Category: Fact Checking

A rumor circulate online in December 2025 that U.S. President Donald Trump made a post on Truth Social that attributed the deaths of film director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, to “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

For example, users posted a screenshot of the alleged post on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived).

Snopes readers emailed to ask whether the president truly made the post. For example, one asked, “Did Trump blame Robert Reiner’s death on his hatred of Trump?” Another person messaged, “Did Trump really say Rob Reiner’s murder was because that he had Trump Derangement Syndrome?” One emailer simply wanted to know, “Is this a real post by Trump?”

In short, the Truth Social post (archived) by Trump was real.

(Donald Trump/Truth Social)

The post read as follows:

A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, 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. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!

We contacted the White House by email to ask if the administration had any additional comment, including whether Trump’s official stance was that the Reiners died because of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — a saying Trump and his supporters use to describe people who have differences with the president and his administration. We will update this article if we receive any further information.

The Associated Press reported the Reiners were found dead at their Los Angeles home on Dec. 14 in an apparent stabbing, citing an anonymous law enforcement official. The AP later reported that 32-year-old Nick Reiner, one of the Reiners’ children, had been arrested.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records showed Nick Reiner was arrested 9:15 p.m. Dec. 14 and booked at 5:04 a.m. the following morning on a felony charge, with bail set at $4 million.

Rob Reiner, known for his directing of films including “Stand by Me,” “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Misery” and “A Few Good Men,” was 78. Michele Reiner, a film producer, was 68. Rob Reiner was politically active and had spoken out against Trump and his two administrations.

Sources

Since 2016, rumors have circulated that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota had married her brother. The rumors began after she became the first Somali American elected to the Minnesota state House of Representatives, and they were repeated by U.S. President Donald Trump in late 2025. 

In November and December 2025, Trump repeatedly made the claim on X, on Truth Social and in speeches. Trump wrote on X:

The seriously r*****ed Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst “Congressman/woman” in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how “badly” she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc. 

Snopes has previously reported on this claim about Omar allegedly marrying her brother, and concluded the rumor was unfounded. As a young immigrant with progressive politics, Omar has been targeted by numerous unfounded rumors about her religion and family. 

Snopes sent a list of questions to Omar’s spokesperson at the time we first investigated this claim but did not receive responses. 

As we reported before, the origins of the rumor surrounding Omar’s relationship with her brother are unclear. The claim first appeared on an online Somali community discussion forum called SomaliSpot and was then picked up by Powerline, a conservative blog. An August 2016 blog post stated: 

A reader has written us to point out that the Somali website Somalispot posted information suggesting Omar’s involvement in marriage and immigration fraud. The post notes that Omar married Ahmed Hirsi in 2002. Hirsi is the father of Omar’s three children. Omar is depicted with Hirsi and their children on Omar’s campaign website here.

The post further notes that Omar married her brother Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, implying that the latter marriage assisted his entry into the United States. Her brother was a British citizen. “As soon as Ilhan Omar married him,” the post continues, “he started university at her [a]lma mater North Dakota State University where he graduated in 2012. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Minneapolis where he was living in a public housing complex and was later evicted. He then returned to the United Kingdom where he now lives.”

Snopes sent questions to Powerline blogger Scott Johnson in 2019, who did not provide any substantive evidence supporting the claim.

Omar denied the rumor in a 2016 statement, calling that marriage “a difficult part of my personal history that I did not consider relevant in the context of a political campaign.” Her full statement can be found below:

In 2002, when I was 19 years old, Ahmed Hirsi (whose name before he received citizenship was Ahmed Aden), the father of my children and love of my life, and I, applied for a marriage license, but we never finalized the application and thus were never legally married. In 2008, we decided to end our relationship in our faith tradition after reaching an impasse in our life together.

I entered into a relationship with a British citizen, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and married him legally in 2009. Our relationship ended in 2011 and we divorced in our faith tradition. After that, he moved home to England. I have yet to legally divorce Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, but am in the process of doing so. Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.

Since 2011, I am happy to say that I have reconciled with Ahmed Hirsi, we have married in our faith tradition and are raising our family together. Like all families, we have had our ups and downs but we are proud to have come through it together.

In 2002, Omar and Hirsi reportedly applied for a marriage license. The couple married in an Islamic ceremony but never completed the process for a civil marriage, according to Hirsi. By 2008, Hirsi and Omar had separated (per Islamic custom). After that relationship ended, Omar had a civil marriage with Elmi in 2009. When that relationship ended, Elmi moved to England and they divorced per Islamic practice in 2011, but without receiving a legal divorce. 

