations when they wish to implement a new one. (It’s unclear how this executive order is enforced, and to what extent it has been enforced.)  

Other Trump-era policy changes have impacted food safety. Among them, the FDA announced in March 2025 it planned to delay the enforcement of stricter tracking requirements for many fresh foods by about two and a half years. 

Snopes previously reported on this decision by the FDA in an article exploring connections between the Trump administration and Taylor Farms, a lettuce producer linked to the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak. 

Consumer protection groups like Consumer Reports and the Center for Science in the Public Interest have criticized the staffing cuts and policy changes for potentially weakening the safety of the food chain. The center wrote in a statement condemning them:

“When the FDA is unable to inspect, people die.”

Claim:

As cited by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a database from anti-trans group Do No Harm proves that from 2019 to 2023, more than 5,500 minors in the United States had sex change surgeries.

Rating:

In August 2026, the Department of Health and Human Services under U.S. President Donald Trump released a report alleging that according to “watchdog analyses tracking,” more than 5,500 minors had undergone “sex change surgeries” from 2019 to 2023.

Here’s what Page 9 of the report says (emphasis ours): 

Watchdog analyses tracking billed charges for minors from 2019 onward estimate almost $120 million in total hospital and clinic billings nationwide, encompassing over 5,500 surgical procedures and 8,500 courses of hormones or blockers. (14)

---

(14) “What We Found,” Stop the Harm Database, accessed March 12, 2026, https://stoptheharmdatabase.com/about/. ($119,791,202 in total submitted charges; 5,747 minors had sex change surgeries; 8,579 minors received hormones and puberty blockers).

Social media users across Facebook repeated the supposed statistic and cited the report, including Republican U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, a pharmacist from Tennessee (screenshot). Similar posts included a video of Adm. Brian Christine, assistant secretary for health at HHS, who claimed that there were more than “5,500 sex-rejecting procedures” performed on minors (screenshot). Snopes readers searched the website to investigate the legitimacy of this statistic. 

The HHS report pulled this number from a database of supposed surgeries created by Do No Harm, an advocacy group that opposes gender-affirming care for trans minors and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in medicine. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks extremist organizations, has designated Do No Harm as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. 

Do No Harm’s methodology report lists insurance codes — standardized codes insurance companies use to describe various health care procedures and treatments — that the organization used to come up with the statistic. However, a Snopes review of the report found that many of these codes are entirely unrelated to “sex change surgeries,” thus contradicting Do No Harm’s claims. 

Furthermore, both a peer-reviewed study from Harvard University researchers and a Reuters analysis found far lower rates of gender-affirming surgeries among trans minors. In truth, for minors, these surgeries are exceedingly rare and occur only among older teenagers. 

As such, we have rated this claim as false. 

A spokesperson for Do No Harm, Caroline Anderegg, said in an email that answers to our questions could be found on Do No Harm’s methodology page and report. Anderegg did not return a follow-up inquiry noting that the methodology report and page did not answer our questions about what insurance database the group used and how the group filtered the insurance codes to ensure the data included only “sex change surgeries.” 

Methodology doesn’t hold up to scrutiny 

Do No Harm’s website for its “Stop the Harm Database” claimed that between 2019 and 2023, “5,747 minors had sex change surgeries.” 

However, its methodology report said Do No Harm included insurance procedure codes for treatments that do not change a person’s sex, including electrolysis for hair removal, bladder drainage, “removal of excessive skin of upper eyelid” and more (pages 17 through 20). These procedures are also not necessarily for gender-affirming care more broadly and can happen for many different reasons. 

Do No Harm said it included these procedure codes only when connected to a patient with a gender dysphoria diagnosis or transvestic disorder, a psychiatric condition where a patient experiences clinically significant distress or impairment due to sexual arousal while crossdressing (Page 17). 

However, a gender dysphoria code merely indicates that the patient is transgender, not that the procedure was done specifically to alleviate gender dysphoria, said Kellen Baker, senior adviser for health policy at the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank known for tracking LGBTQ-related laws and policies. 

