Tag: Snopes News

Claim:

In September 2026, social media posts accurately reported that Muslims in Texas are ordering business owners to stop selling haram products — products that Islamic religious law prohibits — within 30 days.

Rating:

What’s True

One imam in Houston has been videoed with some of his supporters calling for Muslim business owners to stop selling haram products, like pork, alcohol and lottery tickets, that are prohibited under Islamic religious law.

What’s False

As far as Snopes could tell, the request was coming from one individual imam and is not a coordinated or widespread movement. The imam’s messaging is directed toward Muslim business owners, not all business owners, and is framed as a request rather than an order. No such wider order has been issued.

Context

Under the First Amendment, all American have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

In September 2026, a claim spread online that Muslims in Texas are ordering local businesses to stop selling products Islam considers “haram” (forbidden), such as pork, alcohol and lottery tickets, within 30 days.

Multiple Facebook users posted similar captions saying Muslims have “taken to the streets in Houston” and other Texas cities, going “store to store” issuing “threats” of protests or more “if there’s a continued noncompliance” (archived, archived).

Snopes readers searched our site and contacted us looking for more information regarding the rumor.

In short, the claim is exaggerated. 

Footage does show one Houston imam, Qasim ibn Ali Khan, protesting with signs and asking Muslim convenience store owners to stop selling products deemed haram. One video posted on Khan’s TikTok account in May 2025 (screenshotted), that features no signs of being generated using artificial intelligence, shows him telling employees at two Houston convenience stores that he planned to demonstrate if the staff did not remove haram products within 30 days. He did not specify where he planned to hold such demonstrations, only saying they would take place “around the city.” Therefore, there is an element of truth to the claim.

@imam.qasim.khan #CapCut #haram #harampolice ♬ original sound – MASJID AT-TAWHID HTX

Khan posted a follow-up video in July 2025 (screenshotted) showing him and his supporters protesting outside one of the convenience stores that features in the May 2025 clip.

It was not possible to determine whether the stores removed their haram products.

@imam.qasim.khan #CapCut #haram #trending ♬ original sound – MASJID AT-TAWHID HTX

Similarly, it was not possible to find evidence of an “order” being issued — Khan specifically says in first the recording that he has no power to enforce his request — nor evidence of a coordinated, widespread movement to get businesses to stop selling haram products. Furthermore, Khan’s rhetoric in the video shows he was making a request of specifically Muslim-owned businesses.

As such, we rate the claim mostly false. 

Snopes attempted to contact Khan for comment, but got no response. We will update this article if we hear back.

Forbidden products across religions

Each of the world’s religions, and the denominations within them, have different interpretations of religious law.

Using dietary restrictions as an example, Christian denominations rarely impose restrictions on what people can eat, though some practice abstinence from drinking alcohol. Hinduism promotes, but does not mandate, vegetarianism; Jainism requires vegetarianism, among other restrictions; observant Jews must follow kosher; and Islamic dietary law requires Muslims to not drink alcohol or consume pork.

As stated above, the grouping of forbidden practices in Islam is called “haram.” In contrast, approved practices are called “halal,” which is why some food products have a halal mark.

Texas Republicans, Islam and the First Amendment

Ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, Republicans in Texas have made the idea that Muslims wish to implement Shariah law (Islamic religious law) in the United States a talking point in their campaigns.

(It should be noted: the phrase Shariah law can be interpreted in various ways to mean different things. In this case, Republicans appear to mean fundamentalist Shariah law, the strictest form, which applies Shariah principles to all matters of justice). 

On Sept. 6, 2026, Amy Mekelburg — who is known for posting anti-Muslim videos online and who founded an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center considers an anti-Muslim hate group — posted one of Khan’s TikTok videos to X. The footage shows Khan speaking outside a purportedly Muslim-owned convenience store. It’s likely this is the origin of the claim that Muslims were ordering a ban on haram products.

In the clip, Khan says he asked the store to stop selling products deemed haram and that Muslim merchants should have “a higher standard,” but he also states that he and his followers have no authority to force anyone to stop selling haram products:

We can’t stop them, of course, this is the United States of America, and people have the freedom to sell what they want, as long as they’re supported by the United States government.

