A video recently promoted by Eric Trump of crowds waiting as former President Donald Trump drove by Trump Tower in New York drew the ire of left-wing critics—and misinformation-fueled viral posts.
“It was a beautiful scene pulling back up to Trump Tower! Such unbelievable love!” the former president’s son captioned on May 20.
What no longer is attached below the video is an X Community Note that falsely attributed the crowd to President Joe Biden attending a taping of Howard Stern.
In the wake of Trump’s post, numerous users tried to claim the video showed throngs of people lined up to see Biden tape a radio interview.
At least two posts were deleted after being called out by Trump’s Deputy Director of Communications, Margo Martin, who took the video herself.
“I took this video from President Trump’s motorcade outside of Trump Tower,” Martin wrote on X. “Here’s the time stamped screenshot from my phone to prove it. Sorry Donald Trump draws better crowds when he goes to court than Joe Biden does when he holds ‘rallies.’”
It’s far from the first time supporters on both sides of the aisle have taken jabs over Biden and Trump’s crowd size… or lack thereof.
In the past few weeks alone, Trump supporters mocked Biden for an apparent small showing of people greeting his motorcade in Atlanta while Biden supporters taunted Trump over his claim that a recent rally in New Jersey drew a bigger crowd than a Bruce Springsteen concert.
But in this video’s case, the crowd was indeed caused by Trump, not Biden, despite the since-removed Community Note claiming otherwise.
While the Community Note has since been removed, the controversy surrounding the video highlights the constraints of community-driven moderation—and much of the false information has remained online.
“Funny, that’s Joe Biden’s recent motorcade,” one person said (incorrectly) in response to Eric Trump’s video.
“You are pathetic and a liar,” echoed someone else. “Not one of them is holding a Trump flag, chanting his name or wearing a red KKK hat. This crowd is from President Biden’s visit to NY in April.”
“Nice try, genius! That’s from Biden’s motorcade!” quipped someone else.
Other critics—who did not dispute the video being from Trump’s team—offered other explanations for the crowd.
“Eric Trump’s false claim is the implication (‘unbelievable love’) that everyone stopped by a barricade in busy NYC is a Trump supporter,” wrote the anti-Trump account Patriot Takes.
“They weren’t there as supporters,” echoed another account. “They were stuck there because the police closed the road while the motorcade came through.”
Pressed about the crowd choosing not to walk another way, take photos, and cheer, the user doubled down: “Tourists have no idea what’s going on.”
“Did you pay them $10 per hour or $15 per hour?” quipped someone else.
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