“Trump was secretly inaugurated as president of the restored Republic.”
No, Trump wasn’t inaugurated president in 2021
If your time is short
- Unfounded, hopeful claims about Donald Trump returning as president continue to spread online, but they’re not based in reality.
The title of a recent Facebook video claims that former President Donald Trump was recently inaugurated, but the video itself provides no evidence beyond a baseless claim.
“Trump was secretly inaugurated as president of the restored Republic,” the Dec. 7 video title says.
The narrator in the video itself is thin on details.
“And did someone get inaugurated on the 27th of November?,” the person says. “Yeah. By the military.”
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 Facebook.)
Trump, who lost the 2020 U.S. presidential election to President Joe Biden, has not been secretly inaugurated as commander in chief. There is no credible evidence to support this claim. There are no news reports. There was no inauguration by the U.S. military crowning Trump president.
This post echoes beliefs among QAnon adherents who have claimed that, as president, Trump was working with the military to takedown a global sex-trafficking cabal involving Democratic politicians and celebrities.
But this is fiction, and we rate this post Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Facebook post, Dec. 7, 2021
PolitiFact, Fact-checking false claims about the 2020 election, Nov. 19, 2020
PolitiFact, Here’s how we know Trump’s repeated claim of a landslide victory is wrong, Jan. 6, 2021
PolitiFact, What is QAnon, the baseless conspiracy spilling into US politics?, Aug. 27, 2020
