Does video footage show Donald Trump shoving a man at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort the former president calls home? No, that's not true: Another video of the incident makes clear it was a friendly pat. Additionally, the man who was allegedly "shoved" by Trump debunked the claim, writing "[H]e patted me on the back and walked away."
The claim was implied in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on February 21, 2024. The post included a five-second, zoomed-in clip of Trump and read:
People are saying Donald Trump shoved a man at Mar-a-Lago. What do you think?
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
The edited clip doesn't tell the true story, as another video of the incident makes clear. This longer, 10-second clip shows the scene from further away. It depicts Trump posing for a photograph with a man, briefly talking to him, then patting the man on the back before walking away.
The longer video was posted on X by Garrett Ventry, the man who posed with Trump. According to his LinkedIn profile (archived here), Ventry worked on the 2018 confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump nominee, as the senior communications advisor to the Senate Judiciary Committee and its then-chairman, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
Alongside the video, Ventry wrote:
Guys this isn't a scandal. I was talking to President Trump after his speech, we then took a picture, then he patted me on the back and walked away. The internet is insane.
You can watch the footage here (archived here) and below:
Guys this isn't a scandal. I was talking to President Trump after his speech, we then took a picture, then he patted me on the back and walked away. The internet is insane. Here is the full video: https://t.co/Uh390Cef37 pic.twitter.com/eTokHvHUz7
-- Garrett Ventry (@GarrettVentry) February 22, 2024
Lead Stories has debunked a number of claims involving Trump at Mar-a-Lago. You can read a collection of those fact checks here.
