As Donald Trump gears up his 2024 presidential campaign, a steady stream of dubious claims and opinions have followed suit.
At a rally in South Carolina over the July 4 holiday weekend, the former president suggested that more than 75,000 people had turned up to hear him speak, which analysis showed was clearly not the case.
A previous proponent of conspiracy theories such as QAnon and birtherism, a claim this week that he believed in the widely debunked chemtrails plot appeared to match Trump's propensity of sharing unevidenced ideas and rumors.
The Claim
A tweet by user @Nancy023922191 (aka Qmum), posted on July 7, 2023, read: "Chemtrails have been spraying the earth for decades and Trump knows it."
An image beneath the tweet contained text that said: "The news of Former President Donald Trump claiming that the government is spraying poison took the world by shock as hundreds of thousands people reported feeling surprisingly unwell. 'In most of the people was found a specific Poison, but the thing is, they don't know each other, so how are they being poisoned with the same poison? You guessed
it, it's falling from the skies ' -Donald Trump said."
The Facts
The chemtrails conspiracy alleges condensation left by planes is actually dangerous chemicals intended to hurt the general population.
As mentioned, while Trump has shown interest in aspects of conspiracy theories like QAnon, there is no evidence to show that he believes in chemtrails.
While Newsweek was unable to find the original source of the screengrab shared on Twitter, there was no record of Trump ever saying anything even remotely similar to the text within it, nor is there any other evidence that he believes in the chemtrails conspiracy.
In 2017, a photo appeared online of Trump inside a plane that was filled with equipment and bottles. Some said this showed the former president touring a chemtrails plane.
The photo was real but had nothing to do with chemtrails. As debunked by fact checkers Snopes, the photo was of Trump touring a Boeing Dreamliner in Charleston, South Carolina. The tanks in the picture were not chemicals but water ballast used during test flights.
A 2017 satirical article by the Nevada Daily Scooper jokingly claimed that it was a chemtrails plane and might have since been interpreted at face value.
There is no other evidence to suggest that Trump has either commented on or supported, in any manner, the chemtrails conspiracy theory.
Newsweek has reached out to a representative for Trump via email for comment.
The Ruling
False.
There is no evidence that Donald Trump made the remarks about chemtrails quoted in the tweet.
There is also no other evidence showing or even suggesting that he believes in the chemtrails conspiracy theory.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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