What was claimed
A news article from 1927 shows America was sold to five billionaires; the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, DuPonts, Harrimans and Warburgs.
Our verdict
This article isn’t real. It was published by satirical outlet The Onion in 2005 and has been shared out of context.
An image of a newspaper article supposedly from the 1920s claiming that America was sold to “five billionaires” has been recirculating online. But the ‘article’ isn’t real and originates from the satirical publisher The Onion.
In a Threads post, overlaid text reads : “This is a 1927 News Article Showing America was sold to 5 Billionaires. The Rothschild’s, Rockefellers, DuPont’s, Harriman’s and Warburg’s [sic].”
The newspaper headline appears to say “Billionaires buy U.S. from millionaires” with a subheading “Future of Nation in Yet Wealthier Hands”.
Through a reverse image search, Full Fact found the same article was published on the website of satirical news outlet, The Onion, in 2005. The image circulating online has been cropped, with a sepia filter added, and does not include The Onion masthead.
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Some comments on this post suggest it is being taken at face value.
We have previously fact checked this image, which has been circulating in different versions on social media platforms since at least 2015.
Full Fact often sees satirical content being shared out of context, potentially leading some people to believe the claims they are seeing in isolation are true.
While it can be difficult to tell immediately whether or not a claim online is trustworthy, our toolkit contains tips on how to verify content and avoid bad information.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as satire because this article isn’t real, but comes from the satirical publisher The Onion.
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Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.