Did a video show actors Brad Pitt and George Clooney "hit the Trump dance" to the song, "Y.M.C.A." by Village People? No, that's not true: "Y.M.C.A." was edited onto the video. The original audio has the two dancing to Sade's "Smooth Operator." Multiple reliable sources have reported that Pitt and Clooney were dancing to "Smooth Operator," and not "Y.M.C.A."
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on November 20, 2024. The caption read:
🚨 Clooney and Brad Pitt abandon Democrat Party, hit the Trump Dance
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Nov 21 13:35:33 2024 UTC)
Two TikTok usernames, overlaid on each other, appear in the upper left corner, separate, then move to the lower right corner during the eight-second video. We've taken a screenshot of the moment they separate, when you can see the usernames read "@brdpittt" and "@uncensoredusa." Evidence of this is below, highlighting by Lead Stories:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Nov 21 13:45:51 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories visited both accounts to see which was the original. @Uncensoredusa did not have a video of Pitt and Clooney on their TikTok account (archived here), but @brdpittt did (archived here) on November 5, 2024. That video of Pitt and Clooney dancing had "Smooth Operator" by Sade playing, plus the sound of an audience applauding. These two other videos also show the two dancing to "Smooth Operator" with applause (archived here and here, respectively) at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2024.
Lead Stories reached out to Pitt's and Clooney's representatives and will update this article when a relevant response is received.
More Lead Stories fact checks of claims surrounding Brad Pitt are here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims surrounding George Clooney are here.
