Video of pope slapping Trump's hand is fake from late night TV
- Published on April 23, 2025 at 21:23
- 4 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"In memory of Pope Francis, this will forever be my favorite video of him," says an April 21, 2025 post on X, shared shortly after the Vatican announced Pope Francis, 88, had died.
The video appears to show a CNN broadcast of Pope Francis standing beside a smiling Trump in the Vatican. As the clip cuts to zoom in on what appear to be their hands, it depicts Trump tickling and reaching to grab the pope's hand before the pope slaps him away.
Similar posts sharing the same scene spread across X and other platforms following the pope's death.
The Argentine reformer, who inspired devotion but riled traditionalists during his 12 years at the helm of the Catholic Church, died of a stroke almost a month after leaving the hospital following five weeks battling double pneumonia. The death certificate released by the Vatican said the stroke caused a coma and irreversible heart failure -- and also revealed that the pope had Type 2 diabetes.
Tributes streamed in from leaders around the world, including Trump, since reelected to the US presidency, who announced he would be attending the pope's funeral.
The clip of Pope Francis whacking Trump's hand during the president's first term is not authentic, however.
A reverse image search revealed that the clip originated on the ABC late-night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (archived here).
The comedian poked fun at Trump after the president's May 24, 2017 meeting with the pope at the Vatican. The visit was the first face-to-face encounter between the leaders, who had clashed on several issues.
"Professional issues aside, on a personal level, meeting the pope was a big deal for Donald Trump, and we've seen how things have been going between him and Melania lately," Kimmel said, referencing a pair of incidents in the days prior in which First Lady Melania Trump had appeared to refuse her husband's attempts to hold hands.
Then, as the altered clip played on screen, Kimmel quipped about Trump triggering the same reaction from the pope.
"So when Trump reached out, I know that he had to be disappointed that the pope wouldn't hold his hand either," he said. "Poor guy, he just wants to be loved. He just wants to be touched. That's all."
The original CNN broadcast Kimmel pulled from never homed in on the two men's hands. By contrast, the feed shows no such hand-swatting interaction took place.
AFP, C-SPAN and other media also distributed footage of the moment.
One sign the version aired by Kimmel and recently misrepresented online is altered: the leaders' sleeves change when the camera cuts to the focus on their hands. The pope's sleeve becomes shorter, while Trump's cuff goes from covered to suddenly visible.
Later in his program, Kimmel played another edit from Trump's visit with Pope Francis, which mockingly portrayed Trump gifting the pontiff steaks and a "Make America Great Again" hat.
Jimmy Fallon, another American comedian, also aired a similarly edited clip of the pope slapping Trump's hand on his late-night show the same evening. Like Kimmel, Fallon made the joke after referencing the incidents involving Melania Trump.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the pope here.
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