Trump clip altered to spread false Ohio train derailment claim
- Published on May 19, 2025 at 17:48
- 4 min read
- By AFP USA
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"Trump just said the quiet part out loud. Again," claims a May 8, 2025 post on X. In the video, Trump appears to say: "East Palestine, Ohio. It was the largest environmental terror attack in world history and it was an inside job."
He goes on to threaten the death penalty for anyone found responsible for the February 2023 train derailment which set off a days-long fire and resulted in the release of hazardous chemicals including vinyl chloride.
The claim echoes baseless conspiracy theories which circulated just following the toxic spill, with many implying that the derailment was planned.
Following a year-long investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board said a rail car's defective wheel bearing caused the derailment and found no evidence of foul play (archived here). In its June 2024 report the agency said: "Overheated wheel bearings are a common cause of rail accidents" and the systems in place to detect an issue did not warn the crew to slow down before it was too late (archived here).
The US government reached a more than $310 million settlement with Norfolk Southern Railway Company "to address and pay for the damage caused by the Feb. 3, 2023, train derailment" (archived here).
Trump has long criticized the Biden administration's handling of the disaster, visiting with residents of East Palestine as he campaigned for the presidency. But the clip which seems to show Trump discussing the crash from the Oval Office is not authentic.
Reverse image search shows it is a digitally manipulated version of a May 8 trade announcement made by the US president. AFP photos and video of Trump discussing the deal match the social media posts, with the president flanked by US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick (L), Vice President JD Vance (2ndL) and British ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson.
A review of the official White House video of the oval office appearance, shows Trump makes no mention of the Ohio rail incident (archived here).
The @MaverickDarby account description on X says its posts are "mostly satire," but keyword searches reveal the altered clip spread to TikTok without similar disclosures.
Just days after the post on the train crash, the @MaverickDarby account altered the same clip, but this time to spread unfounded claims about Covid-19.
In it, the president appears to disparage former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, who was tapped by Trump to help lead the federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a polarizing role that led to death threats and left the immunologist the target of unfounded conspiracy theories.
However, this clip, which spread elsewhere on X and on Facebook, ends with a card admitting it is fake.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation about US politics here.
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