The White House issued a news release Monday touting companies that have adopted the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
One of its examples linked back to an April Fools’ Day X post from a fan account for fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger.
The Monday
release
, titled “President Trump Delivers on MAHA Push,” opens with: “President Donald J. Trump took office promising to confront the chronic health crisis plaguing Americans — and six months later, he is delivering on that promise by removing harmful chemicals from our food supply.”
Part of the release included a bullet point list “of leading companies that have taken steps to improve the food supply,” including In-N-Out. It initially read: “In-N-Out announced it will
remove
synthetic food dyes and artificial flavors from its menu items, and also
transitioned
to 100% beef tallow.”
The
second hyperlink
, provided as a reference to the claim that the company has pivoted to 100% beef tallow, was to an April 1, 2025, post on X by a self-proclaimed “fan” account.
Before this gets out of hand
pic.twitter.com/BS0riGdj4y
The account
replied
to its original post with: “Before this gets out of hand,” along with imagery that reads “April Fools.” The account had also
posted
in December 2024, “It appears that everybody on 𝕏 is requesting that In-N-Out changes to Beef Tallow fries?”
The In-N-Out
website
states that their fries are “cooked in 100% sunflower oil.”
After NOTUS’ inquiry, the White House updated the news release to no longer include the link or the reference to beef tallow.
“The media’s obsession with covering anything but the facts, like how the Trump administration is working with companies,
including In-N-Out
, to remove artificial dyes from our food supply, is exactly why public trust in the press and whatever NOTUS is has plummeted to record lows,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement.
The White House did not comment on its fact-checking process.
The X account that was cited is verified with a blue check, and the name of the account includes the word “fan.” The biography of the account also states, “Quality you can taste. Your typical level 5 employee. Not affiliated with In-N-Out. This is a fan account posting accurate up to date information.”
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The apparent citation oversight comes after NOTUS reported that the administration’s MAHA report was riddled with errors, including references to
studies that did not exist
, misconstrued claims from others, citation of a paper
a federal judge had thrown out
as “junk science,” an update of the report with
fresh errors
and using the report to
advance vaccine misinformation
.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between
NOTUS
— a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and
NEWSWELL
, home of
Times of San Diego
,
Santa Barbara News-Press
and
Stocktonia
.