Khan is correct — the First Amendment guarantees both freedom of speech and freedom of religion. As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reportedly said during a September bill signing, according to the Texas Council for American-Islamic Relations, “Texas law and Texas courts govern those businesses and those neighborhoods. No ranting imam can change that.”

In the video, Khan also says his request is being made specifically to Muslim business owners, not all businesses, as suggested in the social media posts spreading the claim in question:

Of course, you have the right to sell what you want, but as a Muslim, you should have higher principles, higher code of ethics that are supported by the Quran and the Sunnah [teachings] of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Despite thorough searches, it was not possible to find evidence of a widespread campaign making similar requests to businesses, Muslim-owned or otherwise.

Sources

A claim that U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order changing the term “artificial intelligence” to “super intelligence” in order to profit from the sale of domain names with the top-level domain “.si” circulated in late September 2026.  

People on social media platforms shared the rumor, with some claiming that an “investigation shows that in the past 60 days insiders bought thousands of .si domain names. They’ve profited hundreds of millions of dollars so far.”

The “.si” domain is for the country of Slovenia — also the home country of first lady Melania Trump, a detail that appeared to help fuel the rumor — and is typically used for businesses operating from that country. 

The rumor suggested that Trump tipped off associates so that they could purchase Slovenian domains, sit on them, and then resell at a high markup to companies or individuals looking to expand their web presence to the “.si” top-level domain, a practice called domain squatting.

The claim circulated following Trump’s Sept. 29, 2026, signing of an executive order demanding that any reference to “artificial intelligence” be instead called “super intelligence” within the U.S. government’s executive branch.

Trump and tech leaders also signed an accord in an effort to assuage fears over AI, which Snopes previously reported featured a misspelling of “United States.” Polls have shown that AI is increasingly unpopular and critics called the move an attempted “rebrand” of AI.

Prior to the official documents, Trump had previously posted about “super intelligence” on his Truth Social social media page on Sept. 19.

It was true that there was a spike in registration of Slovenian domain names months before the executive order, but Snopes could not independently verify claims that Trump or his associates either financially benefited from the domain purchases or knew about the “super intelligence” executive order ahead of time. 

The claim originated with a thread on X by independent journalist Adam Cochran. 

Cochran cited the Slovenian domain registry Register.si, which operates as part of the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia. The organization’s website says its mission is ensuring a “stable, secure, uninterrupted and reliable operation of .si in the global digital ecosystem.”

Register.si’s website called the “.si” domain “an internationally recognized top-level domain that represents Slovenia and is the first choice of address on the Internet for all individuals and organizations related to Slovenia.”

A post on Register.si’s website explained the organization does not directly register domains, but rather works “through approximately 90 domestic and foreign registrars.”

The same post indicated that there had been a spike in registrations and specifically mentioned Trump’s “super intelligence” announcement as a possible cause, stating his social media post and resulting “discussion quickly attracted the attention of the public and the technology community, including speculation about the impact of the potential new abbreviation on the Slovenian national domain .si.”

A graph depicting the number of daily “.si” domain registrations shared by Register.si indicated a jump from fewer than 1,000 registrations on Sept. 20 — one day after Trump posted about “super intelligence” on Truth Social — to over 4,000 on Sept. 23.

(Register.si)

More broadly, a monthly graph with a range of July 2025 to September 2026 showed a sharp rise from fewer than 2,500 registrations a month to more than 10,000 in September 2026. The graph also showed a spike in May and June 2026, both around 5,000. 

(Register.si)

The spikes in May and June appeared to be Cochran’s main evidence that connected the purchases to “Trump’s inner circle.” While it is possible Trump tipped off associates about the coming change and that they were the individuals who bought up .si domains, a theory is not proof. Snopes can only offer a rating after independently verifying primary evidence; therefore, we have left this claim unrated. 

Further, “super intelligence” as a term predated Trump’s use of it. 

We reached out to Cochran asking him to share his evidence for independent review, as well as Register.si to ask about any other explanations for the spike in May and June. We will update this article if we get a response. We also reached out to the White House press office for comment and have not heard back, as of this writing. 

Domain squatting, also called cybersquatting, is nothing new. 

Typically, it involves parties purchasing a domain that could be confused with an established brand or company, or even a common misspelling or typo of the company’s name. Once the new owner has control of the domain, they can then sell it to the company at a higher price than a typical fresh registration. 

