Does a video show a long line of military trucks in Texas hauling tanks to the U.S. southern border in response to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump declaring a national emergency in 2025? No, that's not true: The video dates back to August 2024 and does not show events in the U.S. The footage shows a military parade on National Armed Forces Day in Warsaw, Poland. Trump signed an executive order, and approximately 1,500 U.S. troops were mobilized to the southern border with Mexico, but this video does not show that happening.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on January 22, 2025. The post was captioned with these hashtags:
#TexasProud #galndalflogic #gandalhistory #FYP
Text captions on the video read:
Respect from TEXAS
Trump making good on his promises
Headed to the border
This is Texas
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jan 24 14:58:12 2025 UTC)
This is not Texas. This bystander video was filmed from an overpass in Warsaw. It was posted on X (archived here) on August 19, 2024, with a caption suggesting this military movement showed that Poland was preparing for war with Russia. The misleading caption (pictured below left) read:
What now 🙄: POLAND - The army is preparing for war with Russia because 'we live in times of war,' says Prime Minister Tusk...🤣
This claim was debunked (archived here) by fact checkers at Misbar.com, who shared the findings on X (pictured below right and archived here) on August 20, 2024.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image made with X screenshots taken on Fri Jan 24 15:52:47 2025 UTC)
An August 15, 2024, article in wiadomosci.gazeta.pl (archived here) titled, "Crowds on the streets of Warsaw. Military parade showed the strength of the Polish army [PHOTOS]" included the detail that the parade began at 2 p.m. on Warsaw's Wisłostrada. The name of this expressway helped narrow down the location of the footage.
Using Google's instantstreetview.com, Lead Stories was able to geolocate the green pedestrian overpass (archived here) in the Czerniakowska neighborhood of Warsaw. In the composite image below, two screenshots from the video (right side) can be compared to the two street view images. The roadside billboards that appear in the National Armed Forces Day video are even the same ads visible in the streetview image. The distinctive curved roof of the green booth visible at 0:07 seconds into the video is the top of a lift between the expressway below and the pedestrian overpass.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with instantstreetview.com and X screenshots taken on Fri Jan 24 17:33:42 2025 UTC)
Trump did declare a national emergency at the U.S. southern border on January 20, 2025. The full document can be found on whitehouse.gov (archived here). A January 22, 2025, article on Military.com (archived here) titled, "Trump Orders 1,500 Active-Duty Troops to Border Ahead of Pentagon Security Plan Deadline" described the movement of troops:
The Pentagon is surging approximately 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern U.S. border under orders from President Donald Trump to assist in flying migrants out of the country as well as building barriers, as the commander in chief flexes his new authority and attempts to make good on a campaign promise to curb immigration into the country.
Those active-duty forces are made up of 1,000 Army soldiers and approximately 500 Marines. It also includes helicopters with associated crews and intelligence analysts 'to support increased detection and monitoring efforts,' Acting Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses said in a statement.
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This is not the first time a video of military tanks has been misrepresented as at the southern U.S. border. Another such Lead Stories fact check is here. More Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning immigration into the United States can be found here.
