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| - A rumor that Tesla and X owner Elon Musk would pay for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump was circulating online in mid-November 2024.
For example, the Facebook page America - Love It or Leave It posted the claim on Nov. 14.
(Facebook/America - Love It or Leave It)
Some Facebook users seemed to interpret the rumor as being real. However, there was no evidence that Musk had made such a promise, nor had any reputable news outlets reported such a story.
Rather, the claim originated with America - Love It or Leave It, a Facebook page that describes its output as satirical in nature. Its account's intro says:
A subsidiary of the America's Last Line of Defense network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real.
In mid-December 2016 and mid-January 2017, The Washington Post and The New York Times, respectively, reported that inauguration ceremonies and surrounding events are funded by private donations as well as taxpayers. The Federal Election Commission stated similar on its website.
The FEC explained: "Foreign nationals are prohibited from making and inaugural committees are prohibited from knowingly accepting donations from foreign nationals." Because Musk is a U.S. citizen, he could, in theory, contribute to Trump's inauguration. However, as stated above, no such announcement had been made.
The fictional story spread after Trump nominated Musk to head a new Department of Government Efficiency.
America's Last Line of Defense has a history of making up stories for shares and comments, sometimes relying on artificial intelligence software to do its storytelling.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims from ALLOD in the past, including the rumor that Musk's Space X was seeking to develop weather-control technology to compete with NASA and a rumor that Musk was suing television personality Kathy Griffin.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.
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