Does a trending video authentically capture U.S. President Donald Trump missing the ball on a golf course in 2025, then grabbing it off the ground before anyone notices? No, that's not true: The footage was digitally altered. The original, of Trump striking the ball at a tournament covered by news cameras, was recorded in 2023.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published on X on June 20, 2025. It opened:
Watch closely, Trump completely misses the ball and then tries to grab it off the ground before anyone notices. Trump spends all that time on the golf course and is still one of the worst golfers in the country, it's absolutely hilarious. 😆🤣😂😆
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The entry implied that the video accurately documents a recent episode at a golf course when Trump purportedly missed the ball after taking practice swings.
But it's not how that particular scene unfolded years ago.
A reverse image search shows that one of the first uploads of the footage was a May 25, 2023, post on X (archived here and here) that incorporated a high-quality version of the video. In it, we can clearly hits the ball, and what he puts in the pocket afterward is only a golf tee. The post's caption stated that the recording was made at the LIV Golf Pro-Am Tournament at Trump National in Virginia.
WUSA, which is a CBS-affiliate TV station based in Washington, D.C. also covered that event. The report (archived here) that is still available on the station's website clearly shows Trump hitting the ball:
(Source: WUSA screenshot by Lead Stories)
In the top right corner of the post reviewed in this fact check, we can see a black watermark pointing to an account on Instagram that introduces itself as a "graphic satirist" (archived here) and publishes unrealistic visual content concerning politicians. At the time of this writing, however, the corresponding post didn't appear to be accessible on that page.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Donald Trump are here.