Omar later reconciled with Hirsi and remarried in an Islamic ceremony. In 2017, Omar formally petitioned for divorce from Elmi, and legally wed Hirsi in 2018. Hirsi and Omar legally divorced in 2019.

Snopes found no credible evidence that Elmi and Omar were siblings in a fraudulent marriage. 

According to Omar, she and her family fled the Somalian civil war in 1991. They moved to the U.S. in 1995 after residing for four years in a Kenyan refugee camp. Omar’s mother had died, so her father and grandfather raised her and her siblings. In 2018, Omar showed a reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune photos of documents from her family’s entry into the U.S. after fleeing the civil war. She did not provide the reporter with copies of these papers but showed that they listed her father and showed her as the youngest of seven children. There was no one named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi listed in the documents.

We previously noted that Omar and her siblings all arrived in U.S. with refugee statuses. Omar was a minor when she became a naturalized U.S. citizen. How one sibling could end up with a completely different immigration status from the others remains unexplained by the claims. 

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy, immigrants can apply for permanent residency status (opening the pathway to naturalization) if they are siblings of a U.S. citizen, or if they are married to a U.S. citizen. Any sibling of Omar’s would not have to marry her in order to secure a path to citizenship. 

Additionally, if Elmi desperately wanted U.S. citizenship, he would not have immediately returned to England after his split with Omar. 

Snopes has covered numerous claims about Omar, including the rumor that her father participated in war crimes or genocide, and the false claim that Omar said al-Qaida made her “proud.” 

Snopes’ archives contributed to this report.

Sources

For months, social media users have shared a photograph they claimed shows U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts seated beside Jeffrey Epstein associate and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell. The image recirculated in early December 2025 amid renewed scrutiny of Maxwell as a federal judge ordered grand jury records in her case unsealed under a new “Epstein files” transparency law.

One Dec. 8 Threads post (archived) captioned the image: “Why is nobody addressing the fact or seriously looking into the judges being on THE EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS, TAPES, etc. If the had any self respect, they would come clean.”

(Threads user @prosperpeteriv)

Tthe same photo circulated across platforms such as X, Threads and Facebook. It also prompted readers to search our site and contact us directly to ask whether the image was genuine.

Although the photo is real, it does not show Roberts. The man pictured with Maxwell is French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who died in prison in 2022. Therefore we’ve rated it miscaptioned.

Snopes previously fact-checked this photo in 2020, as did Reuters and LeadStories.

What we know about the photo 

A reverse-image search using TinEye suggested the photo first appeared on the Daily Mail website on Aug. 19, 2020, where it was captioned: “Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who orchestrated Epstein’s social life, can be seen embracing Jean-Luc Brunel, a French model agency boss accused of helping traffic teenage girls.”

(TinEye search results)

However, an earlier article published July 30, 2020, by the French newspaper 20 Minutes, also featured the image, alongside another photo from the same scene. The article identified the man as Brunel and noted that the photos “were provided to ’20 Minutes.’”

(20 Minutes)

The outlet did not offer any further details about the origin of the photograph. We have reached out to 20 Minutes for clarification and will update this article if we receive additional information.

A nearly identical photo from the scene surfaced in January 2024, when it was included in a batch of unsealed documents from the Giuffre v. Maxwell civil case, in which a victim of Epstein and Maxwell’s sexual exploitation, Virginia Giuffre, sued. The image appears in Document 1332-7 (see Page 7 of the PDF) and is captioned: “Defendant with Jean Luc Brunel in 2006,” further confirming that the man in the photo is Brunel, not Roberts.

(CourtListener)

We have investigated several images and videos allegedly showing Maxwell with high-profile individuals. 

For example, in June 2025, we debunked an image that appeared to show Maxwell massaging the foot of Florida Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the judge who signed off on the warrant allowing the FBI to search U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022 for classified documents. We also fact-checked a fake video that allegedly showed Trump pointing at a preteen girl while standing next to Maxwell.

For broader context, check out our collection of 23 rumors we’ve examined regarding Trump and Epstein’s relationship.

Sources

In December 2025, online users discussed a claim alleging a photo showed family members of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 vice-presidential running mate — wearing T-shirts reading “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump.”