The World Intellectual Property Organization, a United Nations agency that aims to “protect and promote” intellectual property “across borders and acting as a forum for addressing cutting-edge IP issues,” reported its highest caseload of domain disputes to date in 2025 with over 6,200.

Register.si’s website stated that their price “is the same for all registrars and amounts to EUR 10,” but that “the final price for domain holders depends on the policy of the individual registrar and Register.si has no influence on it,” according to a Google translation. 

The organization said that speculation about potential earnings for the country of Slovenia because of the increased interest in their domain “have no real basis” and they advised “holders of trademarks, slogans, companies, … who do not yet have a domain under .si to register it as soon as possible.”

In late September 2026, a rumor spread online that Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had joined a new effort announced by the U.S. Department of Defense called “Project Meridian.” 

Several social media posts made the claim, including on Reddit and X. One X post (archived) said Musk, Gingrich and Palmer Luckey, founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries, had been recruited to lead the project “to focus on developing future warfare and autonomous weapons systems for battlefields ‘from under the Earth to beyond the moon’”:

The official X account of the DOD’s chief technology officer confirmed the story (archived):

“From under the earth to beyond the moon, our warfighters will have technological superiority,” the post read. “PROJECT MERIDIAN: THE FUTURE OF WARFARE.”

Here’s what we know so far about the initiative, its goals and the people involved:

Hegseth’s announcement

On Sept. 30, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered what he called a “State of the Force” address — meant to evoke the State of the Union address, which the president delivers annually to Congress — and announced the launch of Project Meridian, which he described as “an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare.”

Hegseth began to describe Project Meridian roughly midway through his address (at 34:45 in the video):

Today we are leveraging a unique source of American advantage. One our adversaries do not have: our innovators, our senior leaders and our technologists — big thinkers who will forecast the creative solutions for tomorrow’s conflicts. That’s why today at my direction I am announcing Project Meridian, an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare. Under the leadership of the department’s chief technology officer, Emil Michael, Project Meridian will be co-led by three of our nations best minds. Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich, all of whom are up in the audience with us today.

Shortly after he named them, Musk, Luckey and Gingrich stood up to applause from the crowd. 

Musk, Gingrich and Luckey

Hegseth said the three men would lead a group of “subject-matter experts from across our nation’s unmatched innovation, academic and policy ecosystems.” The goal, he said, would be to develop “absolute technological superiority,” by focusing on, among other things, “autonomous warfare” — in other words, weapons and equipment capable of functioning autonomously.

Musk was previously involved in President Donald Trump’s administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which spearheaded drastic spending cuts to government programs. (The Government Accountability Office said in August 2026 that DOGE incorrectly reported or failed to substantiate some of its purported savings.) Musk’s xAI technology has reportedly been used by U.S. forces in the Iran war.

Gingrich has consistently defended the war with Iran (archived), which has proved unpopular with U.S. voters, according to polls.

Luckey described himself as a “radical Zionist” during “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast in February 2025, saying he defended Israel’s right to exist. Asked directly by Axios what he thought of the war in Iran, he declined to answer.

Autonomous warfare

During the address, Hegseth also announced the creation of a new combatant command: “Today, with Autonomous War Command — AutoWarCom — we institutionalize and we supercharge the era of SI, robotics, and autonomous systems. All in order to win,” Hegseth said. (“SI” refers to “super intelligence,” what the federal government began calling artificial intelligence in September 2026.)

Hegseth appeared to present Project Meridian as the way to identify the technologies best suited to arm AutoWarCom. He said the group led by Musk, Gingrich and Luckey would render its first conclusions in 120 days.

The same day, the Pentagon published a memorandum that further outlined the goal of Project Meridian. It read: 

Project Meridian will leverage critical perspectives from outside the Pentagon, drawing upon a group of top technologists, innovators, business leaders, policy makers, and national security experts. Project Meridian’s primary function will be to map the trajectory of future warfare, identify critical capability gaps, and propose actionable solutions in furtherance of the identified goals in the 2026 National Security Science and Technology Strategy.

For further reading, Snopes has investigated a number of rumors about Hegseth’s Defense Department, including a claim that the department spent $93 billion in one month.

