Video shows Trump supporters demonstrating in 2020, not 2023

Old footage of supporters of former President Donald Trump has been repackaged on social media, where claims say it shows people protesting Trump’s possible arrest in connection with hush money paid to a woman several years ago. 

"Just in: Americans begin to show up at Trump Tower in New York to express support for former President Trump’s rumored arrest," one March 21 tweet said.

"The sight of Trump supporters lining up on Fifth Ave in Manhattan on Sunday should serve as a warning to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg as to what to expect on Tuesday if the 45th president is arrested as he had announced on Saturday," reads one March 19 Facebook post that shared a nearly 30-second video of a city street jammed with cars bearing American flags and Trump flags. "Trump rallied his troops and exhorted his stalwart supporters to engage in protests over his arrest and to ‘Take Our Nation Back.’"

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Featured Fact-check

Instagram posts

stated on March 21, 2024 in an Instagram post

Video shows legislators “dancing in Congress” while the border is “overrun.”

The video footage is from a Sunday. But not Sunday, March 19, 2023. It’s from Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020, when Trump’s supporters blocked Fifth Avenue in New York not long after the then-president was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Photos and videos as well as news coverage about that October 2020 day show similar scenes as those that appear in the video now on Facebook. And there are clues in the clip itself. The Trump flags say 2020, and a bus can be seen advertising "The Comey Rule," a 2020 Showtime show.

Shawn Farash, a self-described head of the group "Long Island Loud Majority," one of the main groups to demonstrate on Fifth Avenue in 2020, told Reuters that this video is from that event. 

We rate claims it shows protesters in 2023 False.