“I really cannot underscore to you how irregular the Do No Harm analysis is,” Baker, whose work as a health services researcher involves identifying trans people in insurance claim databases, said in a phone call.

There are many reasons why a trans patient might receive any number of these procedures that are unrelated to being trans. For example, a trans child could have a urine obstruction and need bladder drainage, or require excess skin removal for droopy eyelids impairing their ability to function. 

Furthermore, some of the codes, such as codes for intersex surgery, are used for intersex people, not transgender people. Intersex people are born with a variety of different sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary ideas of male or female bodies. Intersex infants and children in the United States sometimes receive surgeries, either for medical necessity or, more controversially, to align their bodies with more “typical” traits. 

Baker also pointed out that Do No Harm claims to use “an all-payer claims database” — a database with every open and shut insurance case — but did not reveal which database it used to find this information. He said that such a database with all insurance claim information does not actually exist. 

Gender-affirming surgeries rarely performed on minors

There are very few studies on the number of gender-affirming surgeries done on minors, largely because the surgeries themselves are so rare, Baker said. 

However, Harvard researchers published a peer-reviewed study in 2024 that analyzed 2019 insurance claim data and found no incidences of a child under 12 receiving a gender-affirming surgery. 

Out of a total of about 22 million minors sampled, the study found only 85 instances of a minor undergoing a gender-affirming surgical procedure in 2019, with 82 of those instances involving chest-related procedures, presumably either a chest reduction or breast tissue removal, commonly known as top surgery. The vast majority of those instances involved teenagers ages 15 to 17. 

The study also found that far more cisgender boys — those who align with their gender assigned at birth — received gender-affirming chest reductions than transgender boys. Cisgender boys often receive these chest reductions because of gynecomastia, or physically harmless enlarged chest tissue that can affect their self-esteem and mental health. 

Snopes reached out to the Harvard researchers involved in the study for their thoughts on the Do No Harm database and did not immediately hear back. 

In 2022, Reuters, a credible news source, analyzed data from Komodo Health — considered the most complete health insurance database available — and found 238 mastectomies, or top surgeries, in 2019, 256 in 2020 and 282 in 2021 among trans minors. The analysis also found 56 genital surgeries among patients ages 13 to 17 with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2019 to 2021. 

However, the Reuters analysis did not appear to separate out trans youth who received these surgeries due to health issues unrelated to gender identity, unlike the peer-reviewed study from Harvard researchers. 

Furthermore, any increase in gender-affirming surgeries among trans minors has likely reversed due to the rise in anti-trans health care policies across the country and on the federal level, Baker said.

The bottom line 

The data HHS cited in its report comes from an anti-LGBTQ+ group that used faulty analysis to inflate data on gender-affirming surgeries among trans minors. 

It’s more accurate to say that from 2019 to 2023, more than 5,500 minors, many of whom had a gender dysphoria diagnosis at one point in time, received various procedures for any number of medical reasons, the vast majority of which were unrelated to being trans. 

Peer-reviewed research suggests that gender-affirming surgeries among minors are incredibly rare and usually involve cisgender boys undergoing chest reductions. 

Claim:

A screenshot authentically shows a Truth Social post from U.S. President Donald Trump announcing the construction of the “Melania Canal” to connect to “Lake America,” also known as Lake Ontario.

Rating:

After U.S. President Donald Trump announced in August 2026 that he would rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” social media users spread a screenshot appearing to show a Truth Social post from the president that announced the construction of the “Melania Canal” that would connect to the lake. 