Claim:

A video posted online in late September 2026 authentically shows U.S. President Donald Trump saying Iowans are “really troubled people” at a White House event.

Rating:

On Sept. 28, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump held an event at the White House to announce the planning of a new steel plant in Iowa. Joining him in the Oval Office for the event were several Iowa state leaders and officials.

Afterward, some social media users claimed Trump insulted Iowans during the event. For example, an X post (archived) displayed a video clip apparently recorded at the event and asserted, “Trump claims the federal government can ‘supersede’ Iowa and calls Iowans ‘troubled people.’”

In the clip, Trump can be heard saying this: “And we can supersede the state, right? If we can supersede the state, it’s good. Otherwise, it will never be good. They’re very — they’re really troubled people.”

Users shared other posts claiming Trump called Iowans troubled people on Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived). Snopes readers searched the site and emailed us asking whether the claim was true.

It was not true. While the video clip is real and unedited, it omits important context that proves Trump didn’t call Iowans “really troubled people.” Trump was actually referring to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other Democratic leaders in that state. 

The remark came immediately after an exchange in which Trump asked how Walz was treating the opening of a new iron mine in Minnesota. Given that this context was omitted, we have rated the clip miscaptioned.

Videos and transcripts of Trump’s remarks at the event were uploaded online by C-SPAN and Roll Call. The conversation that led to Trump making the “troubled people” comment begin at about the 6:20 mark in the C-SPAN video and 6:07 in Roll Call’s Vimeo video.

At that time, John Jovanovic, the Trump-nominated chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, begins describing the opening of an iron mine in Minnesota that is meant to supply the Iowa steel plant (emphasis ours):

JOVANOVIC: Thank you, Mr. President. So, what we’re really talking about today is America’s economic security. And Mr. President, it’s your plan in action, but it all starts mining more in America. The mine you mentioned is the first mine opened in America in 50-plus years focused on iron ore. EXIM financed it, but most importantly, it’s found on the Iron Range in America, which for 145 years has been the most prolific iron ore deposit in the world. It helped build America. It helped win two world wars. You’re helping resurrect it, Mr. President, with this first iron ore mine. That is why this plant is possible, because we are creating one American supply chain. And what you see again here today, Mr. President, is private capital flowing in to rebuild America and to build America’s future, so we can assure that the warfighter of tomorrow in America is always well-equipped and that everyday Americans have what they need when they need it most. And this is what it’s going to take to continue to deliver the American dream, Mr. President, for another 250 years.

TRUMP: And how is the governor treating you? Because I freed up the iron ore in that place, and I absolutely won the election, but they wouldn’t — they cheat like hell. But how is the governor treating you? Because I freed it up and then they closed it, and the people were devastated because it is the finest iron ore in the world, they say. So how is the governor and these other people that don’t — I mean, it’s one of the worst-run places I’ve ever seen. How are they doing?

JOVANOVIC: You know, Mr. President, we were there only 10 days ago, actually, to initiate the mine. We set off 1.3 million pounds of explosives that put it into operation and that will be the iron ore that feeds this plant and to make steel in America the —

TRUMP: And we can supersede the state, right?

COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: Yes.

JOVANOVIC: [unintelligible, cut off by Trump]

TRUMP: If we can supersede the state, it’s good. Otherwise, the state will never be good. They’re very — they’re really troubled people. Thank you very much; great job you’re doing, too, by the way. Secretary Lutnick, please.

The mine Jovanovic referred to is owned by Mesabi Metallics in northern Minnesota, where part of the American Iron Range is located. Mesabi Metallics is the same company investing in the steel plant in Iowa.

Local news reports on the fraught history of the mine suggest its struggles have largely been tied to the parent company of Mesabi Metallics, Essar. The India-based company first started work on the mine and an accompanying steel mill in 2007 before shuttering its plans for the mine in 2015 and filing for bankruptcy in 2016. Essar still owes Minnesota more than $22 million in infrastructure debt, according to Iowa news channel KWQC.

