Snopes Debunks Viral Satire About Bondi Revenge Photos After Cabinet Firing

The misinformation traveled fast. Just 48 hours after President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 2, a high-profile social media user shared a post claiming Bondi had released explicit images of Trump as an act of revenge. By the time Snopes published its fact-check on April 7, the claim had accumulated tens of thousands of reactions, stripped entirely of the one detail that explained everything: it was a joke.

The post traced back to The Borowitz Report, the long-running satire column created in 2001 by Andy Borowitz, the comedian, New York Times best-selling author, and co-creator of NBC's "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." Snopes labeled the claim "Labeled Satire" rather than "False," a distinction the organization introduced specifically after a 2018-2019 controversy in which it rated Babylon Bee articles "False," prompting Facebook to apply warning labels to intentional satire and drawing criticism that Snopes was conflating deliberate fiction with deliberate deception.

The anatomy of the spread followed a recognizable supply-chain pattern. A Borowitz satire post circulated detached from its original framing. Searches across AP, Reuters, and major newspapers turned up no corroborating reporting. Bondi's own April 2 post on X describing her tenure as "the honor of a lifetime" and reaffirming loyalty to Trump provided the clearest counter-evidence available, and Snopes cited it as proof that no rift serious enough to produce a revenge disclosure had occurred. That exculpatory context reached far fewer people than the viral claim it refuted.

The political atmosphere made the fiction feel plausible to many readers. Bondi's 14-month tenure had been defined by the Epstein files controversy. She promised transparency when confirmed in February 2025, suggesting important evidence was on her desk. The Justice Department later said a supposed "client list" did not exist. Bondi distributed binders labeled "Epstein Files" to conservative influencers that contained little new information, drawing widespread criticism. NPR, CNN, and The Washington Post all reported that Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with her handling of the issue, which had become a "never-ending headache" for the administration.

Trump announced the ouster on Truth Social, writing that Bondi would be "transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector" and calling her "a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend." He named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump's personal criminal defense attorney, as acting AG. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is reportedly being considered for the permanent role. Bondi was the second Cabinet official fired in less than a month, following Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's dismissal.

The Borowitz-to-viral pipeline was not new terrain for Snopes. The organization maintains a dedicated tag page for Borowitz content, having repeatedly fact-checked his satire as it circulated without attribution. That same week, Snopes also debunked a Borowitz piece claiming Iran declared it was achieving "regime change" following Bondi's firing. Prior Borowitz claims flagged by Snopes include a fictitious letter from the Liberian president offering to teach Trump English, a satirical report about National Guard members refusing a Chicago deployment, and a claim that JD Vance was the last person to see Jeffrey Epstein alive. Snopes also published a dedicated collection of "22 rumors involving Pam Bondi we fact-checked before her firing," a volume that illustrates how thoroughly her tenure had become both a target of real controversy and a canvas for satirical content.

The Borowitz Report's migration from The New Yorker, which dropped it in December 2023 amid Condé Nast cost-cutting, to a Substack relaunch in March 2024 added a structural complication. The column quickly attracted tens of thousands of paying subscribers at $50 per year, building a large audience accustomed to the satirical frame. Screenshots, however, carry no such frame. Verifying the claim before sharing required tracing the headline across AP, Reuters, and newspaper databases; confirming whether the source carries a known satire designation; and checking for corroborating primary sources such as official statements or on-record quotes. None of those steps require special tools, only the habit of applying them before the retweet.

That Snopes had to issue a second Borowitz-linked fact-check in the same week, and that the organization has a dedicated page tracking a pattern of identical failures, points to a trust deficit with consequences beyond any single viral post. Each cycle of satirical content stripped of context and reshared as political evidence makes the next cycle easier to believe, and harder to correct.