The screenshot circulated across Facebook (screenshot) and Threads. Here’s what Trump allegedly said: 

The FAKE NEWS is saying we need the Canadian canals that connect to LAKE AMERICA. Total lie! We don’t need their small, low-energy Welland Canal! America built the Panama Canal, we built the Suez Canal — incredible, beautiful, high-IQ canals! I have officially instructed the Army Corps of Engineers to build a much BIGGER, DEEPER, WIDER, and far more powerful canal bypass connecting straight into Lake America! It is going to be magnificent! And we are naming it after my stunning, beautiful wife: THE MELANIA CANAL. Every American will be able to EASILY enter the Melania Canal from BOTH the front end and the back side for a very minimal fee! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Some users seemed to interpret the rumor as true, and Snopes readers contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.

A closer look at the screenshot indicated that this post was labeled as satire, both under the usual spot for “Likes” on a Truth Social post and as a watermark across the image. 

According to the watermark, this post originated with a Facebook account called Mrs. Putin, which identifies itself as “Satire/Parody” in its description. Mrs. Putin first shared the post (screenshot) on Aug. 29. 

As Mrs. Putin pointed out in a Facebook message conversation with Snopes in 2025, the account’s posts often include several indicators that they are satire, including misspelled names. In this case, aside from the “satire” label, other indicators that the post is fake include that Mrs. Putin changed “Likes” to “disLikes” and misspelled Trump’s social media tag, “@realDonaldTrump,” as “@realDotardTurmp” and his last name as Turmp.

(Mrs. Putin)

A search of Trump’s social media accounts using the databases Trump’s Truth and Factbase also determined that, as of this writing, the president has not declared the construction of a “Melania Canal.” He did, however, float renaming the Strait of Hormuz to “Trump Strait” in a Sept. 2 Truth Social post. 

For more on Lake Ontario and its renaming, Snopes previously debunked a claim that Canadian officials were refusing passage to ships with “Lake America” in their documentation and confirmed that Lake Ontario was not named after the Canadian province. 

Snopes also has previously written about numerous satirical Mrs. Putin posts. 

Because the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use “originated as satire” or “labeled satire” ratings based on creators’ description of their work. It’s your call on whether you agree.

Claim:

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat, voted against SB 17, a bill meant to prevent China from buying land in Texas.

Rating:

Context

It’s true that Talarico voted nay on the bill in question, SB 17, even though he had previously voted in favor of continuing to amend its language. The final version of SB 17 included amendments that its opponents said would broaden it beyond its intended scope. A spokesperson for Talarico said he voted nay on the final version to prevent giving the governor more power. The bill ultimately passed and became law in September 2025.

Rumors that Texas state Rep. James Talarico voted against a bill that would prevent the Chinese Communist Party from buying land in the state circulated on the internet in early September 2026 as Talarico, a Democrat, campaigned for a U.S. Senate seat. 

People on social media claimed Talarico voted against a bill called SB 17, some accusing him of rejecting “the basic responsibility to protect the state’s soil and food system.” 

(X user @EricLDaugh)

Supporters of Talarico’s Republican opponent in the November 2026 election, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, unleashed a campaign ad amplifying the claim.

It’s true that Talarico voted against SB 17, a bill aimed at preventing foreign interests from purchasing land in Texas. However, as Talarico and others pointed out, the bill had been amended such that it was likely to have effects beyond the scope of its original intent. 

The legislation was initially aimed to prohibit real estate deals involving Texas land by countries identified by U.S. intelligence officials as national security threats: primarily China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. 

The bill eventually passed by the Texas House in May 2025 was amended so that the governor, rather than federal intelligence officials, could ultimately “determine the countries whose residents, governments and other entities could be banned from buying property here,” according to reporting by The Texas Tribune.

In the Texas House Journal from May 8, 2025, which also recorded Talarico’s nay vote, a fellow critic, Democratic Rep. Mihaela Plesa, explained, “While the intent to safeguard critical infrastructure and land interests is valid, CSSB17, as amended, became too broad and open-ended. The bill now permits the governor and state agencies to unilaterally add entire countries to its prohibitive list, restricting land ownership by nationals of those countries without requiring future legislative approval or public oversight.” 