As Jovanovic said, Trump administration officials were at the opening of the iron mine in Minnesota about 10 days earlier. If Trump’s concern was about opening the mine, he’d have no reason to call for the federal government to “supersede” Minnesota. According to Essar itself, Minnesota State Auditor Julie Blaha said in 2024, “After years of uncertainty, it’s encouraging to see Mesabi Metallics breathing new life into this major mining operation.”

While the context makes it clear that Trump was referencing Walz and his administration in Minnesota, not Iowans, Snopes reached out to the White House to seek confirmation on whom exactly Trump believed to be “really troubled people.” We’ll update this story if and when we receive a response to our question.

For further reading, Snopes recently investigated a claim asserting Trump’s renaming of “artificial intelligence” to “super intelligence” is a play to profit off of .SI domain names.

Claim:

In August 2026, Florida became the first U.S. state to bar recipients of welfare cash assistance from spending it on tattoos, vaping products, theme park tickets and other “nonessential” items.

Rating:

What’s True

The claim is correct in that Florida became the first state to implement item-specific restrictions for recipients of its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program at the point of sale. However …

What’s False

… other states across the U.S. also block similar purchases through other means. So while the claim is technically correct, Florida is not the first state to block the purchase of certain kinds of items using government funds through other means.

In September 2026, a claim circulated online that Florida had become the first U.S. state to bar recipients of temporary cash assistance from spending it on “nonessential” items such as tattoos, tobacco, drugs, pornography and more.

For example, one popular Facebook post with more than 120,000 likes reads, in part (archived):

The program, funded through the federal TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] program and delivered via EBT [electronic benefit transfer] cards, gives eligible families with children under 18 an average of about $250 a month for basic living costs. Under the amended plan, that money can no longer go toward tobacco and nicotine products, vaping devices, drugs or intoxicants, p*rnography, video games, theme park admission, entertainment subscriptions, tattoos and body piercings, spa and tanning services, or psychic and fortune-telling services.

(Facebook user It’s A Guy Thing)

In short, the claim is correct in that Florida has become the first state to implement item-specific restrictions for TANF recipients at the point of sale, but other states across the U.S. also block similar purchases through other means. So while the claim is technically correct, Florida is not the first state to block the purchase of certain kinds of items using government funds through other means.

Some posts, such as the one above, do not specify the date that the change took place — potentially misleading people into believing the change occurred in September. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis actually first announced the move on Aug. 24, 2026 (archived). 

In a news release published that same day, De Santis said (archived):

Florida has become the first in the nation to set guardrails on our TANF State Plan to stop these taxpayer-funded benefits from being used to purchase inappropriate, luxury, and non-essential goods and services. Taxpayer-funded assistance should help families put food on the table, keep the lights on, purchase clothing, provide for their children and overcome barriers on the path toward independence. We will continue supporting Floridians who genuinely need assistance, while working to improve accountability and transparency so that these programs operate as intended.

The full list of new prohibited products was outlined in the 2026-2028 Florida TANF State Plan as follows: 

• Tobacco, Nicotine, Vaping and other associated products
• Drugs, intoxicants, and related products
• Pornography, sexually explicit materials, and adult-oriented goods or services
• Entertainment goods, subscriptions, and services such as video games, entertainment tickets, theme parks, and subscriptions/memberships
• Body art, jewelry and body piercings, cosmetic services and luxury items such as tattoos, spa services, and tanning
• Psychic, fortune-telling and divination goods or services
• Political contributions
• Lottery tickets and entries, sports wagers and bets
• Soda
• Energy drinks
• Candy
• Ultra-processed prepared desserts

Further down in De Santis’ announcement, it notes that the state already prohibits several kinds of items using welfare assistance:

Florida already prohibits EBT card use or acceptance for alcohol purchases and transactions at adult entertainment establishments, pari-mutuel wagering facilities, slot machine facilities, commercial bingo establishments and casinos or gaming facilities. Florida’s EBT vendor blocks point-of-sale transactions at those businesses and ATM transactions at prohibited locations. The first-in-the-nation policy expands those controls to additional items and services at eligible retailers.

Other states, such as Kansas and Virginia, also prohibit the purchase of items such as tattoos and tobacco products using TANF benefits, with violators potentially facing penalties after making such purchases.

The difference between Florida and other states is that it amended its existing limits for purchases at certain locations (such as liquor stores or casinos) to include the use of temporary cash assistance for specific items at the point of sale (PDF page 69).

