Viral video of US President Donald Trump praising Imran Khan is old from 2023, not linked to inauguration

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is misleading.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a reverse image search to find the original source of the video.

Posts from users on social media platform X on January 20, 2025, shared a video of incoming US President Donald Trump praising PTI founder Imran Khan amid news updates from his inauguration ceremony of becoming the 47th president of the United States. However, the video was old from 2023 and unrelated to Trump’s oath-taking ceremony.

After Trump won the presidential elections in November 2024, he was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on January 20 in an indoor ceremony at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC. He also became the first convicted felon in the history of the country to attain the position.

HOW IT STARTED

On Jan 20, a user on X, who is a PTI supporter based on his profile picture and bio, shared a video of Trump praising Imran, calling him “the greatest cricket player”.

The video showed Trump saying, “The head of Pakistan, Khan, who was a great cricket player, he became the head of Pakistan. He’s the biggest cricket player, that’s like being a great NFL player, a great baseball player. He was said to be just about the best handsome guy. He became the boss of Pakistan.”

The user penned in the caption, “The moment Donald Trump called Imran Khan handsome, this video will hurt the opponents today.”

The video was shared without any additional context or details about when and where Trump was speaking. It was shared at 10:04pm Pakistan time when Trump’s inauguration ceremony began at 10pm Pakistan time.

The post received 66,400 views and was shared 2,500 times.

Other users on X shared the video with the same caption here and here.

A user on Facebook also shared the video with the same caption, gaining 5,000 views.

The users did not mention any other detail about the video i.e. when or where Trump made this statement, however, as the footage was shared amid news updates coming in from his oath-taking ceremony, it led to the impression that the remarks were from his inauguration speech.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to verify the claim due to its virality, the surge of news updates from Trump’s oath-taking ceremony and keen public interest in both Trump and Imran which also lends itself to a popular narrative among PTI supporters suggesting that Trump as president could tip the scales in favour of the incarcerated PTI founder.

A reverse image search of the video yielded results from November 2023 as it led to a YouTube video posted on Forbes Breaking News’ channel titled “BREAKING NEWS: Trump Lambasts ‘Crooked Joe Biden’ At Fiery Campaign Rally In Houston, Texas” and dated November 2, 2023, showing a news ticker reading “Former president Trump holds 2024 campaign rally in Houston, Texas.”

The timestamp of 1:03:44-1:04:20 showed Trump making the same statement shown in the video under investigation as he shared Imran’s reaction to Iranian general Qasem Soleimani getting killed by a US air strike in 2020.

On the other hand, Trump’s speech from his inauguration ceremony showed no mention of Imran, confirming that the video under investigation was old and not related to his oath-taking ceremony in any way.

It was also found that the X user posted the same video in July 2024 as well, ruling out the possibility that the clip was from Trump’s inauguration ceremony.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: MISLEADING

The video recently shared of Trump praising Imran as “the greatest cricket player” and “head of Pakistan” is misleading because it was circulated amid the former’s inauguration as the 47th president, lending the impression that it was from the event.

The clip is from 2023 when Trump held a campaign rally for the 2024 elections in Houston.