Fake News: U.S. Women's Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe Does NOT Hold 'Trump 2020' Flag In Photo

Fact Check

  • by: Alan Duke
Fake News: U.S. Women's Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe Does NOT Hold 'Trump 2020' Flag In Photo

Is U.S. Women's National Soccer Team co-captain Megan Rapinoe holding a Trump campaign flag in a photo? No, that's not true: It is a digitially-enhanced image of Rapinoe, who President Trump targeted on Twitter after she said she would not visit the White House if her team won the women's World Cup. This image is satire.

The origin of the image is unclear, but it spread virally starting in late June, 2019 including in a post (archived here) published on July 2, 2019 under the title "I just want this to go viral just to tick her off!!". The image showed Rapinow with her arms raised and a blue Trump flag in her left hand that read:

Trump
-2020-
Keep America Great!

This is how it appeared to social media users:

Rapinoe and Trump have been engaged in a public feud after the soccer star's comments to a reporter for Eight By Eight, a soccer magazine, were published on June 25, 2019. When the reporter asked her if she was looking forward to visiting the White House if her team won the World Cup, she answered "I'm not going to the f*****g White House."

President Trump responded to Rapinoe's statement on Twitter:

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  Alan Duke

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

Read more about or contact Alan Duke

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