Fox News used old video of Donald Trump in multiple reports on Saturday and Sunday, hiding from viewers that the commander in chief wore a golf hat during a ceremony Saturday in which he greeted six flag-draped transfer cases carrying the remains of the first American troops to die in their war against Iran.
The president had sparked outrage online by failing to remove his Trump-branded white hat during the homecoming ritual at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday for six Army reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait.
On Saturday afternoon, Fox News initially aired the correct video of Trump at the ceremony, showing him wearing a hat as he waved alongside first lady Melania Trump, JD Vance, second lady Usha Vance and other officials.
However, less than an hour later, when a Fox News host described the president’s visit to the base for the “dignified transfer today,” viewers were shown an old video of Trump at a similar ceremony in December, when he had not worn a hat to salute troops who had died in Syria.
That same video from December, of Trump saluting as the wind blew his hair, was used again in at least two Fox broadcasts on Sunday morning.
At 6:18 a.m. ET, one of the hosts of Fox & Friends, the president’s favorite morning show, left a laughter-filled discussion of possible U.S. action to overthrow the Cuban government to solemnly say: “President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary Usha Vance (sic), attend a dignified transfer to honor the final homecoming of the six U.S. service members killed in Kuwait.” As the host spoke, Fox showed viewers a video of Trump at the December ceremony, with an on-screen label that mistakenly said it had been recorded on Saturday. The first lady, vice president and second lady did not appear in the old video, as they did not attend the December event.
More than three hours later, the same announcer acknowledged on air “a mistake made earlier on our program: during our coverage of yesterday’s dignified transfer, we inadvertently aired a video of a previous dignified transfer instead of the ceremony that took place yesterday. We deeply regret the mistake.”
The same video was used at least one more time on another Fox show, Fox News Sunday, in which an anchor said, “as the fighting continues, the president paused for a moment Saturday afternoon to offer a final salute to the six U.S. service members killed in an attack in Kuwait,” while viewers were again shown Trump saluting at the December ceremony and an on-screen graphic mistakenly called it video recorded Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon, after network critics documented misleading use of the old video on social media, including an
The mislabeled video from December, erroneously described as recorded on Saturday, remains on the Fox News website.
The president was photographed Sunday wearing the same hat while playing golf in Florida. The white cap, with gold US lettering on the front and embroidered numbers 45 and 47 on the side, honoring Trump’s terms as 45th and 47th president, is sold online at the Trump Store.
Trump and Fox News producers are well aware that behavior deemed undignified by presidents at ceremonies commemorating American war dead can be politically toxic. In 2021, when Joe Biden was caught on camera checking his watch at the end of a dignified transfer ceremony for troops killed in Afghanistan, the moment went viral online, was shown repeatedly on Fox News, including with an angry comment from then-Fox host Pete Hegseth, and ended up in a 2024 Trump campaign ad.
