Claim
A viral video of US President Donald Trump shows that he has returned from a recently concluded conference. In the wake of this conference, he has decided to take action against the nation of Qatar to stop funding terrorism.
The video is shared with text in Arabic, Trump says: “It is unfortunate that the State of Qatar has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. We have to stop the funding of terrorism. They have to stop that funding and their extremist ideology in terms of funding.” This is an important warning because Qatar is the first state sponsoring jihadist terrorism, along with Türkiye..!!”
Fact Check
To authenticate the video, DFRAC carefully analyzed the 2-minute, 26-second clip featuring President Trump discussing action against Qatar, labeling it a high-level funder of terrorism. He also mentioned Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and military officials.
The reference to Tillerson raised suspicion. A keyword search—”Trump speech mention Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and Qatar a funder of terrorism”—led to a Wall Street Journal video titled “Trump: Qatar Funds Terrorism at ‘Very High Level’,” uploaded on June 12, 2017. Supporting reports from AP (June 10, 2017) and Time (June 9, 2017) confirmed Trump’s statements on Qatar.
According to the Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, Rex Tillerson served as the 69th U.S. Secretary of State from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, during Trump’s first term. Currently, Marco Rubio holds the position, having assumed office with Trump’s second presidency.
Conclusion
The viral video is from June 2017 and doesn’t represent any recent news development.
DFRAC’s fact check makes it clear that the viral video is misleading.
