Old Trump video bashing lockdowns misrepresented amid hantavirus outbreak
- Published on May 12, 2026 at 23:18
- 2 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
Social media users across platforms are falsely claiming a video shows US President Donald Trump calling the World Health Organization (WHO) "sick people" and declaring that the United States "will not comply" with mask mandates and other public health interventions that could arise from the 2026 hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While the clip is real, it is misrepresented; then-candidate Trump posted it to Truth Social in August 2023 in reference to Covid-19, not the hantavirus cases.
"PRES. TRUMP BLASTS WHO & HANTAVIRUS: 'NOT WITH US -- NO MORE TYRANNY!'" says a May 10, 2026 post on X.
Another post reads: "Trump drops TRUTH BOMBS on the fearmongers trying to push WHO panic and COVID-style tyranny over this Hantavirus situation! No school closures. No mask mandates. No forced jabs. We're DONE with their scams."
Similar posts spread across X and other platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said May 12 that the "work is not over" to contain hantavirus after evacuations from the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, where an outbreak resulting in the deaths of three passengers sparked international alarm.
Health officials have stressed that the global public health risk is low, rejecting comparisons to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Among living patients, all of whom are passengers or crew of the ship, seven cases have been confirmed and an eighth is listed as "probable," according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The affected include two of several American citizens repatriated from the ship to the United States, which under President Trump withdrew from the WHO in January.
Trump said May 11 that he did not regret exiting the United Nations health agency, adding that he thinks "we're in very good shape."
But the video circulating in posts across platforms is old and unrelated to the hantavirus outbreak.
Keyword searches surfaced a longer version of the video on Truth Social, where the then-presidential candidate posted it August 30, 2023 (archived here). An X account dedicated to resharing Trump's Truth Social posts also published it that same day (archived here).
In the video, Trump accused so-called "left-wing lunatics" of "trying very hard to bring back Covid lockdowns." But he never mentioned WHO or the hantavirus.
Referencing "new variants" of Covid that had emerged around that time, Trump claimed that "they want to restart the Covid hysteria" to justify expanded use during the 2024 election of mail-in voting, a method he has long insisted without evidence is rife with fraud.
"These are bad people, these are sick people we are dealing with," he said. "But to every Covid tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words: we will not comply."
Similar conspiracy theories alleging that the hantavirus was intentionally unleashed to disrupt the 2026 US midterm elections also surfaced amid the outbreak.
AFP previously debunked posts falsely claiming the same clip of Trump showed him speaking about a 2024 mpox outbreak.
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