Some items, including drugs such as recreational marijuana, are already criminalized in the state of Florida.

Claim:

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is cutting access to student loans for degrees that have low earning potential, including social work.

Rating:

Context

The new rule, first announced in April 2026, was finalized in June 2026 and will take effect in 2027. The Department of Education will begin denying loans for degrees that fail its “earnings test” in both 2027 and 2028 in time for the 2028-29 academic year.

In September 2026. a rumor spread that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump was planning to cut access to student loans for candidates pursuing degrees in programs with low earning prospects, including social work and English literature. 

Public interest in the claim was apparently sparked by news reports that came out several weeks earlier in the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic and other media outlets. 

Social media posts on Facebook and X amplified the claim online. On X, for example, one account said the Department of Education was “cutting off student loans” for degrees that “don’t pay off,” listing a series of examples (archived):

The list read:

Programs failing: 
– Cosmetology 
– Massage therapy / bodywork 
– Culinary arts 
– Medical / dental assisting 
– Religious Studies 
– Social work / mental health counseling 
– Fine and studio arts 
– Music 
– Graphic design 
– English literature 
– Early childhood education

In addition, several Snopes readers emailed, seeking to confirm whether the claim is true. It is.

The so-called ‘earnings accountability’ rule

In April, the Department of Education proposed a new rule tying the approval of student loans to the earning prospects of the students’ chosen disciplines. 

On June 29, the department posted on its website a fact sheet detailing a new package of rules, including the one above. The document said (on Page 3) that the department would start calculating a new “earnings test” in 2027 for 2027 and 2028, and that resulting student loan denials would begin in 2028-29 for degrees that fail the earnings test twice.

The fact sheet said the rule was designed to hold “all institutions, regardless of tax status or credential level, accountable for providing graduates with a financial return on their investment.” 

Calling it the “Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS) and Earnings Accountability” rule, the fact sheet said it would create “a new accountability framework that applies a commonsense earnings test across all sectors, institutions, and programs.” 

A spokesperson for the department told Snopes:

ED [the Department of Education], in coordination with the IRS [Internal Revenue Service], will run data for the first cohort of graduates in 2027. If a program fails to show at least a modest financial return on investment for its graduates in two out of three consecutive award years, it will lose eligibility to participate in the federal Direct Loan program. 

Will some students be banned from taking out loans? 

On Sept. 27, The New Republic posted on X to say, “Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans.”

In its Sept. 28 reply, the Department of Education sought to deny claims that it was “banning” certain degree programs, but confirmed it would start cutting access to student loans for those that result in low earnings for the borrower. The post said “Federal student loans are not a welfare program for failing college programs” (archived):

On Page 3, the fact sheet explained how the new eligibility rule would work to cut student loans for degrees with low-earning prospects:

Loss of Federal Direct Loan Program Eligibility

The final rule requires that programs that fail the earnings test in two out of three consecutive years lose eligibility to participate in the Direct Loan program. At that time, such programs are classified as “low-earning outcome programs”.

In other words, the Department of Education will run the earnings test in 2027 and 2028. Degrees that fail the test will result in student loan denials for their candidates.

The notice of proposed rulemaking on the website of the Federal Register, published on April 20, 2026, outlined some degrees that may be most affected by the new “accountability” rules (emphasis ours):

Mental and Social Health & Allied Professions master’s degree programs (CIP=51.15), Teacher Education and Professional Development associate’s degree programs (CIP=13.12), and Drama/Theater Arts bachelor’s degree programs (CIPs=50.05, 50.07, and 50.09) are anticipated to be most impacted by the proposed regulations. These programs are often between 10 and 20 times more likely to fail the accountability framework under the proposed regulation relative to the current regulations. These higher fail rates are driven by the fact that a large share of these programs are offered at public and non-profit institutions, which would no longer be exempt from the accountability framework under the proposed rule.

The final rule notice in the Federal Register provided an updated estimate of which degrees are likely to fail the earnings test and be denied student loans. Those include humanities and liberal arts, education, health-related degrees, but also culinary and personal services, social and behavioral sciences, and more. It’s unclear if all the specific professions listed in the X post at the top of this article would fall under the broad categories listed in the final rule.