A spokesperson for Talarico told Snopes via email that Talarico voted nay on SB 17 to avoid giving the governor increased power. Talarico’s team elaborated:

James doesn’t support the Chinese Communist Party owning Texas land and his record reflects that, including by voting to stop countries like China from purchasing land near critical infrastructure like military bases. Ken Paxton is spreading lies about bills that sought to ban American citizens from buying land in this country — undermining our neighbors’ God-given rights — in an effort to distract from his career of corruption. Paxton is the only candidate in this race that has cozied up to the Chinese Communist Party, going on a lavish all-expenses-paid trip to China and meeting with CCP officials while he was supposed to be serving us. There’s a reason Republicans call him “Commie Ken.”

The bill ultimately passed and was signed into law in September 2025.

The record also showed Talarico had voted yea previously on one of the amendments of the bill aimed at protecting U.S. visa holders, but ultimately voted nay on the final bill. 

SB 667 and other related votes

Legislators voted on a different bill, SB 667, aimed at “prohibiting state entities from investing in Chinese-affiliated entities” as a means of funding state-funded pension plans on May 28, 2025. According to the Texas House Journal transcript of that meeting, Talarico had an excused absence that day and did not vote on the final version of the bill, which ultimately passed. 

Talarico’s votes on other bills with potential impact on Texans’ dealings with foreign entities included:

• Yea on SB 1349, which was part of the legislative package that included SB 17, described as “creating the criminal offenses of transnational repression and unauthorized enforcement of foreign law.” (The House Journal shows Talarico as first voting nay, with a correction that it was meant to be recorded as yea.)
• Yea on SB 2116, which was aimed at “business or governmental entities from entering into contracts or other agreements relating to state critical infrastructure with certain foreign-owned companies.”
• Yea on HB 130, aimed at preventing the “use of biotechnology by foreign adversary countries as a component of military power and commercial advantage.

The “Commie Ken” reference in the statement from Talarico’s team referenced to a 2023 report that alleged Paxton went on a “lavish” trip to China to meet with government officials, reportedly against the advice of his staff.

Paxton’s opponent in the 2026 Texas Republican primary, incumbent four-term Sen. John Cornyn, called out Paxton’s trip during his campaign and even built a website called CrookedKen.com that also labeled him “Commie Ken” and described him as “cozying up to the CCP.”

For further reading, we’ve investigated other claims about Talarico, including that he once said he “hated” Christianity and that U.S. President Donald Trump once called him an “insult to Jesus.”

Claim:

A screenshot authentically shows a post U.S. President Donald Trump made to Truth Social saying that there were “too many non-working holidays in America” that cost the country “billions of dollars” to keep businesses closed.

Rating:

Context

Trump made the post on June 19, 2025 — it was not a 2026 “Labor Day message,” as some people claimed.

Rumors spread in early September 2026 that U.S. President Donald Trump posted a message to social media claiming that it costs America “billions of dollars” to keep businesses closed on federal holidays. 

People on social media platforms and Reddit shared a screenshot of the alleged post and added comments like, “a president notorious for spending weekends at Mar-a-Lago to golf and ham it up at sycophantic dinner parties, thinks American workers get too many non-working holidays.”

The screenshot circulated as the United States approached the annual Labor Day holiday on Sept. 7. 

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote a lengthy criticism of what she called Trump’s “Labor Day message” on her X account on Sept. 2. 

Trump shared the post on Truth Social, but it wasn’t a Labor Day message, nor was it posted in 2026. 

Trump posted the message at 7:03 p.m. on June 19, 2025. It can also be viewed on Trump’s Truth, an archive of all of Trump’s Truth Social posts.

The full post read: 

Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

A search revealed 29 Truth Social posts from Trump on June 19, 2025, including the post in question, but none of the others appeared to be related to that post. 

While it was unclear what specifically Trump was posting about at the time, June 19 is recognized as Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. Juneteenth became a federally recognized holiday under then-President Joe Biden in 2021. 

