Did Donald Trump wear a hat in the Proud Boys colors of black and yellow at his Madison Square Garden rally on October 27, 2024? No, that's not true: Trump wore the black-and-yellow baseball hat in Traverse City, Michigan, two days before the Madison Square Garden rally. Agency photos show that Trump wore a blue suit, red tie and no hat to the Madison Square Garden rally.
The claim appeared in an image on Instagram (archived here) on October 27, 2024. Trump appeared in a black-and-yellow baseball hat emblazoned with his campaign's slogan, "Make America Great Again." Text above the image of Trump read:
Trump is wearing black and yellow this weekend. These are the colors of the Proud Boys. This is the first time in American history that a presidential candidate is purposely wearing gang colors. What message do you think he's trying to send?
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 14:11:16 2024 UTC)
The post's caption read, "Trump wearing proud boy gang colors tonight at Madison Square Garden Nazi Rally.😡" The post did not provide any evidence to prove that this claim was legitimate.
The Proud Boys are a far-right movement that regularly wear black and yellow as part of their branding. Here and here are some examples.
A reverse image search on Google Lens (archived here) showed that this picture was taken as Trump arrived in Traverse City, Michigan, to speak at an October 25, 2024, rally. One of the shots, by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, can be seen in this October 26, 2024, article from Fox News. A screenshot is below:
(Source: Fox News screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 15:29:48 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories could find no evidence via a search on Google News (archived here) that Trump had responded to the claim that he had worn the hat to display respect for the Proud Boys.
Trump wore a blue suit with a red tie and no hat at his October 27, 2024, Madison Square Garden rally. Lead Stories found that by searching "Trump AND Madison Square Garden" (archived here) on Google. Evidence of this is below:
(Source: NPR screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 17:04:23 2024 UTC)
At the time this article was written, PolitiFact had reviewed the same claim.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims surrounding Donald Trump are here. More Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election are here.
