Trump can win a Nobel Peace Prize
A Sept. 25 X post includes a story about the Nobel Prize committee banning President Donald Trump from ever winning one of its awards.
In a screenshot of what appears to be an Associated Press story, the article is topped with the AP logo and the text, “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.”
“The Nobel Prize committee announced today that Donald J. Trump is permanently disqualified from future awards after his controversial comments in his UN speech on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, as well as his decision to rename the U.S. Department of Defense as the ‘Department of War,’” the story read.
The contact for the story is listed as a person named Hanz Zeemer, and a phone number and email address were given for him.
But this story is fake, according to Reuters. The information is false, it wasn’t released by the AP, and Hanz Zeemer might not actually exist.
“This is not an AP story,” an AP spokesperson told Reuters.
This report doesn’t appear on the agency’s website and there are no other news reports about the president being disqualified.
A spokesperson for the Norwegian Nobel Committee told Reuters that the article was “fake.”
“There is no public list of nominees,” the Nobel spokesperson said. “The Nobel Committee does not disclose the names of nominees – neither to the media nor to the candidates themselves.”
As for Zeemer, Reuters made a call to the listed Swiss dialing code, but it didn’t connect, and an email was returned as “undeliverable.”
False claims about Erika Kirk
Recent posts claimed Erika Kirk was facing some serious allegations. Kirk is the wife of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed Sept. 10 in Utah.
“Did ya’ll know Erika Kirk is banned from Romania because her Evangelical group was accused of trafficking children out of Romanian villages?,” read one X post.
But this is false, according to PolitiFact. There is no evidence to support this claim.
In 2006, when she was 17 years old, Kirk, whose maiden name is Frantzve, founded the nonprofit Everyday Heroes Like You. The charity supported an international Romanian Angels project, which worked with the U.S. Marine Corps to sponsor a Romanian orphanage.
Some of the false posts included part of a low-resolution image of a Romanian Angels banner, taken from a flier about a fundraiser for Everyday Heroes Like You. The flier was about helping “a Romanian Orphan this Holiday Season.”
Participants could “adopt” a boy or a girl by choosing and purchasing an item from a child’s “wish list” to be included in a package to be sent overseas, the flier said. The program was a partnership with U.S. military members and the group United Hands Romania.
Oana Prisecariu, vice president for United Hands Romania, told PolitiFact the organization worked with Kirk, sending gifts for children.
"We never heard or received any bad reports about her personally," Prisecariu said.
Some articles about the abuse of Romanian children were linked to the false posts, but none of those mentioned Kirk, Romanian Angels or Everyday Heroes Like You.
Biden continually praised military
President Donald Trump met Sept. 30 with U.S. military leaders in Virginia. During that gathering, the president said, "I said we have the strongest military anywhere in the world. I say it. You never heard (Joe) Biden say that.”
But that statement is inaccurate, according to PolitiFact. News reports show that Biden praised the U.S. military at least a dozen times and at least once when he was vice president.
Dating back to 2012, while Biden was giving talks to the military, addressing Congress, speaking during a graduation ceremony, honoring veterans, or presenting a Medal of Honor, he referred to the armed forces as the greatest fighting force in the world.
"You are simply the greatest fighting force in the history of the world — in the history of the world. That’s a fact. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact,” Biden said Jan. 16, 2025, in his farewell speech to the Department of Defense.
Referees were not suspended
A recent social media post claimed NFL referees were being suspended for bad calls.
“BREAKING: Four referees who officiated the game between the Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns have been suspended pending investigation after the NFL discovered they overlooked multiple Browns violations that significantly affected the outcome of the game, causing the Packers to unfairly lose,” the post said.
The post included a photo of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and a quote about reviewing the game film.
Although Packers fans might like to believe this, it’s not true, according to Lead Stories. There are no credible news reports or a release from the NFL to support this claim.
There have been several similar fake posts about officials suspended after other games, including in the NFL, college football and Major League Baseball.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.