Claim about Trump ‘furious’ with Musk for ‘convincing him to push out’ FAA chief started as satire

President Donald Trump appointed a new Federal Aviation Administration acting chief after an American Airlines jet collided with a military helicopter Jan. 29, causing 67 deaths. Now, some social media users are spreading false reports related to the departure of the previous FAA leader.

"Breaking: Donald Trump is reportedly furious with Elon Musk for convincing him to push out the head of the FAA because Musk was mad SpaceX got fined last September by the FAA for license violations, and now he’s being blamed for the plane crash," a Jan. 31 Threads post said.

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

But the claim originated as satire. The Halfway Post, an account that describes itself as "halfway true comedy and satire" posted the same text verbatim Jan. 31 on X.

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stated on January 31, 2025 in a post on Instagram

CNN reported on the Potomac River plane and helicopter crash “hours before it happened.”

Michael Whitaker, the former FAA administrator, stepped down Jan. 20, when Trump took office.

Before Whitaker’s departure, X owner Elon Musk had publicly called for his resignation after the FAA fined Musk’s SpaceX more than $600,000 for failing to follow license requirements.

Despite Musk’s dissatisfaction with Whitaker, a Google search yielded no credible reports about Trump being upset with Musk over Whitaker’s resignation.

The text of the Threads post started as satire and was shared out of context, so we rate it False.