A rumor circulated online in August 2025 that the U.S. National Guard defied orders from President Donald Trump by refusing deployment to Chicago, citing the medical condition called bone spurs.
For example, one post on X (archived) sharing the claim included an image of service members wearing fatigues and lying on the floor of a large lobby. The user wrote, "I heard there was an outbreak of bone spurs. I guess it's contagious? The Commander in Chief may have impacted all members of the Armed Forces!"
Variations of the rumor spread on X (archived), Facebook (archived) and Instagram (archived).
Some users seemed to take the claim at face value. However, there was no evidence that National Guard service members refused to go to Chicago because of bone spurs. Likewise, a Google search produced no evidence of any credible news outlets reporting on the alleged news, which would have been widely covered if it were true.
Rather, the rumor about the National Guard refusing to go to Chicago originated with The Borowitz Report (archived), "a news satire site published since 2001," according to its author, Andy Borowitz, who also said in his bio: "I've been writing satirical news since I was eighteen."
An article on The Borowitz Report's website elaborated on the satirical story:
Complicating Donald J. Trump's plan to send troops to Chicago, on Tuesday thousands of National Guard members called in sick with bone spurs.
The White House was plunged into chaos after receiving over seven thousand notes from guardsmen's podiatrists, sources said.
At the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed that he would get to the bottom of the bone spurs epidemic by enlisting the nation's finest medical minds, including Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil.
"A sudden outbreak of this size is very suspicious," Kennedy told reporters. "The most likely culprits are COVID-19 vaccinations."
The fictional story spread after Trump claimed he would send the National Guard to Chicago, among other cities, which was met with stiff opposition from Chicago officials. As a result, Trump appeared to back down on those threats, NPR reported.
The satirical piece also took aim at Trump's own alleged history with bone spurs, the condition that reportedly exempted him from military service during the Vietnam War, though the authenticity of the ailment has remained in question.
Further, the image shared in the posts originated from Reuters, which published a collection of photos on Jan. 13, 2021, featuring the National Guard sleeping inside the Capitol Visitor's Center in Washington, D.C., "before Democrats begin debating one article of impeachment against President Trump." There was heightened security in the area at the time following the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol by Trump supporters.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims from The Borowitz Report in the past, including the assertion that Vice President JD Vance was last person to see Jeffrey Epstein alive and a rumor that Trump had a "freak out" over a question on a Nobel Peace Prize application.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.