MARY ALEXANDER • 21 July 2024

On the evening of 13 July 2024 former US president Donald Trump was holding a rally in the state of Pennsylvania when a would-be assassin opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle. A bullet clipped Trump’s ear.

He was quickly bundled to the floor and whisked off stage by secret service agents, but not before rising to pump his fist and shout “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Five days later, Trump formally accepted his nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate in the US presidential election, set for November. He’ll likely be up against current vice president Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, after president Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

The shooting has polarised conversations on social and other media about US voters’ choices in November. Some analysts say it has improved Trump’s chances. Others point to history: previous attempts to assassinate US presidential candidates have had little impact on the final outcome.

And as with most major news events, false information soon followed.

One is an image of Trump seconds after the shooting, his fist raised and blood on his face with the US flag behind him, being held by secret service agents. But the agents seem to be smiling.

The secret service is a US federal government law enforcement agency. One of its duties is to protect current and past presidents.

The image has been circulating on social media in South Africa and elsewhere with claims that the assassination attempt was staged to boost Trump’s campaign.* These include:

• “Even the Secret Service is laughing at what a big joke it was […]”
• “So if it was really an attempt & not staged why are the secret service guys smiling & why did they allow him to pop his head up.”
• “The Secret Service smiling and hiding in the midst of an assassination attempt??? Yeah, it was staged.”
• “The secret service allows a shooter climb a tree get on a whit roof from 150yards out ya that doesn’t happen , And why are the smiling and laughing ? I don’t buy it ???”

But were the agents really smiling?

‘The thing about photography …’

The image has been altered in a particularly bumbling attempt at disinformation, as the original photo has become globally famous in the days since the shooting. It’s been published in news reports across the world. It’s even available as desktop wallpaper.

In the original, the secret service agents are definitely not smiling.

The photo was shot by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Evan Vucci of the Associated Press.

In several interviews since the photo was published, Vucci has described the split-second moments when he snapped the pic and several others like it.

“I heard the shots. So I ran to the stage as the Secret Service agents were starting to cover president Trump up. They were coming up on the stage from all different directions, and they were going on top of him. I went to the front side of the stage and I started photographing everything I could,” he told the UK Guardian.

He added: “The thing about photography is two people can see the exact same image and have a completely different reaction.”

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Report published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

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MARY ALEXANDER • 15 JULY 2024

“Biden just gave citizenship to 1 MILLION illegal aliens by Executive Order,” reads a claim circulating on social media since late June 2024.*

Joe Biden is the president of the United States.

The claim adds that this is “an ILLEGAL ACT that violates the Constitution’s Separation of Powers”.

“If this is allowed, we do not have a Republic of laws, we have a DICTATORSHIP. If this is allowed, our Republic is DEAD.”

The US is headed for a presidential election in November, likely to pit Biden of the Democratic Party against former president Donald Trump of the Republican Party.

Immigration is a hot topic in the campaign. Trump is strongly against it, while Biden has promised a more “humane” approach, leading to accusations that he is “soft” on the topic.

There are an estimated 2.1 million African immigrants in the US, a number that has risen dramatically since the 1990s. The exact figure is difficult to determine as it was previously so low authorities classified African migrants as “other”.

In 2015, the top four countries of origin for African immigrants into the US were Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt and Kenya.

But has Biden recently granted US citizenship to 1 million people who are living in the US illegally?

New process to ‘keep families together’

The claim appeared online on 18 June, the day Biden announced a new process to allow the noncitizen spouses and children of US citizens to apply for legal permanent resident status without leaving the country – and to protect them from deportation.

The process was clarified in a White House fact sheet titled “President Biden Announces New Actions to Keep Families Together.” It will be implemented by the Department of Homeland Security.

Previously, the undocumented spouses of US citizens were required to return to their home countries to apply for legal status, a process that could take years.

“In order to be eligible, noncitizens must – as of June 17, 2024 – have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a US citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements,” the fact sheet reads. “On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the US for 23 years.”

The requirements are stringent. Each case will be individually assessed by the DHS, and if approved the noncitizens will be given three years to apply for permanent residency.

It’s estimated that 500,000 noncitizen spouses and 50,000 noncitizen children will benefit from the process, not 1 million. And the beneficiaries may only apply for permanent residence, not citizenship.

There has been no credible news that Biden recently “gave citizenship to 1 million illegal aliens by executive order”. The claim is false.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

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MARY ALEXANDER • 14 MAY 2024
Published by Africa Check on 20 May 2024

“Venus Williams forfeits match against trans woman,” reads text on a graphic circulating on social media in Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere since late April 2024.*

“I’m not playing a man,” it quotes US tennis champion Williams as saying.

The graphic includes two photos, one supposedly of Venus Williams and the other of another female tennis player.