On Dec. 7, a user posted the picture on their Facebook (archived) and X (archived) accounts with the caption, “Never forget that even Tim Walz’s own family despises him and voted for Trump.”

(@RyanAFournier/X)

In September 2024, a different X user’s post (archived) helped to popularize the photo, receiving more than 28 million views.

(@MattWolking/X)

At the time, some users claimed someone manipulated the image with an artificial-intelligence tool, which would mean it circulated under false pretenses. For example, one post on X showed yellow circles and arrows on the picture that pointed to purported discrepancies in the number of fingers on some of the people’s hands. That user posted, “Thanks to Walz’s for Trump we know this is not AI at all. It’s just the Walz family is genetically predisposed to having four fingers.”

While some users also questioned the apostrophe appearing on the T-shirts, others, including conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec (archived) and conservative commentator Benny Johnson (archived), claimed the photo showed Walz’s “entire family.”

In short, in September 2024, The Associated Press reported the photo was genuine and that the eight people visible in the picture were all distant cousins of Walz. In other words, Posobiec and Johnson posted misinformation.

The AP’s reporting cited Rod Edwards, a spokesperson for former Trump-endorsed Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster. Herbster posted the photo on Sept. 4, 2024, captioning it, “Tim Walz’s family back in Nebraska wants you to know something… @realDonaldTrump @JDVance #SaveAmerica.”

The high-quality nature of the original image upload clarified some fingers obscured alleged missing fingers, dispelling claims of AI and “four fingers.”

Edwards told the AP, “The family in the picture are the descendants of Francis Walz, who was brother to Tim Walz’s grandfather.” He added, “They’re all Walzes and spouses.”

The descendants of Francis Walz confirmed their relationship to Tim Walz in a text message to The Associated Press.

“Shortly after Governor Tim Walz was named the Democrat Party Vice Presidential nominee, our family had a get-together. We had t-shirts made to show support for President Trump and J.D. Vance and took a group picture. That photo was shared with friends, and when we were asked for permission to post the picture, we agreed,” the written statement said.

“The picture is real. The shirts are real. We are the Nebraska Walz family and we are related to Gov. Tim Walz, our grandfathers were brothers. The message on the shirts speaks for itself, “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump.”

For further reading, we previously reported about the true story of Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, giving a car to a next-door neighbor.

Beginning in November 2025, a blanket of persistent clouds lingered over California’s massive Central Valley for multiple weeks, bringing colder than usual temperatures and periods of intense fog to much of the state. The foggy weather began drawing more attention on social media as it dragged on into December, including from those confused by it and from people believing the fog to be more sinister than a typical weather pattern.

Posts on X (archived), TikTok (archived) and Instagram (archived) questioned the “mysterious” fog. Because the fog had been referred to as “radiation fog,” some of the confused people on social media, such as the person in the TikTok post, have wondered if that means the fog was radioactive or had nuclear radiation in it.

While the fog discussed in the posts itself was real and was a type of radiation fog, there was no nuclear radiation in the fog and it could hardly be called “mysterious.”

“Radiation” in this case refers to a process called “thermal radiation,” which is when something emits heat from itself. A common example of thermal radiation is when a person stands near a fire on a cold night and feels the heat radiating from the fire. 

In the case of the fog, the sun emits — radiates — its heat to Earth, while the Earth radiates its own heat out and away from its surface. At night, when the Earth continues to radiate heat away from it and the sun isn’t shining down to warm it, the Earth’s surface cools. If there are no clouds to trap the heat the Earth is emitting, surface temperatures may drop quickly overnight, The Weather Channel says. The National Weather Service (NWS) calls this overnight process “radiational cooling.”

Fog forms because the air can’t hold any more water than it already has, according to the Alabama Weather Network. Cooler air generally holds less water than warmer air, so radiational cooling can sometimes cause fog to form overnight. Since the fog is formed by radiational cooling, it’s called radiation fog.

Radiation fog is the most common fog in many areas of the U.S., according to the Alabama Weather Network.

The NWS notes that tule fog, a special kind of radiation fog, occurs each winter in the Central Valley of California. The Weather Network, a Canadian weather information service, says tule fog is simply radiation fog with a special name. Either way, it’s radiation fog that settles in the Central Valley during the year’s cooler months.

Tule fog, named after a common grass in the region, typically forms after a heavy rain drenches the region during those months, The Weather Network explains. Normally, radiation fog dissipates during the day as the temperature rises or winds pick up to mix the atmosphere, but the Central Valley’s geography and climate allows a thick radiation fog to persist for longer periods. As explained in a study of tule fog from 2019, between November and March, the region typically experiences two distinct weather conditions: dry days with clear skies and little wind, permeated by the occasional wet winter storms.