The final rule also defined “earnings” to clarify which data the Department of Education would use from the IRS in its earning test calculations: “… wages, income as reported to the Internal Revenue Service, and other earned income, including from self-employment.”

For further reading, Snopes examined the claim that the Department of Education would stop counting certain programs, including nursing, as “professional degrees.” 

Claim:

The White House misspelled United States as “Unites States” in President Donald Trump’s accord on “super intelligence,” or “SI” — his new name for AI.

Rating:

A rumor that U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House misspelled United States as “Unites States” on its “super intelligence” accord circulated online in late September 2026.

Trump and a group of tech industry leaders signed the voluntary accord at the White House on Sept. 29, reportedly as part of an effort to address fears about the future of artificial intelligence. On the same day, Trump also signed an executive order renaming “artificial intelligence,” or “AI,” as “super intelligence,” or “SI.”

Users shared the “Unites States” claim on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived) and X (archived).

(@paleofuture.bsky.social via Bluesky)

Snopes received reader mail and searches generally asking if the misspelling genuinely occurred. In an age of misinformation, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that someone might secretly change one or more characters in such a document and circulate the corrupted version to discredit its signatories.

That was not the case in this instance. An official White House X post sharing an image (archived) of the two-page accord confirmed that whoever prepared the document truly misspelled “United States” under Trump’s signature so it read, “President of the Unites States.” 

The document didn’t feature any official letterhead or other graphical designation, but it did include a title attributing its ownership to the White House. That title read, “White House Accord on Super Intelligence.”

(The White House via X)

The spelling error appears on the accord’s second page, which features Trump’s prominent signature, as well as those from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, “XAI” CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Some of the men served as founders or cofounders of their respective companies, as well as work under more than one title.

(The White House via X)

Snopes emailed the White House to ask if they wanted to share a statement responding to the users sharing the error and will update this article if we receive further details.

The document also appears to contain other errors. For example, the word “joint” near the top is misaligned, suggesting someone may have added it later. On the second page, Musk’s name and signature appear next to “XAI.” The company was previously named “xAI,” with a lowercase X, before SpaceX purchased it in February and renamed it SpaceXAI.

(The White House via X)

Trump’s ‘super intelligence’

Trump’s executive order explained his administration’s reasoning for attempting to rename artificial intelligence as “super intelligence,” or “SI” — specifically referencing the name change as guidance for the government’s executive branch:

The terminology used by the Federal Government should reflect the transformative capabilities of these technologies and the limitless opportunities they create for the American people. Accordingly, the term “Super Intelligence” more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies. It is therefore the policy of my Administration that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the executive branch shall use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” and will not acknowledge the usage of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in any applicable setting.

For further reading, we previously reported on the White House misspelling a word on a placard displayed during a Cabinet meeting.

Sources

Claim:

America.gov — an artificial intelligence chatbot the U.S. government launched in September 2026 — stated that U.S. President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, contradicting his longstanding claim that he won three elections.

Rating:

On Sept. 29, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration launched America.gov, an artificial intelligence chatbot intended to answer questions related to the government. Shortly after, a rumor circulated online that the chatbot said former President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential vote, contradicting a longstanding claim by Trump that Democrats “stole” the 2020 election.

Trump made the claim that he won the 2020 election as recently as Sept. 9, 2026, saying, “We won the presidency three times,” referring to the 2016 and 2024 elections that he won as well as the 2020 election that Biden won.

“Trump just launched an AI government website called America.gov, and it immediately told everyone he lost the 2020 election,” one popular Facebook post read (archived).

The claim was true — the America.gov chatbot said Biden won the 2020 election, not Trump. “Joseph R. Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” the chatbot stated. 

When the rumor first spread on Sept. 29, screenshots showed similar responses by the chatbot. When we first attempted to verify the claim on Sept. 30, the chatbot deflected, claiming that it “did not provide political commentary.”

After several attempts using varied wording, the chatbot then explicitly confirmed Trump was incorrect, as follows (our question in bold):

Based on certified election records, was Donald Trump incorrect in saying that he won the 2020 election?

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Yes. Certified records show Joseph R. Biden won the 2020 presidential election, 306–232 in the Electoral College. Donald Trump’s statement that he won that election does not match those records.