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EDITION 7-10-2025
Welcome to FACTS UNITE, our social media buzz word fact checker. Because Misinformation is un-American!
Our FACTS UNITE newsletter sets the record straight on the moment’s most repeated and shared social media threads from both the left and the right. Because uniting around truth and fact is our only hope to beat the money back!
*Special note: Unite Us is laser focused on bringing the Left and Right together around the fight to rip money out of politics. However, a fast-moving government in the 21st century means a very fast flow of misinformation. Coupled with an unprecedented influence of corporate and billionaire money inside most actions taken by our new administration, we’re feeling the need to cover a broader-than-normal range of topics and news, including reports on misinformation.
If you have a trending thread you’d like us to research, email us at info@unite-us-now.org.
Public usernames of prolific content providers may be published here.
EXECUTIVE POWERS LIMITATIONS
THREAD #1, from a Facebook user:
“President Trump [can] cut the budgets of [all] departments based upon what he sees at (sic) frivolous spending. Elon and his tech geeks have been hired by President Trump to do what they’re doing and it is completely within the bounds of the law and the Constitution. It’s called Executive Powers.”
TRUE, FALSE, OR MISLEADING? False.
The very first congress of the United States decided what departments would make up our government, after much debate. The State Department was set up by Congress, not by George Washington. Statutes passed by Congress created all government agencies, and they cannot legally be repealed by the executive branch or the president alone.
The most discussed example this week is USAID, which was created by Congress when it passed the Foreign Assistance Act on September 4, 1961. Congress authorizes its programs, and appropriates money (Congress has the “power of the purse,” article 1, section 9) to it. Yes, the president and national security council work in a guidance role to congressionally created departments, and the executive branch has a role to play in all budget policy, but those policies are, at the end of the chain, passed in Congress.
Once Congress passes a budget which earmarks a certain amount to USAID (or any government organization), the executive branch cannot unilaterally decide not to spend it. That would be a violation of The Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The executive branch can ask congress to put a hold on appropriations in a specific department for 45 days for various reasons if, and only if Congress approves the request.
That is an example of how checks and balances work. You can like what the Trump/Musk Whitehouse is doing. You can think that their method should be the law of the land. But currently, it is not. He did not get approval from Congress to halt or defer spending. This will likely all end up back in the Supreme Court, but it’s unlikely that even our very conservative court will be ok with hollowing out our checks and balances- it’s been challenged several times, by the left and right (Clinton and Nixon, for example), and never stuck. In 1997 Justice Paul Stevens was part of the majority that killed some presidential flexibility within the Impound Act stating “There is no provision in the Constitution that authorizes the President to enact, to amend, or to repeal statutes.”
CONGRESS VS POTUS
THREAD #2 from a Facebook user:
…“it is unconstitutional for Congress to interfere in Executive Branch activities without the President’s invitation…[this is] called the separation of powers.”
TRUE, FALSE, OR MISLEADING? Patently False.
This thread actually describes what government would be like WITHOUT a separation of powers. Think impeachment, passing of laws, changes to the constitution which limit power to the executive branch…all powers available only to congress, which needs no invitation from the executive branch to introduce a bill, or to remove a president (25th Amendment). Were this thread’s take to be accurate, we would be living in some version of autocracy or dictatorship. It is your right to argue that we should be- that’s a potentially interesting debate. But that is not how our separation of powers have ever functioned, or how they were designed to function. It is important to note that a separation of powers is an integral part of every functioning democracy to date, throughout history and across the globe.
GOVERNMENT SPENDING TRANSPARENCY
THREAD #3 from a Facebook user:
“[Congress doesn’t] want you and I to know where our money is going… this deep look into wasteful spending IS something that is LONG OVERDUE in our government…”
TRUE, FALSE, OR MISLEADING? Up to debate…and False.
It’s perhaps a fair guess that some percentage of Congress would prefer that we voters not have the ability to research governmental budgets and spending, but the reality is that all government spending has always been on public record. In this internet age, we just have to go to government websites like https://www.usaspending.gov/, or any of the private watchdog groups like Politifacts, Transparency International, Americans for Financial Reform, The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, etc. All nonpartisan organizations that have been tracking and reporting accurate government spending details for a very long time.
Of course, it is up to each voter to decide if they believe that Elon Musk can do better than departments created by a democratic Congress like The Office of Management and Budget. But these threads are an indication that political propaganda has successfully convinced some portion of the country that we’ve never had government agencies (very plural) keeping eyes on budgets and spending. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
DOGE IS KILLING IT
THREAD #4 from a Facebook user:
“DOGE is uncovering MASSIVE frivolous wasteful spending – into the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS.”
TRUE, FALSE, OR MISLEADING? As of yet, not true.