The storms soak the ground and fill the air with moisture. At night, that moisture-filled air cools enough for fog to form. Since cooler air is denser than warmer air, the cooler air gets trapped close to the ground. And since California’s Central Valley is surrounded by mountains on almost all sides, there’s nowhere for that trapped, cooler air to go. That means the cool, fog-filled air is likely stuck in place so long as there is little to no wind to mix it up and free it.

Tule fog typically leads to cooler temperatures in the Central Valley, more car accidents as the dense fog limits visibility on the road and better yields for the many crops grown in this region that are eaten nationwide. 

And yes, as some of the social media posts have pointed out, pollutants already in the air can also remain trapped in the fog, therefore worsening the air quality. But the mountains surrounding the Central Valley usually trap pollutants anyway, leading to its southern half having some of the worst air quality in the nation. In fact, air quality forecasts for Dec. 10, 2025, when the fog still hovered over the Central Valley, show that the air quality was much better in the Sacramento Valley, which takes up the northern portion of the Central Valley, than it was in the San Joaquin Valley, which takes up the southern portion of the Central Valley.

Tule fog has not been as common or as intense in the last couple of decades as it once was. Some research has suggested that this is because of declining levels of air pollution in California, while other research has linked droughts to the decline in the annual fog. Fog needs particles in the air for the water molecules to attach to, hence why pollution can affect fog frequency and intensity. And if a region is in a drought, it’s not going to have the rainfall needed for the tule fog’s formation in the first place.

Whatever the reason for the decline, the fog has continued to happen and isn’t new, even if it hasn’t been as intense as this episode in awhile. NOAA’s satellite view of the 2025 fog doesn’t look all that different from NASA’s satellite image of the 2005 fog 20 years prior or its satellite image of the 2011 fog more recently. NASA even has a satellite image of a 2020 tule fog episode, albeit that one didn’t blanket the region as fully as the others.

So why are people calling it mysterious? At least one of the more popular social media posts directly references a Dec. 4 Daily Mail article with the headline “Mysterious 400-mile stretch of ‘radiation’ fog blankets 13 million Americans.” Despite the headline, the text of the Daily Mail article doesn’t refer to the fog as mysterious even once. It also explained that the fog “is unrelated to nuclear radiation and generally should not endanger human health.”

This isn’t the first time Snopes has fact-checked ominous claims of “mysterious” fog. In January 2025, Snopes explained the more benign causes of experiences people claimed was caused by “toxic fog.”

Corliss, Kate. “Want to Search Donald Trump’s Truth Social Posts? A New Site Is Here to Help. – Washingtonian.” Washingtonian – the Website That Washington Lives By., 20 Sept. 2024, www.washingtonian.com/2024/09/20/want-to-search-donald-trumps-truth-social-posts-a-new-site-is-here-to-help/. Accessed 10 Apr. 2025.

Trump, Donald J. “Based on the Lack of Respect That China Has Shown to the World’s Markets, I Am Hereby Raising the Tariff Charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, Effective Immediately. At Some Point, Hopefully in the near Future, China Will Realize That the Days of Ripping off the U.S.A., and Other Countries, Is No Longer Sustainable or Acceptable. Conversely, and Based on the Fact That More than 75 Countries Have Called Representatives of the United States, Including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to Negotiate a Solution to the Subjects Being Discussed Relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and That These Countries Have Not, at My Strong Suggestion, Retaliated in Any Way, Shape, or Form against the United States, I Have Authorized a 90 Day PAUSE, and a Substant….” Truth Social, 9 Apr. 2025, truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114309144289505174. Accessed 10 Apr. 2025.

“Trump’s Truth.” Trump’s Truth, trumpstruth.org/. Accessed 10 Apr. 2025.

In December 2025, social media users (archived here and here) shared testimony from George Retes, who said federal immigration authorities detained him for three days without charges. The posts identified Retes as both a U.S. citizen and a Army veteran.

According to the posts, Retes alleged that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained him while he was driving to work as a security guard at a farm in Camarillo, California. He said he identified himself as a U.S. citizen and veteran, but agents ignored his statements, smashed his car window, deployed tear gas and pepper spray, and forcibly dragged him out of the car. 

