In June 2026, a rumor circulated online that the actor Matthew McConaughey had publicly praised U.S. President Donald Trump, calling him " great friend and an even better president," and attacked the president's critics.
The claim spread across social media platforms such as Facebook and Threads, and was generally accompanied by an image displaying the following quote:
I've worked with a lot of people in my life, and I've never met anyone braver, smarter, or who cares more about America than Donald Trump. He's a great friend and an even better president. I'm proud to be a steadfast supporter, and I'll never apologize for it. God bless America and our president.
(Threads user ma_rio_da)
Snopes readers contacted us to ask whether the rumor was true.
We first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo to search for the supposed quote from McConaughey. If the story were true, reputable news sources (especially outlets in Texas, given McConaughey's deep ties to the Lone Star State), would have widely reported on the public statement, as they did in 2017 when McConaughey said it was time to "embrace" the fact that Trump was elected president.
However, no such evidence existed. Instead, we found examples of nearly identical social media posts suggesting that the quote came from Mick Jagger, the frontman of The Rolling Stones. (There was no evidence the quote came from Jagger, either — The Rolling Stones threatened to sue Trump for using their songs during his rallies in 2020).
The quote was incorrectly attributed to McConaughey. It originated from social media and blog pages that use artificial intelligence tools to create inspiring or shocking stories about public figures.
Creators of such content capitalize on social media users' willingness to believe and share the made-up stories, profiting from advertising revenue on external websites to which the posts link. (Snopes has previously reported on the business strategy.) Some posts spreading the false rumor about McConaughey also included links in the comment sections to articles on blog sites. The comments promised more details about McConaughey's in the links.
We also checked the articles and social media post for indications of AI-generated text. The writing used vague language to describe the events and had the stilted and formulaic structure Snopes has frequently found in fake, AI generated articles. GPTZero, a tool that aims to detect AI-generated text, determined with 100% certainty that the articles and post's captions were AI-generated.
We should note that AI detection tools are imperfect: AI detector tools like GPTZero don't always get it right, while SynthIDs can be added to real photos without making other edits. As such, Snopes cautions people against using them for definitive answers on media's authenticity without supporting evidence.
Snopes frequently debunks AI generated rumors supposedly reporting on comments one prominent person has made about another. For example, we recently traced the source of a false story claiming that Donald Trump called Pope Leo XIV an "insult to Jesus."