Polish military parade footage misrepresented as US border deployment
- Published on January 29, 2025 at 17:20
- Updated on January 29, 2025 at 18:06
- 3 min read
- By Daniel Patrick GALGANO, AFP USA
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"Trump making good on his promises Headed to the border This is Texas," says the text of a video in a January 22, 2025 X post with more than 11,000 likes.
The same clip has circulated elsewhere on X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and Gettr -- including in German, French and Japanese.
On January 22, Trump ordered 1,500 troops to the Mexican border to assist customs officials in the area with preventing illegal crossings.
The Department of Defense later released a statement stating it would deploy several helicopters with the troops (archived here), and Stars and Stripes reported US officials were considering equipping soldiers with 20-ton armored Stryker vehicles.
However, authorities have not publicly proposed sending tanks to the southern border and the video -- which AFP previously reported was falsely linked to the war in Ukraine -- was not filmed in the United States.
2024 parade
A reverse image search using keyframes from the video led to a 2023 article from a Polish newspaper about an annual military parade in Warsaw, that contained photos of similar-looking vehicles as those in the social media posts (archived here).
A keyword search revealed an August 15, 2024, TikTok post that featured the same convoy footage, with the caption "Polish Army Day!" and a geotag, indicating it was filmed in the country's capital (archived here).
The parade, which took place on Poland's national Armed Forces Day, boasted appearances from the country's President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
AFP photographers also captured images of the Warsaw event, showing soldiers travelling in the same tanks and armored vehicles.
Warsaw route
Poland's state broadcaster reported the parade moved down the Wisłostrada expressway in Warsaw (archived here).
Retracing the route on Google Maps Street View shows the same street signs and infrastructure as in the video posted online (archived here).
AFP has fact-checked other images falsely linked to the 2025 deployment to the US border here.
This article was updated to add a screenshot of the original TikTok post.January 29, 2025 This article was updated to add a screenshot of the original TikTok post.
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