The graphic has been posted with comments such as:

• He should go and play with his fellow men or transgender. They should have their own category. They need to stop pitching them against biological women.
• Well said all women should do this.
• Venus is absolutely right on this. These people should stop forcing themselves on others.

The graphic can also be seen here, here, here, here, here and here.

But it’s false. Before we look into why, some definitions.

What is trans?

As categories, gender and sex are different things. Gender refers to socially accepted ideas of girlhood and womanhood, on the one hand, and boyhood and manhood on the other. Sex is based on biology and physiology, usually female and male but with some variations in between.

Trans or transgender people are born biologically male or female but have a different sense of themselves, unrelated to their biological sex. A trans woman was labelled male at birth but identifies as female. A trans man was labelled female at birth but identifies as male.

Trans encompasses a broad range of human experience. Some trans people simply dress and act according to their gender identity. Others choose to undergo hormone therapy or even medical procedures to make their bodies reflect their gender.

Trans is different to intersex, people whose bodies don’t fit neatly into the sex categories of male and female. Intersex people can be born with a range of differences in their chromosomes, genitals, genetic features or other parts of their bodies. South African athletics champion Caster Semenya is widely understood to be intersex.

Trans is the T in the acronym LGBTQIA+ and intersex is the I. The other letters stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer or questioning, and asexual.

The rights of trans people have become an issue in the 2024 US presidential election. Likely Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he will roll back protections for trans people put in place by current Democratic president Joe Biden.

Back to the graphic.

Serena Williams and Amelie Mauresmo

Africa Check cropped the photos out of the graphic and ran them through reverse image searches.

We found the first photo, supposedly of Venus Williams, in a September 2022 article by the Japan Times. It’s headlined: “Serena Williams ends magical run at U.S. Open in what was likely her final tournament.”

Serena Williams is Venus Williams’s younger sister. She’s also a tennis champion.

In the article, the photo’s caption reads: “Serena Williams leaves the court after losing her third-round match to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.” It’s attributed to the news service Reuters.

Other photos – here, here, here, here and here – show Serena Williams at the same September 2022 tournament, wearing the same outfit.

We found the second photo – claimed to be a “trans woman” – on the stock image site Flickr. It was uploaded 10 years ago in June 2014 and is titled “Amelie Mauresmo”.

Amelie Mauresmo is a retired professional tennis player based in France. She is not trans.

The photo can also be seen here, here and here, in each instance identified as Mauresmo.

Venus Williams is a famous, record-breaking athlete, and transgender issues have become a hot social and political topic. But there are no credible news reports of Williams forfeiting a match against a trans woman because she “refused to play a man”. If she had, it would have made global headlines.

The claim is false.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

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MARY ALEXANDER • 28 MARCH 2024

Has former US president Donald Trump endorsed uMkhonto weSizwe, South Africa’s newest political party? A low-res video circulating on social media since early March 2024 indicates he has.*

In the clip, Trump appears to say:

Greetings. All South Africans, my name is president Donald Trump. I urge all South Africans to vote for uMkhonto weSizwe May 29th. The African National Congress of Cyril Ramaphosa has failed all South Africans. With this new backed party by president Jacob Zuma, all South Africans will matter. Vote uM …

It then cuts out.

South Africans are set to vote on 29 May in what are slated to be the country’s most pivotal elections in 30 years. Opinion polls suggest the ruling African National Congress (ANC) could lose the parliamentary majority it has held since 1994.

The new uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party takes its name – “spear of the nation” in isiZulu – from the ANC’s military wing during the struggle against apartheid. MK’s profile was boosted when former ANC president Jacob Zuma backed the party and began campaigning on its behalf.

The ANC recently lost a court bid to have the electoral commission’s registration of MK declared invalid. It is currently in another legal battle over who owns the uMkhonto weSizwe name and logo.

One opinion poll suggests that in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province, the ANC could lose half its votes to MK in the upcoming elections.

But does the video really show Trump urging South Africans to vote for MK?

Another fake made with Parrot AI

First off, a closer look at the video clearly shows that the audio doesn’t match the movement of Trump’s lips.

Africa Check took screenshots of the video and ran them through a reverse image search. This revealed that the viral clip was taken from a 2017 interview with Trump by the US broadcaster NBC News. The MK party was registered in September 2023.

Trump’s tie, the angle of his face and the flag pin on his jacket are all the same. The background shows the same US presidential flag positioned to his left.

In the 13-minute NBC video, Trump says nothing about uMkhonto weSizwe. The viral video is fake.

It’s likely it was created by Parrot AI, which sells itself as a “celebrity voice generator”.

Africa Check recently debunked another fake, using the same NBC clip, in which Trump appears to berate Nigerians for criticising president Bola Tinubu. That video includes the Parrot AI logo.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

Published by Africa Check on 11 April 2024

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