This Biden ad attacking Trump isn't new. It's from 2019 | Fact check
Joedy McCrearyThe claim: New Biden ad attacks Trump as 'incompetent'
A June 9 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a political ad featuring footage of world leaders appearing to mock former President Donald Trump and audio of current President Joe Biden criticizing him.
“The Biden campaign is fighting back, and this new ad is brutal,” the post’s caption reads. “Share away!”
It was shared more than 100 times in three days. A similar post on Threads was reposted thousands of times before it was deleted. The claim and accompanying video also circulated widely on X, formerly Twitter, and accumulated hundreds of likes on Instagram.
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Our rating: Partly false
The ad is real, but it’s not new. It debuted in 2019 as part of Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.
Ad from 2019 includes clip of NATO leaders appearing to mock Trump
The ad includes a clip of several NATO leaders – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron among them – talking and laughing among themselves. Narration included in the ad, apparently taken from a news broadcast, claims they are “mocking President Trump.” Trudeau does not mention Trump’s name in the hot-mic footage but says he “watched his team’s jaws just drop to the floor.” Biden also calls Trump “dangerously incompetent" later in the ad.
But the Facebook post misleads about its timing. The ad isn’t new. It was released in 2019 as part of Biden’s previous bid for the White House. He posted it to X that December.
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The video of world leaders shown in the ad was taken from a pool feed posted a day earlier by the CBC from the London summit marking the 70th anniversary of NATO. Part of their conversation appeared to reference Trump’s lengthy press conferences, according to the video's caption and media reports at the time.
The Biden campaign did release a new ad – but it isn’t this one.
Rather, the ad posted June 7 to YouTube and X shows several quotes from Trump calling dead soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” with that text appearing over video of graves and flag-covered caskets. Trump has denied making those remarks and called for the Biden campaign to remove the ad.
The race between Biden and Trump has been a frequent source of misinformation. USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that Biden backed out of a debate with Trump in May and that Biden could pardon Trump after his conviction in New York.
USA TODAY reached out to several social media users who shared the claim but did not immediately receive responses.
Our fact-check sources:
- Joe Biden, Dec. 4, 2019, X post
- Business Insider, Dec. 5, 2019, Joe Biden releases ad based on the hot-mic video of world leaders appearing to laugh at Trump at the NATO summit
- Power & Politics, Dec. 3, 2019, X post
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