AFP Australia – Published on Friday 05 March 2021 at 16:30
A video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok alongside a claim it shows a “surprise visit” by former US President Donald Trump to Switzerland in March 2021. The claim is false: the footage in fact shows two clips of Trump arriving at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2018 and 2020.
The video was published on an Australian-based Facebook page here on March 3, 2021. It has been viewed more than 18,000 times.
The post’s caption reads: “Donald Trump Surprise Visit to Switzerland02.03.2021”
A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post as of March 3, 2021.
The video was also shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here; on YouTube here; and on TikTok here.
The claim is false.
Reverse image searches found the video shows two different clips of Trump arriving at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2018 and 2020.
The first clip, which can be seen from the start of the video to the two-minute 53-second mark, was originally published on YouTube here on January 26, 2018. The video is titled: “President Trump Landing in Davos/Switzerland”.
The video’s caption reads: “US-President Donald Trump landing in Davos/Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum‘s Annual Meeting 2018. Camera: Beni Wülser. Edit: Armin Rüede. Swiss TV SRF.”
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the misleading Facebook post (L) and the 2018 YouTube video (R):
The Associated Press news agency also published footage from a different angle of Trump’s helicopter landing in Davos in January 2018 on YouTube here.
The second clip, which can be seen in the video in the misleading posts from the two-minute 44-second mark onwards, was published on YouTube here by Indian news channel WION on January 21, 2020.
Below is a comparison between the misleading Facebook post (L) and the WION video posted to YouTube in 2020 (R):
AFP also published footage from a different angle of Trump’s arrival at Davos on YouTube here on January 21, 2020.
There were no credible reports that former President Trump had visited Switzerland in March 2021. On February 28, 2021, he made his first public speech since Joe Biden became US president at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, the BBC reported. His speech can be viewed here on US television channel C-Span.