2 Trump Stories on Social Media You Shouldn’t Believe
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue political stories of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the real facts:
CLAIM: A photo shows a street intersection in Orlando shut down because of overflow crowds celebrating President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign launch Tuesday.
THE FACTS: A photo described in Facebook posts as showing scores of Trump’s supporters gathered outside his Tuesday night campaign rally in Orlando was actually taken a week ago in Toronto. The photo shows thousands of people -- many of them wearing Raptors red -- crowded in a street intersection at night.
The image actually captured a throng of revelers at Yonge Dundas Square, at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas in Toronto, after the Toronto Raptors clinched the NBA title on June 13. The image also is consistent with aerial photos and video that local media captured of Toronto fans that night. Large crowds, including supporters and protesters, also gathered outside Trump’s rally at Orlando’s Amway Center on Tuesday.
CLAIM: The Trump administration places a ban on student visas for Nigerians until further notice.
THE FACTS: There is no such ban. Media outlets based in Africa began publishing inaccurate reports over the weekend that President Donald Trump had banned Nigerians from coming to the U.S. to study. The stories were shared on Facebook and Twitter. The U.S. Mission in Nigeria debunked the claim on Twitter on Monday in what it called a #FakeNewsAlert.
“Be advised, reports of Student Visa ban for Nigerians is false,” they tweeted. “If you have seen such manufactured item on Facebook and Twitter or received it via WhatsApp, please communicate that it is false.”
The Associated Press reported in April that top Trump administration officials were considering increasing pressure on countries with a high number of citizens overstaying their short-term visas in the U.S. In 2018, Nigeria was one of the countries listed in the top 10 for all overstays, according to the AP.
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