Retes further claimed that agents kneeled on his back and neck while he was restrained, collected his DNA, and then held him for three days without charges, access to a lawyer, medical care or the ability to shower, according to the posts.

(Occupy Democrats on Facebook)

Multiple Snopes readers searched our website to verify the details of Retes’ testimony.

The social media posts in question accurately reported Retes’ allegations from his testimony before members of Congress on Dec. 9, 2025. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Ct., published a transcript of Retes’ full remarks (archived) on his website. The Institute for Justice — a nonprofit public interest law firm that said in August it was representing Retes as he prepared to sue the federal government over his detention — also posted video of his testimony (archived).

When Snopes first reported on this story, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — the cabinet agency over ICE — acknowledged in a July 14 statement that Retes was arrested and later released from custody. 

In a Dec. 12 statement emailed to Snopes, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin provided additional information, stating that Retes, whom she acknowledged is a U.S. citizen, “became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement.” She further claimed he “blocked their route and refused to move his vehicle out of the road,” adding that CBP arrested him on suspicion of assault.

McLaughlin did not respond to further questions about Retes’ detention or the conditions he described. ICE had not responded to a request for comment at the time of this writing.

Retes’ family members previously told KABC, a Los Angeles news station, that he is a disabled veteran and a U.S. citizen. The KABC report also included a photo of a man the station said was Retes wearing what appeared to be an Army uniform.

United Farm Workers, a labor union, also referred to Retes in July 2025 as “an American citizen” and “disabled U.S. Army veteran.” 

Snopes was unable to independently confirm the information about Retes’ military service. 

Below is a breakdown of what we know about Retes’ detainment and the immigration raid at the Camarillo farm:

UFW, DHS address Retes’ detainment

On July 13, 2025, UFW wrote about Retes’ detainment in a thread on X (archived):

George Retes, an American citizen disabled US Army veteran who has been held in federal custody since Thursday, was released without charges this evening.

Mr. Retes was wrongfully arrested while driving near the chaotic and deadly raid targeting farm workers near Camarillo, CA on July 10. His wife was unable to contact him and located his abandoned vehicle with the windows smashed and a smell of chemical agent inside.

He and his family are grateful for the widespread support but have asked for privacy. They do not wish to speak with press at this time.

George Retes, an American citizen disabled US Army veteran who has been held in federal custody since Thursday, was released without charges this evening. 1/ pic.twitter.com/8PvZNGau3H

— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) July 14, 2025

DHS initially confirmed Retes’ arrest in an email to Snopes on July 14, 2025, adding that he was released from custody and “has not been charged.” Tricia McLaughlin, the agency’s assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote:

George Retes was arrested and has been released. He has not been charged. The US Attorney’s Office is reviewing his case, along with dozens of others, for potential federal charges related to the execution of the federal search warrant in Camarillo.

McLaughlin provided additional information in a Dec. 12 statement emailed to Snopes:

As U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE agents were executing criminal search warrants on July 10 at the marijuana sites in Camarillo, CA, George Retes—a U.S. citizen—became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement. He blocked their route and refused to move his vehicle out of the road. CBP arrested Retes for assault.

Snopes also reached out to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office for additional information about Retes’ detainment. A spokesperson for the agency said authorities were not “provided the identities of any individuals who were detained by federal authorities during their operation.” The spokesperson added, “Any individuals taken into federal custody would have been taken to a federal detention facility.”     

What we know about Camarillo immigration raid

DHS said in a statement that “federal law enforcement officers executed criminal warrant operations at marijuana grow sites in Carpinteria and Camarillo” on July 10, 2025.

Federal officers arrested at least 361 people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, DHS said in the statement released on July 13. The agency added that “at least 14 migrant children have been rescued from potential exploitation, forced labor and human trafficking.”

According to reports from NBC News and the BBC, federal agents and protesters clashed at the Camarillo site. Federal agents used tear gas and less-lethal weapons against protesters while employees in the grow house were “being rounded up and arrested,” NBC News reported. 

In its July 13 statement, DHS said “four U.S. citizens are being criminally prosecuted for assaulting or resisting officers.” People whom the department described as “rioters” allegedly damaged vehicles, and one person reportedly fired a gun at law-enforcement officers, the federal agency added.

Farm workers were “critically injured” during the raids, according to a UFW statement on July 11, and news media outlets reported that one worker later died. The union also said some U.S. citizens remained “totally unaccounted for” following the raids. 

