On January 29, Newsweek published an article titled “Biden Military Draft Rumors Swirl After Iran Attacks” despite providing just four social media posts as evidence supporting this alarmist headline. 

The article quotes posts to X (formerly Twitter) from former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell (who played a key role in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Nevada and has spread misinformation online in the past) and from Robert J. O’Neill, a former U.S. Navy SEAL. Both of their posts speculate about the possibility of Biden reinstating the draft.

“Biden means more wars and a possible draft for young U.S. men and women,” wrote Grenell, “Trump means peace deals.” 

While the piece finally notes in its 11th paragraph (of 13 in total) that “there has been no confirmation that Biden is interested in a military draft,” it goes on to claim that “a number of other social media users speculated on the idea.” As evidence for this, Newsweek cites two X users whose claims include that “Joe Biden wants a WW3 so the democrats can stay in power” and that “Biden's draft had better include men, women, and all of those letters Biden's America has dreamed up.” (These two posts have garnered a combined 27 likes as of Tuesday afternoon.)  

The article was also shared by Arizona state House candidate Nick Kupper in a post to X. He wrote: “I’ve been saying it for a long time now. Biden will start a war & institute a draft this year before the election.”