Given Trump’s track record at criticizing Biden in speeches, online posts, debates and in interviews, it’s possible this post was another attempt at diminishing his predecessor’s accomplishments.

We reached out to the White House to clarify whether Trump’s post from June 19, 2025, was indeed meant as commentary on Juneteenth and/or Biden and will update this article if we receive a response.

A rumor that U.S. President Donald Trump diverted 300 first responders to Washington, D.C., to work on his administration’s beautification projects circulated online in early September 2026. People sharing the claim suggested they would have proved key in rescue efforts, possibly saving lives, had they been available immediately following the Aug. 29 flash floods inside Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park. We have not yet found evidence that would confirm or debunk this rumor.

The National Park Service, an agency under the Interior Department, announced closures to bridges, the Colorado River, lodging and trails, as well as confirming two deaths, one person missing and around 80 people rescued or evacuated.

An NPS news release said the two people who died, John Giusti, 46, and Brent Rosenkranz, 42, both of Granbury, Texas, were hiking in Bright Angel Canyon and were a part of the same group as the missing person. A key water pipeline sustained severe damage, as well.

In one example of the rumor, on Sept. 1, an X user posted (archived) a message appearing to place blame for the deaths on Trump. 

(@factpostnews accessed via X)

Other posts featured the claim on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived).

Some posts directly cited the online publication The Lever, which published an article on Sept. 1 with the headline “Before Deadly Floods, Trump Diverted Emergency Responders To Beautify D.C.” The story’s subheading reads: “Trump reassigned 300 National Park Service emergency responders to golf course and reflecting-pool renovations before the Grand Canyon flooded.”

The Lever’s article cited a CNN story published prior to the floods on Aug. 25, telling of Trump’s administration sending 300 NPS incident management team workers — a division responding to wildfires and other incidents — to work on what CNN dubbed Trump’s Washington, D.C., “pet projects,” such as the past renovations for the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the future overhaul of the East Potomac Park golf course. The CNN article does not say exactly when the purported staffing shifts occurred.

The CNN reporters cited their own review of internal communications and department data, as well as anonymous sources regarding other information.

Neither the Lever’s article nor users’ posts explicitly said the Trump administration’s reported diversion of 300 workers hampered rescue efforts surrounding the flash floods. Either way, users inferred it, some believing Trump very recently diverted the workers, with one Snopes reader emailing, “Did tRump divert 300 specialized emergency first responders from American national parks to work on his Reflecting Pool, in the midst of needing them for Grand Canyon rescues?”

Snopes has not been able to review the same internal documentation CNN cited, nor have we located information that might allow us to conclusively rule on the veracity of the claim that Trump’s reported diversion of first responders hindered Grand Canyon flood rescue efforts. This claim is therefore unproven and we have left it unrated. 

Via email, the White House referred us to the Interior Department, where a department spokesperson said of the rumor that the reported diversion of workers to Washington harmed the flood response, “That is 100% false.”

We requested documentation, information and/or comment from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, CNN, Coconino County Emergency Response, Grand Canyon National Park, The Lever and NPS, and will update this article if we receive further information.

A brief timeline of rescue efforts

Within three hours of the flooding on Aug. 29, NPS Grand Canyon shared details about officials evacuating 50 people by air. By the next morning, the division reported 62 total evacuations out of the roughly 80 rescues to date, and said it had gotten assistance from the Arizona Public Safety Department.

A Sept. 1 notice from NPS Grand Canyon announced the continuation of search-and-rescue operations, as well as that the “NPS Western Type 3 Incident Management Team” — the same as the incident management teams CNN and The Lever reported about — would be taking over command as of that morning. The Arizona Daily Sun published a photo reportedly showing a member of that same team observing an Aug. 31 news conference, two days following the flooding.

For further reading about Trump’s beautification efforts in the nation’s capital, we previously reported about an allegation that his administration chopped down dozens of beloved cherry trees to renovate a golf course, as well as that his motorcade ride inside the reflecting pool caused damage he later blamed on others.

Sources