The full UFW statement is as follows:

The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, California. Others, including US citizens remain totally unaccounted for.

Our staff is on the ground supporting families. Many workers, including U.S. citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for 8 hours or more. U.S. citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones.

The UFW is also aware of reports of child labor on site. The UFW demands the immediate facilitation of independent legal representation for the minor workers, to protect them from further harm. Farm workers are excluded from basic child labor laws and it is unfortunately not uncommon for teenagers to work in the fields. To be clear: detaining and deporting children is not a solution for child labor.

These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families.

There is no city, state or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately

Glass House Brands acknowledged in an X post that ICE officials visited its farms on July 10, adding that “the company fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary.” 

In a follow-up post on July 11, Glass House Brands said it “received immigrant and naturalization warrants.” The company “verified that the warrants were valid” and complied with them, the post said.

The company added that it was assisting in providing legal representation to detained workers and denied reports that it employed minors.

Yesterday, Glass House Brands received immigration and naturalization warrants. As per the law, we verified that the warrants were valid and we complied.

Workers were detained and we are assisting to provide them legal representation.

Glass House has never knowingly violated…

— Glass House Brands Inc. (@GlassHouseBR) July 11, 2025

Retes’ full testimony

Below is a transcript of Retes’ full Dec. 9 testimony on his detention:

My name is George Retes. I’m here today not to reopen old wounds, but as a veteran, a father, and an ordinary person who still believes in the promise of this country and the values represented by our flag. I respect law enforcement. I respect the men and women who serve. But I also believe that accountability is not the enemy of respect—it is its foundation. 

On July 10, 2025, I was confronted by ICE agents on my way to work. I want you to understand exactly what that looked like, not because I want sympathy, but because it exposes a crack in the law that must be fixed. 

I was driving to my job as a security guard at a licensed farm in Camarillo, California. Federal immigration agents were lined across the road leading to the farm. I identified myself as a U.S. citizen and a veteran, but that didn’t matter. Agents smashed my window, sprayed tear gas and pepper spray into my car, and dragged me out. I was choking on gas, unable to breathe, while officers shouted conflicting commands. Even after I complied, they pinned me down — one kneeling on my back and another kneeling on my neck, while my hands were already behind me. 

I was first taken to a Navy base, where agents collected my DNA. After that, I was taken to a detention center and held for three days without charges. No phone call. No lawyer. No medical care, even though my skin burned from the chemicals. I wasn’t allowed to shower. 

On Friday morning, they placed me on suicide watch. Suicide watch is a yellow concrete room with a concrete bed and a thin mattress. The lights stay on 24/7. You’re stripped naked and put in a hospital gown. A guard watches you constantly. I remained in those conditions from Friday morning until the moment I was released. My family had no idea where I was. I was released without explanation and without a single charge. 

That entire experience violated the very principles I fought to defend. And here’s the truth: it happened because of a gap in the law that allowed it. If these had been state or local officers, I could take them to court right now and demand answers. But because they were federal agents, they are shielded by a blanket immunity. 

That’s why I’m here. The point is not to look backward, but forward. What can we do together to ensure this never happens again? This is not about politics. It is about principle. It is about fixing a flaw that undermines the freedoms we claim to protect. 

I still believe in the flag. I still believe in the ideals that make this country worth fighting for. But belief alone is not enough. We need action. We need accountability. And we need laws that reflect the values we say we stand for. 

Thank you for allowing me to speak. I hope my experience serves as a call to strengthen, not weaken, the trust between citizens and the institutions sworn to protect them.

Retes’ family members speak about his detainment

Retes’ sister and wife spoke to Josh Haskell, a reporter for KABC in Los Angeles, in July about his detainment in Camarillo. They told Haskell that Retes, who works as a security guard at Glass House Farms, is a disabled veteran and U.S. citizen. 

“ICE thought he was probably part of the protest, but he wasn’t. He was trying to reverse his car,” said Retes’ sister, Destinee Majana. “They broke his window, they pepper-sprayed him, they grabbed him, threw him on the floor. They detained him.”

Majana and Retes’ wife, Guadalupe Torres, said they were calling people to find out where Retes was taken, but nobody could tell them where he was. 

“We don’t know what to do. We’re just asking to let my brother go. He’s a U.S. citizen. He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s a veteran, disabled citizen. It says it on his car,” Majana added.

Haskell’s report for KABC also included a photo of a man the station said was Retes wearing what appeared to be an Army uniform.

