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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke November 15, 2023

Hail to the commander in chief: It’s President Joe Biden, not former President Donald Trump

If Your Time is short

  • Former President Donald Trump isn’t the commander in chief, President Joe Biden is. Trump recently referred to his prior experience in the White House relative to the other Republican presidential candidates, none of whom have served as commander in chief.

Did former President Donald Trump recently claim that he’s still the commander in chief? 

No, but a recent Instagram post points to a Nov. 11 campaign rally as evidence that he did. 

"I will 100% prevent World War III," Trump says in a video clip in the post. Text above the video, from a Nov. 12 X post, reads: "Trump just told everyone he IS COMMANDER IN CHIEF."

"You’re going to end up in World War III," he continues. "You look at what’s going on right now in the Middle East and Ukraine, and you add it up and we have somebody that has no clue what the hell is going on. You’re going to end up in World War III because of this — no reason for it. Millions of people will die. I know the players, I know the job, I alone in this primary have borne the burden of having troops in harm’s way as commander in chief of the U.S armed forces." 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’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

Trump’s comments in context, from a Nov. 11 campaign rally in Claremont, New Hampshire,

 make clear that he’s referring to his past experience relative to the other 2024 Republican presidential primary candidates.  None of them have previously served as commander in chief, as he has. 

President Joe Biden is the current commander in chief. 

We rate claims that Trump said Trump is now commander in chief False.

 

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Hail to the commander in chief: It’s President Joe Biden, not former President Donald Trump

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