Coca-Cola and General Motors pulled advertising from ABC and NBC in response to the TV networks “refusing” to air U.S. President Donald Trump’s July 16, 2026, presidential address.
In July 2026, a rumor spread online that The Coca-Cola Company and General Motors were pulling advertising money from television networks NBC and ABC for allegedly refusing to broadcast U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech on July 16.
For example, on July 18, a Facebook user posted a meme (archived) in a group called Liberal Tears that claimed: “Coca-Cola and General Motors have pulled all of their ads from ABC and NBC. Refusing to broadcast a presidential address was a deal-breaker for them.”
A Threads user shared the same claim and used the popular conservative phrase, “Go woke, go broke.”
(Liberal Tears on Facebook)
The assertion spread following other rumors that the TV networks “refused” to air Trump’s July 16 speech. Snopes investigated this claim and found that while ABC and NBC did not air the speech live, it was available in full on their streaming services and featured in anchored news coverage.
Some users seemed to interpret the rumor that Coca-Cola and GM pulled their ads from the two networks as true. Snopes readers also contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.
In short, the claim is fictional. It originated from America’s Last Line of Defense, a website and collection of social media pages that describes its output as satirical and as a “dumping ground for certified AI-free trollery and right-wing propaganda.” The Facebook pages that make up the network plainly state, “Nothing on this page is real.”
To determine the rumor’s origin, we first used search engines such as Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo.
If Coca-Cola or GM had really pulled ads from two of the biggest television networks, journalists with reputable news outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, would have widely reported on the decision, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence. That was not the case.
Further, the corporate media hubs for both companies feature no mention of any such changes to their advertising initiatives.
A Facebook page called America – Love It or Leave It, which is linked to America’s Last Line of Defense, first shared the rumor on July 16 (archived), the day of Trump’s speech. Another ALLOD-connected account, America Loves Liberty, posted the claim the following day (archived) and included the meme some social media users shared.
(Facebook)
The original image features a watermark that reads, “Nothing on this page is real,” which appears to have been removed by some users sharing the meme.
Snopes contacted America’s Last Line of Defense for its response to the fact some people mistook the satirical story as real news. We will update this article if we receive a response.
A spokesperson for Coca-Cola said via email, “The online rumor circulating is false. The Coca-Cola Company has not recently pulled advertising in response to any broadcaster’s programming or airing decisions.”
We also reached out to General Motors for its response to the false story. We will update this report if we hear back from the company.
Snopes has debunked similar pieces of media before. For example, in September 2025, we alerted readers to a fake story about Coca-Cola canceling a sponsorship deal with late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel for political reasons. That rumor had the same satirical origin: America’s Last Line of Defense. Snopes has repeatedly debunked ALLOD’s content.
Let us note here: Whether you agree with something being described as satire or parody is a matter of opinion. Snopes is in the business of facts. We label these rumors based on creators’ description of them. Your call on whether you agree.
