No, Pelosi never told Iran that Trump will ‘pay’ for Soleimani’s killing

A viral story’s claim about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assuring Iran that President Donald Trump will faces consequences for ordering the killing of a top-ranking Iranian general contains no details or credible sources. It is based entirely on a fabricated story originally posted by a satirical blog.

A website called Massachusetts Daily posted the article on Jan. 6 with the headline, "Nancy Pelosi Assures Iran That Trump Will ‘Pay For His Crimes.’"

The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The Massachusetts Daily story states that Pelosi "may have just committed treason" after she allegedly sent a letter to Iran’s embassy, apologizing for the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and insisting Trump would pay. The article goes on to say that Pelosi apologized in advance for upcoming military strikes and said she was sorry "for any inconvenience." None of it is true.

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stated on October 22, 2024 in posts on X

A photo shows The Atlantic published a story headlined “Trump is Literally Hitler.”

This concocted account was copied and pasted word-for-word from a post by a satire blog called "Taters Gonna Tate." That site contains a disclaimer that says, "Everything on this website is fiction."

The Massachusetts Daily website, on the other hand, contains no such disclaimer. Its home page contains a number of stories that are simply made-up like this one.

We rate this story Pants on Fire!