The picture that is doing the founds is actually from Barack Obama’s presidential visit to Dublin on May 23, 2011 which ultimately drew some 60,000 people
The picture that is doing the founds is actually from Barack Obama’s presidential visit to Dublin on May 23, 2011 which ultimately drew some 60,000 people.
However, USA Today has highlighted several attempts by social media users to pass off the Dublin photo as having been taken in New York City.
One user on X claimed on Sunday to have taken the picture at Madison Square Garden that had actually been captured 13 years earlier in a different country.
Sharing the photo from Dublin to their 27,000 followers they claimed in the caption: “I took this photo 3 hours ago of people lined up at Madison square garden.”
As of Thursday morning, this particular post had garnered more than 1.3 million views and 17k likes. However, it now has a community note on it saying that the photo is not from the Trump rally.
PolitiFact found that the image was actually captured by Peter MacDiarmid for Getty Images in 2011.
Getty’s caption of the 2011 photo reads: “People line up for a security check before a concert at which US President Obama will appear on May 23, 2011 in Dublin, Ireland.
“US President Obama is visiting Ireland for one day. He will meet with distant relatives in Moneygall and speak at a rally in central Dublin after a concert.”
There are several clues in the photo that it was taken in Dublin and not New York, including an Irish tricolour and a Dublin Bus sign.
An uncropped version of the Dublin photo also shows officers in Garda uniforms, as well as shamrock-adorned light posts.
However, this hasn’t stopped one Facebook user posting the photo from Dublin in the group ‘President Trump The Only Option!,’ which has more than 13k members.
They captioned his post: “NY currently hours before seeing Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden….”
While comments on the Facebook group have been turned off, more than 40 comments remain, a mix of Trump supporters and others pointing out that the claim is fake.
A few hours after this was posted, another Facebook user who has 51,000 followers, also shared the picture from Dublin with text over it that reads: “You’d think Trump was having a concert. He isn’t. He doesn’t need celebrities to carry his rally for people to show up.”
Where one person commented on her post: “Truth triumphs. Previous promises kept make a difference. Vote early and in person. Save America,” now has a ‘False information’ disclaimer over it.
USA Today, AFP, Full Fact, and Reuters have now all followed with their own fact checks that proved the claims that the photo was taken in New York City were false, according Irish Central.
The Irish-American news site reports that Trump’s rally, where tickets were free and on a first-come-first-served basis, packed out the 19,500-seat Madison Square Garden.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung afterward told Newsweek: “Madison Square Garden was at capacity and, according to media reports, the number of people outside could have filled up a second Madison Square Garden easily.”
