Trump shares video falsely claiming Walmart shuttering California stores

"California Governor PANICS as Walmart Shuts Down 250+ Stores Across State," says text over the video, which Trump posted twice on Truth Social January 28, 2026.

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Screenshot from Truth Social taken February 4, 2026

In the roughly 3-minute video, a purported news anchor who identifies herself as "Megan Wright" says Walmart "is preparing to shut down more than 250 stores across California" due to "policies that ignored basic economics," including what she claims is a $22 hourly minimum wage requirement for large retail and grocery workers.

The posts come as Newsom has emerged as one of Trump's fiercest critics in the president's second term -- and a potential candidate to replace him in 2028.

But the allegations in the video the president promoted are "not true," Walmart confirmed to AFP.

"This is false," a Walmart spokesperson said in a February 4 call. "The claims that are being made there, those claims are false."

In California, Walmart operates 303 retail stores, including 30 under the Sam's Club brand, as well as 13 supply chain facilities, according to the company's website (archived here). A new store opened in January.

The minimum wage in California is also not $22 per hour, but far outpaces the $7.25 federal minimum wage at $16.90 for all employers and $20 for fast food restaurants, according to the state's Department of Industrial Relations and the US Department of Labor (archived here and here).

Data collected by the University of California, Berkeley shows that even cities with higher minimum wages than the state requires have put the pay below $22 per hour (archived here).

AI-generated

AFP could also not find evidence of a "Megan Wright" matching the face of the supposed news anchor narrating the video. One broadcast journalist with that name said in a February 4 LinkedIn direct message that she had "nothing to do with this."

The Hiya.com voice-cloning detection tool within the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify, assessed that the voice audio is "very likely AI-generated."

Longer versions of the video appear on various YouTube channels that have small followings and are littered with AI-generated content. Many of those videos carry an "altered or synthetic content" disclosure in the upper left-hand corner of the frame.

Another iteration that has not been labeled is narrated by an entirely different character who also identifies herself as "Megan Wright."

AFP also surfaced articles regurgitating the transcript on dubious, advertisement-filled websites.

Brandon Richards, Newsom's deputy director for rapid response, said in a February 3 email to AFP that the episode shows Trump "does not know the difference between AI and reality." The governor's office had previously clarified in a January 28 post on X that "Walmart's 303 stores in California are open" (archived here).

Asked for evidence to support Trump's claims, White House spokesperson Kush Desai told AFP in a February 4 email that "President Trump is right" and claimed, without citing any specific data, that Newsom's Democratic policies had "already driven millions of residents and countless businesses out of California in the past decade alone."

Online platforms have been scrambling to moderate low-quality content that can be quickly and easily produced using AI tools.

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about US politics here.