Trump clip unrelated to 2024 agricultural protests in Europe

  • Published on February 8, 2024 at 22:43
  • 5 min read
  • By AFP USA
Social media users sharing a video of Donald Trump signing a tractor claim it shows the former US president expressing solidarity with 2024 farm protests against stricter European environmental regulations and other agricultural policies. But the clip is unrelated to the recent demonstrations; it shows a campaign stop in October ahead of presidential caucuses in the state of Iowa.

"President Donald Trump shows support for the international rebellion of farmers!" says a February 3, 2024 post on X  sharing the clip.

"Whilst European farmers fighting their governments for their existence. Donald Trump is visiting farms and signing tractors," another post, shared on February 4, says, amid significant blockades by farmers across Europe.

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Screenshot of a post on X taken February 8, 2024
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Similar claims circulated elsewhere on X and TikTok (here and here).

But the posts misrepresent the video. The clip of Trump's visit to a farm in Iowa is unaltered, but it predates the ongoing series of European protests by months.

Through a reverse image search, AFP retrieved the original footage, posted by Trump's senior advisor, Dan Scavino (archived here).

"@realDonaldTrump stops by a Family Farm in Iowa -- prior to departing they ask him to sign️their @JohnDeere Combine…," Scavino wrote in the October 1, 2023 post.

Trump visited the state as part of a campaign push to win over its key blue-collar voters. In January, he gathered more than half of the caucus votes, a major step toward the Republican nomination.

Through a keyword search of Trump's platforms, including Truth Social and his campaign website, AFP could not find any evidence of a recent meetup with US farmers or any statement by the former president supporting the demonstrations in Europe.

Trump has voiced his solidarity with foreign farmers in the past. In 2022, protests against plans to cut livestock numbers and possibly close farms to meet emissions targets in the Netherlands attracted the Republican leader's attention.

Farmers have been mobilizing across Europe, demanding lower fuel taxes, better prices for products and an overall easing of EU environmental regulations.

In turn, far-right and anti-establishment parties -- which are predicted to make significant gains in June's European elections -- latched onto the farmers' movement.

Similar narratives then started appearing in the US (archived here and here).

AFP has debunked other claims misrepresenting footage of the agriculture protests, here and here.

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