Old Scottish music festival footage misrepresented as pro-Trump crowd
- Published on July 29, 2025 at 23:24
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"Scottish crowds give Trump a royal welcome," says text over the video, shared July 26, 2025 to TikTok. "King Donald."
The clip shows a crowd of people waving their arms and jumping, with a traditional Scottish bagpipe tune dubbed over the footage.
Similar posts circulated across TikTok and other platforms, including X and Instagram.
"What the media will not show you," says one July 28 post on X.
The video spread as Trump spent five days in Scotland playing golf, opening a new course and inking a major trade deal with the European Union. The president arrived July 25 and departed July 29.
But the clip is out of context.
A reverse image search surfaced the same footage in a YouTube video posted July 30, 2016 with a title saying it shows the Courteeners performing their song "Not Nineteen Forever" during the "T in the Park" music festival (archived here).
According to news reports from the time and an archived capture of the festival's website, Courteeners were one of several acts involved with the event.
A photo from the BBC shows lead singer Liam Fray in what appears to be the same shirt as he can be seen wearing in the YouTube video (archived here).
The festival took place at Strathallan Castle in Perthshire.
A visit to the castle was not on Trump's agenda, which instead included inaugurating a golf course in Balmedie, in northeastern Scotland, and time at his Turnberry resort on the country's southwestern coast. The president landed at Prestwick Airport and flew out of a Royal Air Force base in Lossiemouth.
AFP journalists spotted some supporters at Prestwick Airport, but the president's visit also drew protests, with several hundred people demonstrating outside the US consulate in the capital Edinburgh and further north in the city of Aberdeen, near the Balmedie property.
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