When contacted by Snopes, Haskell did not provide documentation verifying Retes’ citizenship and military service

Torres also spoke to NBC News about Retes’ detainment. She said her husband complied with federal officers while checking on friends and colleagues who may have been affected by the raids, according to the NBC report. Instead, Retes was “arrested on suspicion of assault,” NBC reported, citing immigration officials.

In late 2025, a rumor spread online that Massachusetts voters approved a 4% tax on incomes over $1 million — and now the state has “an extra $1.5 billion to spend.” 

The claim circulated on Facebook and Instagram. 

It’s true that the state’s voters approved a 4% surtax on millionaires in November 2022. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue also initially estimated a return of about $1.5 billion from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, the first full fiscal year the tax was in effect. However, the final estimate of total revenue in fiscal year 2024 from the 4% surtax was actually around $2.2 billion, about $700 million more than posts claimed. The total amount of revenue the state attributed to the surtax for all years since it went into effect was even higher.

Given that the primary facts of the rumor are accurate but the revenue estimate relied on outdated information, we have rated this claim mostly true. 

It is worth noting that the threshold for paying the surtax has increased annually with inflation. For example, when the surtax first took effect in 2023, people had to pay the additional 4% tax on any income they made over $1 million. In 2025, the threshold was $1,083,150. In other words, as of this writing, someone could theoretically make between $1 million and $1.08 million and not be subject to the surtax. 

Referendum passed in 2022

Massachusetts voters passed the 4% surtax — also known as the “Fair Share amendment” — through a ballot measure that won with 51% of the vote, according to the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s website. 

Here’s the exact language the referendum added into the state constitution (emphasis ours): 

To provide the resources for quality public education and affordable public colleges and universities, and for the repair and maintenance of roads, bridges and public transportation, all revenues received in accordance with this paragraph shall be expended, subject to appropriation, only for these purposes. In addition to the taxes on income otherwise authorized under this Article, there shall be an additional tax of 4 percent on that portion of annual taxable income in excess of $1,000,000 (one million dollars) reported on any return related to those taxes. To ensure that this additional tax continues to apply only to the commonwealth’s highest income taxpayers, this $1,000,000 (one million dollars) income level shall be adjusted annually to reflect any increases in the cost of living by the same method used for federal income tax brackets. This paragraph shall apply to all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023.

Revenue surpassed initial estimates 

The $1.5 billion estimate circulating online appeared to originate from a Dec. 28, 2023, article from WBUR, one of Boston’s NPR member stations. In the article, WBUR reported “the state Department of Revenue estimates it will generate over $1.5 billion in the fiscal year ending in June 2024.” 

Snopes could not find this exact estimate in official DOR documents. However, in Jan. 24, 2023, testimony to state lawmakers, Department of Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said the agency had estimated the tax would bring in $1.45 to $1.77 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2024 (see Page 4 of this transcript of Snyder’s testimony from the official Massachusetts state government website). 

Revenue ended up exceeding expectations: The Department of Revenue estimated it raked in nearly $2.2 billion from the 4% income surtax (see Page 1, Paragraph 2 of the state’s net state tax revenue report for fiscal year 2024).  

According to a July 2025 estimate, the state expected to bring in $2.99 billion from the surtax in fiscal year 2025. Massachusetts also collected an estimated $477 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 — July 1 to Sept. 30, 2025 — according to an October 2025 report, and $103.6 million in the part of fiscal year 2023 that the tax was in effect. 

In total, that amounts to an estimated $5.77 billion since the surtax went into effect, as of this writing. 

How has Massachusetts used the money? 

The post circulating online said the state “can now use that money on free public school meals, free community college, and public transit.” 

In fiscal years 2024 and 2025, Massachusetts did, in fact, use the surtax revenue to support free public-school meals, free community college and transit investments such as public transportation routes meant to improve connections between different regions (see pages 2, 3 and 7 of the state’s budget brief for fiscal year 2026). 

The budget passed in fiscal year 2026 continued the state’s use of surtax funds for the universal school meals and community colleges programs. 

The state has also used the surtax to help fund child care affordability, free prekindergarten for certain cities, rural roads and various other education and transportation programs. 

Massachusetts lawmakers set a spending limit of $1 billion for the surtax funds in fiscal year 2024 and $1.03 billion in fiscal year 2025. The fiscal year 2026 budget spent $2.4 billion from the “Fair Share” fund.