Clip of Trump's 2017 inaugural address shared with mistranslated subtitles
- Published on July 16, 2024 at 09:33
- 3 min read
- By Carina CHENG, AFP Hong Kong
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An old video of former US president Donald Trump giving his inaugural address in 2017 has resurfaced on social media with mistranslated Chinese-language subtitles to make it appear that he said migrants from China were not welcome in America because they were "unpatriotic" to their own country. Original footage showed Trump did not mention anything about Chinese migrants in the United States during the speech.
"This time you're right, look at those who worship foreign things, you're so not welcomed. You don't love your country but go to other countries to be slaves," read the simplified Chinese caption of a video that has been shared more than 11,000 times since it was posted on Douyin on June 14, 2024.
The sticker text on the video read: "Chinese migrants in the US are a group of unpatriotic people. Worshipping foreign things and fawning on foreigners will not make you noble."
The 20-second video appears to show Trump talking to the camera in a speech.
The simplified Chinese subtitles on the video read: "Chinese migrants in the United States are a group of unpatriotic people. Why should America love you? Now you can betray your own country for tax evasion and profit. In the future, you will definitely betray my country for your own benefit. America doesn't welcome you."
Comments showed some Douyin users appeared to believe the subtitles accurately translated Trump's remarks.
"This time he is right," one commented.
"Trump has a point," another said.
The same video was shared alongside similar claims on social media platforms X, Facebook and Weibo.
There has been a recent surge in the number of Chinese migrants seeking to cross the US-Mexico border, according to US figures, with more than 31,000 encounters with Chinese nationals reported between October 2023 and May 2024.
Trump has made illegal immigration a centrepiece of his presidential reelection bid and has been critical of the policies of President Joe Biden.
He has also previously suggested without giving evidence that migrants -- including those from China -- were forming an "army" in the United States (archived link).
However, the video did not show Trump criticising migrants from China.
Inaugural address
A reverse image search led to a YouTube video with the same footage published by The New York Times on January 22, 2017, titled "President Donald Trump’s Full Inauguration Speech 2017" (archived link).
The false clip corresponds to the part between 05:34 and 05:54 marks in the YouTube video.
Trump can be heard in the clip saying "... and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealised potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now".
Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and the 2017 YouTube video (R):
Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on January 20, 2017, and delivered his inauguration address on the same day.
During the address, he decried "American carnage" and promised power to people and a new vision of "America first".
White House issued the full transcript of Trump's inaugural address on January 20, 2017, and published the inauguration video on YouTube on January 21, 2017 (archived links here and here).
Keyword searches also found no official records where Trump made the remarks in the false video.
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