Trump Didn't Pass Out - FactCheck.org

Q: Did President Donald Trump collapse while giving a speech in New Jersey?

A: No. That story was published by a self-described satirical website.

FULL ANSWER

A story first published July 30 on ourlandofthefree.com falsely claimed that President Donald Trump was rushed to the hospital after collapsing while giving a speech in New Jersey.

The bogus story was republished days later on worldpoliticsnow.com and 24usadailynews.com, and it was flagged by Facebook users as potentially fake news. Readers were right to be skeptical.

As we’ve noted before, ourlandofthefree.com publishes satirical stories. A disclaimer on the website reads: “Ourlandofthefree.com makes no guarantee that anything you find here will be based at all in reality. All posts should be considered satirical and all images Photoshopped to look like something they’re not. It’s not you, it’s me.”

In addition, the terms and conditions page on worldpoliticsnow.com, which reposted the story, says that “[b]y operating the Website, World Politics Now does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful.”

Even without the disclaimers, there are signs that the story is false.

For one, it says, “President Trump was giving a speech in New Plantitngton, New Jersey today when he suddenly looked dazed” and “just crumpled to the floor.” But there is no such place as “New Plantitngton, New Jersey,” and the image of Trump sprawled on the floor was taken by the Associated Press on April 1, 2007, during Wrestlemania 23.

Also, Trump held no public events on Sunday, July 30, when the story was originally published on ourlandofthefree.com. He visited one of his golf properties in Sterling, Virginia, that day and returned to the White House. Trump didn’t travel to New Jersey for a 17-day working vacation until Aug. 4, which was after all three websites had published the same story.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label viral fake news stories flagged by readers on the social media network.