Facts Matter: Post about Trump wasn’t from Rob Reiner
Director and actor Rob Reiner, and his wife, photographer Michele Reiner, were found dead last week in their California home. The couple’s son, Nick Reiner, has been charged in the deaths.
As is nearly always the case, fake news follows a tragedy. And this tragedy is no exception.
“Until Trump goes to prison I will no longer be posting on Twitter. I've had it with the insults and put downs. [Expletive] all of you MAGA [expletive],” read a screenshot of an X post which appears to have been posted on Jan. 20, 2023, by Rob Reiner.
But this post isn’t from Reiner, according to PolitiFact. The image appears to be a digital creation. There are no archived posts from the actor’s X account that match this.
The fake tweet is not new. It was debunked by Reuters when it first appeared in 2023. At that time, Reiner reportedly responded to that tweet, writing, “This is not my account.”
Reiner was known to speak out against President Donald Trump.
An actual tweet from Reiner, posted on Jan. 20, 2023, the time stamp on the fake tweet, read, “Until Trump is Indicted for leading a Deadly Insurrection to Overthrow the United States Government, our Democracy will not be restored.”
Following Michele and Rob Reiner’s deaths, Trump posted to his Truth Social account claiming Reiner “has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
Obama not planning to run for president
A recent Facebook post contained an interesting article.
“BOMBSHELL: Obama Declares He's Ready to Reclaim the Presidency — Can't Watch Trump Destroy His Beloved America!” read a headline at the top of the post.
What followed was a long story claiming “President Barack Obama has openly shared his willingness to return to the Oval Office for the next term.” It said Obama made this announcement “during an exclusive interview on a major news network yesterday, December 7, 2025.”
The story includes a supposed social media quote from President Donald Trump, stating, “Fake News Obama wants back in? He had his chance and failed miserably.”
The post includes a photo of what appears to be Obama, in a restaurant, holding a sign which reads, “DO YOU WANT ME BACK AS PRESIDENT? BE HONEST WITH ME”
But this post is fake, according to Lead Stories.
There are no posts on social media that back up this claim, no social media posts that match the quote supposedly from Trump, and there were no news networks that aired an interview with Obama on Dec. 7.
The last post from Obama’s X account was on Nov. 27, about Thanksgiving.
“During this season of giving, let’s do what we can to give back to the communities that have given us so much. From our family to yours, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!” the former president wrote.
Shooting in Australia was not fake
A mass shooting on Dec. 14, during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, left people 15 dead and dozens wounded. It’s been described as Australia’s worst mass shooting in 30 years.
But a Dec. 15 X post suggests the massacre was all made up.
“FALSE FLAG CRISIS ACTOR BUSTED,” read the top of the post. Followed by, “I can tell by the background that they prepared this guy before the event on the coastal walk not far from Bondi.” The post includes a photo of a woman applying bloodlike makeup to a man’s face.
But the shooting actually happened, according to Reuters. However, the image and the “false flag” claim are fake.
The photo of the man, smiling as the makeup is applied, was created using artificial intelligence.
Second raccoon video is AI
A video aired earlier this month showing a raccoon, who had broken into a liquor store and passed out on the bathroom floor. The footage has gone viral and there have been T-shirts and comedy sketches commemorating the incident.
Following that, a different video showed up on social media. This clip, which has “Actual footage of the raccoon” stamped over the video, shows a raccoon with a bottle of liquor, pushing open the bathroom door, curling up and going to sleep under the sink.
The initial video is authentic, but the latest one is fake, according to Snopes. The story is true, but the second video was created using artificial intelligence, or AI.
Several clues in the clip confirm that it was created using AI, such as labels on the bottles are blurred gibberish, bottles mysteriously disappear from the shelves, and the background begins in daylight but is suddenly very dark.
“Yes, that is an AI generated video and is not our store or raccoon,” Pat Kane, a spokesperson for Virginia Alcohol Beverage and Control Authority, told Snopes.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.