Misleading Video On Twitter Characterizing Trump as ‘Lost & Disoriented’ Called Out by Journalists

A very misleading tweet characterizing President Donald Trump as being “lost and disoriented” and attributing it to “dementia” is being called out by journalists who say it is deceptive. Countless reactions have pointed out that the president was simply waiting for the First Lady ahead of boarding Marine One.

The original video clip posted to Twitter by Tom Joseph, which now has over 54,000 likes and over 25,000 retweets, floated that “Trump is lost & disoriented,” adding that “he’s deep into his degenerative neurological disease- Frontotemporal dementia- mindlessly lumbering and zigzagging in the grass towards a puddle.”

Trump is lost & disoriented here. His mind goes blank and he doesn’t remember what he’s supposed to do next. He’s deep into his degenerative neurological disease- Frontotemporal dementia- mindlessly lumbering and zigzagging in the grass towards a puddle. pic.twitter.com/quaPffXvAh

— Tom Joseph (@TomJChicago) September 7, 2020

Journalists quickly pointed out that the video was misleading, and that Trump was merely waiting for First Lady Melania Trump ahead of boarding Marine One.

ABC News’ Will Steakin wrote that “this false tweet has over 23K retweets and the deceptively edited video has over 2 million views.”

Trump was simply walking back to wait for FLOTUS here

This false tweet has over 23K retweets and the deceptively edited video has over 2 million views https://t.co/kJN0rBrrIq pic.twitter.com/QXmOlkEkTt

— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) September 7, 2020

Trending video of Trump walking around on the South Lawn and pointing to a puddle lacks context.

Video is from August 2019 — He walks over to meet First Lady Melania Trump – points out the puddle so that she can avoid it and they walk to Marine One together

WATCH: pic.twitter.com/WN4cjkBeZJ

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) September 7, 2020

No, he’s waiting for @FLOTUS. https://t.co/zeb9Goef9I

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) September 7, 2020

It’s not OK when either side does this. Deception is a deliberate disservice to voters. https://t.co/pVExL8aD2l

— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) September 7, 2020

There are many, many more reactions to the clip, which is trending on Twitter and which Twitter gathered into a “Moment” which explained what Trump was actually doing.

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