Footage of Trump speaking to US troops in 2017 circulated in false posts days before President Biden's inauguration
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 27, 2021 at 10:00
- 2 min read
- By AFP Hong Kong
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The video was published on Twitter here on January 18, 2021. It has been viewed more than 106,000 times.
The post’s simplified Chinese-language caption translates to English as: “At 10 am EDT this morning, President Trump gave a televised speech and then put on his military uniform in public, starting to exercise the sacred duties as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The wartime president began to attack head-on, and the God of War came on stage!”
A White House logo can be seen superimposed in the top right-hand corner of the video.
The video was also shared alongside a similar claim on Twitter here and here; on Facebook here, here and here; and on YouTube here and here.
The claim is false.
A Yandex reverse image search followed by a keyword search found the footage was published on a verified White House YouTube channel here on November 5, 2017, more than three years before date given in the misleading posts.
The clip corresponds to the YouTube video’s 36-second mark.
The YouTube video’s headline reads: “President Trump and the First Lady Participate in a Yokota Air Base Troop Event”. The caption states the video was filmed in Tokyo.
Below are screenshot comparisons of the footage shared in the video in the misleading Twitter post (L) and the 2017 White House video published on YouTube (R):
Other footage, as well as a photo from Trump's address to US troops in Japan in 2017, was also published by the US Embassy in Japan here on November 5, 2017.
AFP published this report on Trump’s speech on the same day.
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