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President Barack Obama talks about the war on terrorism and efforts to degrade and destroy the Islamic State group, during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Aug. 4, 2016. (AP) President Barack Obama talks about the war on terrorism and efforts to degrade and destroy the Islamic State group, during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Aug. 4, 2016. (AP)

President Barack Obama talks about the war on terrorism and efforts to degrade and destroy the Islamic State group, during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Aug. 4, 2016. (AP)

Sara Swann
By Sara Swann March 28, 2024

Alex Jones claimed ‘Obama created ISIS.’ That’s Pants on Fire!

If Your Time is short

  • The inception of the Islamic State group once known as ISIS predates Barack Obama’s presidency, which started in 2009. The group’s terrorist creators and leaders have been well documented; Obama is not among them.

  • Experts have told PolitiFact that it could be argued Obama’s foreign policy and military decisions helped the Islamic State group expand in Iraq and Syria. Still, these actions did not "create" the terrorist group.

  • During his presidency, Obama prioritized targeting the terrorist group.

  • Our mission: Help you be an informed participant in democracy. Learn more.

After the Islamic State group that was once known as ISIS claimed responsibility for the March 22 terror attack on a Moscow concert venue, conspiracy theorist and InfoWars creator Alex Jones pointed a finger at former President Barack Obama.

"It is a fact that Obama created ISIS with the help of Israel," Jones said in a March 23 X post.

Jones’ post was also reshared on Instagram, where it 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.)

(Screengrab from X)

In 2016, PolitiFact fact-checked a similar claim from former President Donald Trump that Obama "founded ISIS." We rated that Pants on Fire.

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The Islamic State group’s long, complex history predates Obama’s presidency, which started in 2009. The terrorist group’s founder and subsequent leaders have been well documented; Obama is not among them.

Jones also claimed that Obama had help from Israel, but we found no evidence to support this claim. The Anti-Defamation League said this is part of the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Israel is linked to the Islamic State group.

Experts told PolitiFact in 2016 that it could be argued Obama’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq in 2011 contributed to the Islamic State group’s expansion in the region. But the group was active before Obama took office. During his presidency, the U.S. military targeted the Islamic State group and Obama said destroying the group was his "top priority."

PolitiFact contacted Jones through InfoWars, but did not hear back.

When Jones made this claim, he shared another X post that said, "Here's Obama admitting to training ISIS (ISIL)," above a 15-second clip of Obama.

In the clip, Obama said, "So, with the additional steps I ordered last month, we’re speeding up training of ISIL forces, including volunteers from Sunni tribes in Anbar Province."

This social media post takes Obama’s remarks out of context. The clip is from a July 2015 press conference in which then-President Obama discussed efforts to fight the Islamic State group.

"Meanwhile, we continue to ramp up our training and support of local forces that are fighting ISIL on the ground. As I’ve said before, this aspect of our strategy was moving too slowly. But the fall of Ramadi (in Al Anbar province, Iraq) has galvanized the Iraqi government," Obama said at the press conference. "So, with the additional steps I ordered last month, we’re speeding up training of ISIL forces, including volunteers from Sunni tribes in Anbar Province. More Sunni volunteers are coming forward. Some are already being trained, and they can be a new force against ISIL."

Obama was not discussing training the Islamic State group’s members, but bolstering forces in the Middle East to combat the terrorist group.

Featured Fact-check

The Islamic State group’s origins

The foundation of what is known today as the Islamic State group was laid in the 1990s and early 2000s, Stanford University researchers said.

In 2004, an Iraqi extremist group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi merged with al-Qaida to form al-Qaida in Iraq, or AQI, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. In 2006, following Zarqawi’s death, the terrorist group was renamed the Islamic State in Iraq, or ISI. In 2013, the name changed again to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which is sometimes translated from Arabic to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

In 2014, the terrorist group’s then-leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the establishment of a caliphate and renamed the group the Islamic State, the National Counterterrorism Center said. Baghdadi was killed in a U.S.-led raid in Syria in 2019, while Trump was president.

The Islamic State group has conducted and inspired numerous terrorist attacks worldwide, which killed and injured thousands of people. Although the Islamic State group no longer controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group remains active in the region and has affiliated groups elsewhere in the world, the National Counterterrorism Center said.

Our ruling

Jones claimed in an X post that "Obama created ISIS."

The Islamic State group’s inception and its creators and leaders have been well documented. Obama did not create the terrorist group.

The group operated before Obama’s presidency. During Obama’s time in office, he made targeting the terrorist group a top priority.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

Our Sources

Alex Jones, X post (archived), March 23, 2024

X post, March 22, 2024

Instagram post (archived), March 23, 2024

YouTube, "The Obama White House - The President Provides an Update on Our Campaign to Degrade and Destroy ISIL," July 6, 2015

The Obama White House, "Remarks by the President on Progress in the Fight Against ISIL," July 6, 2015

Stanford University, "The Islamic State," April 2021 

National Counterterrorism Center, "Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS)," September 2022

Congressional Research Service, "The Islamic State," May 10, 2022

PolitiFact, "Donald Trump's Pants on Fire claim that Barack Obama 'founded' ISIS, Hillary Clinton was 'cofounder'," Aug. 11, 2016

CNN, "Who are ISIS-K, the group linked to the Moscow concert hall terror attack?," March 26, 2024

NBC News, "ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed in U.S. raid in Syria, Trump confirms," Oct. 27, 2019

The Anti-Defamation League, "'Israel is ISIS' and other lies about the Crocus City Hall terror attack’," March 26, 2024

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More by Sara Swann

Alex Jones claimed ‘Obama created ISIS.’ That’s Pants on Fire!

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