Does a video clip show former President Donald Trump confusing whether he was in Pennsylvania or North Carolina during one of his political rallies? No, that's not true: At the beginning of this particular rally, he gives a shout-out to a group of North Carolina women who regularly attend his events. In the short clip used in a social media post, he is giving a shout-out to the same group for a second time.
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) where it was posted on August 17, 2024. The post read:
Holy shit. This is a huge mistake.
Trump thinks he is in North Carolina.
He's in Pennsylvania!
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Aug 19 16:55:15 2024 UTC)
The post includes a video clip of Trump speaking at a podium. He turns to his left and asks, "I don't know if somehow ... Would that be okay, North Carolina? I don't think so. They want me to speak all day!" A Google News search using keywords (archived here) led to finding that this clip was taken during an August 17, 2024, Trump rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In a PBS recording (archived here) of the full rally, the moment seen in the X post happens at 29:00. At the beginning of the rally, Trump comments on groups of people that have attended over 200 Trump events, starting at 12:04. Trump describes one of those groups at 12:21, as follows:
But I have another group from a place called North Carolina. Has anybody ever heard of ... We love North Carolina! The beautiful ladies over there. This is number, what? Two hundred and seventeen. So this is number 217, and supposedly, they're happily married ...
During that quote, Trump is constantly looking and pointing to his left, where the women from North Carolina apparently are located in the rally crowd.
We have contacted the Trump campaign and will update this article, as appropriate, if a response is received.
Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist for BBC Verify, also fact-checked this claim.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding Donald Trump are here.