As of yet, DOGE’s claims at unmasking and eliminating significant waste or fraud is unfounded. DOGE recently submitted list of alleged…not proven…items of waste and abuse to conservative outlets, with Fox News reporting that they amounted to “millions of dollars.” Millions of dollars, even billions of dollars will have no significant impact on the 1.7 to 2 trillion that DOGE claims to be able to cut.
Most line items that DOGE claims represent careless spending have been fabrications, including the claim that the U.S. spent 50 million on condoms for the Gaza strip, that the U.S. paid to send celebrities to Ukraine, or that agencies were funding “tourism” in Egypt (those expenses were actually aid packages to build potable water and wastewater systems to hundreds of thousands of Egyptians)
In 2023, the USAID budget was 40 billion. In spite of viral claims, the agency’s purpose is to spread U.S. goodwill across the world and employs a mostly American 10,000 person staff. Prior administrations have considered USAID to be a valuable tool in the belt of international diplomacy which not only spreads the virtues of democracy and free markets vs communism and authoritarianism, but also softens the blow of the fact that the U.S. uses around a third of the worlds resources, while being home to less than 5% of its population.
Whether or not you, the voter, feel that the U.S., as by far the wealthiest, largest consumer and polluter on earth, should spend 40 billion a year on international aid programs, there is no evidence of significant waste at USAID, and even its entire 40 billion budget is a drop in the bucket in our $6.75 trillion federal budget (00.59%) or our annual deficit (2%).
WHAT IS POLITICO PRO?
THREAD #5 from Harry Bolz @elonmusk on X
Politico Pro purchases for 37 FDA employees is “not an efficient use of taxpayer funds.”
TRUE, FALSE, OR MISLEADING? True, and misleading.
The FDA does purchase the very pricey Politico Pro and Analytics suites for 37 employees. However…
Most of us know Politico as a nonpartisan news resource with a respectable reliability rating from Ad Fontes Media Bias (42.4). Politico news is largely free to consumers. Politico Pro Plus and Pro Analysis are a completely different service catering specifically to political professionals and lobbyists, providing “in-depth reporting across 22 coverage areas and an advanced technology platform that includes legislative and regulatory tracking tools, government directories, transcripts, outreach trackers and more.”
Pro Analysis also includes access to a “library of analyses and infographics outlining key policy and legislative issues as they develop. Both subscription levels allow you to organize your workflow on one seamless platform.”
Typical Pro subscribers include “analysts and researchers who use our comprehensive regulatory and legislative trackers, consultants who rely on our customizable policy reporting and breaking news alerts and lobbyists who develop outreach strategies with Pro Directories and Stakeholder Management tools.”
In short, Politico’s subscription services are very pricey because they are fed by a team of 300 researchers with strong connections and experience inside Washington. The fact that it is an essential tool to corporate lobbyists courting congress to the tune of billions of dollars a year should be an indication of how powerful its platform is.
As such, members of an organization like the FDA who are charged with protecting the public from all food and drug related outbreaks and dangers use it to learn up to the minute info in order to help discern not only what is taking shape with approved products in circulation, but what lobbyists may be pushing on Congress, and why.
Not only is Politico Pro a standard industry tool (however expensive), it’s cost to the taxpayer is insignificant within the FDA annual budget of $7.2 billion (0.0000719%).
THE FUN AND ABSURD
THREAD #6, from an X user Wall Street Apes @wallstreetapes:
“The Pentagon spend[s] 600 million a year on sushi”…etc
TRUE, FALSE, OR MISLEADING? Absurd!
20,000 people work at the pentagon. 122 million people live in Japan. Those 122 million Japanese spend 8.3 million dollars a year on sushi, and they eat aaaaloooot of it! This means that if this rumor were accurate, the 20,000 people who work at the Pentagon would have to be eating more than 72 Japans worth of sushi every year! Which is, of course, is absolutely, totally, beyond bonkers. Every employee of the Pentagon would have to be at least a small whale for that to be possible.
The same is true of every claim we found frequently attached to this thread, including claims about massive sums spent on K-cups, disposable plastic cups, or the claim that the Department of Treasury has never refused funding- this claim demonstrates a complete lack of understanding as to how government funds are appropriated to departments and agencies (see above).
BE A PATRIOT!
THANKS FOR CARING ABOUT THE FUTURE OF AMERICA! Check in regularly for our latest updates.
Please remember that unregulated social media platforms are the absolute worst resource for reliable, fact driven news and data. Starting with social media as your news feed is the literal equivalent to having a limitless free food card to the supermarket (the internet), and still choosing to start your grocery shopping in the trash bin. Great, fact-based sources are available across the web for free- view our always-growing list of trusted, fact driven news and info sources on our RESOURCES page. Be a Patriot! Start with good info, and take it with you to your chats.