Yes, this video shows a crowd outside Trump Tower in New York

On May 20, a video shared on X by Eric Trump, the son of former President Donald Trump, as well as conservative activist and radio talk show host Charlie Kirk went viral and sparked online arguments about what the video actually shows.

Eric Trump said the video showed the crowd as his father’s motorcade pulled up to New York’s Trump Tower. Donald Trump was in the city for his hush money trial in Manhattan.

A Community Note, which is a crowdsourced note applied to posts intended to flag misleading information or provide missing context, at one point appeared below Eric Trump’s post, stating the video was not outside Trump Tower and instead showed people gathering for Biden. 

People sharing and commenting on Eric Trump’s post claimed he was lying and the video actually showed a crowd lining up in New York to see President Joe Biden when he was a guest on Howard Stern’s radio show in April. Some of the confusion seemed to stem from the fact that no one in the crowd seen in the video appears to be wearing pro-Trump attire.

“Surprise, Eric Trump is lying to you. These are not Trump supporters. Notice the complete lack of red MAGA hats, MAGA t-shirts, and Trump flags. The people in this video were actually lined up to see President Biden’s motorcade go by,” an X user retweeting Eric Trump’s video said. That post has over 340,000 views.

THE QUESTION

Does this video show a crowd outside Trump Tower in New York?

THE SOURCES

• X posts from Donald Trump’s Communications Director Margo Martin
• YouTube video posted on May 20 from outside Trump Tower
• Google Maps

THE ANSWER

Yes, this video does show a crowd outside Trump Tower in New York.

WHAT WE FOUND

VERIFY was able to confirm this video shows a crowd gathered on May 20 near Trump Tower in New York City at the same time the former president was arriving at the building. Trump’s communications director confirmed she took the video herself, and VERIFY was also able to identify the same person in the crowd in two different videos posted to social media. 

Donald Trump’s communications director Margo Martin said in a comment to an X post that has since been deleted that she took the video of the crowd and she shared a screenshot from her phone showing the video’s timestamp.

“I took this video from President Trump’s motorcade outside of Trump Tower. Here’s the time stamped screenshot from my phone to prove it. Sorry Donald Trump draws better crowds when he goes to court than Joe Biden does when he holds ‘rallies,’” Martin wrote.

VERIFY further confirmed the video was taken on May 20 by comparing the video Martin took to a different video posted to YouTube that same day showing a different angle of the crowd.

At the 7-second mark in Martin’s video, a person can be seen standing in a pink shirt with a blue shirt draped over their shoulders, holding a red Target bag. That same person can be seen at the 6-second mark of the YouTube video wearing the same outfit, holding the same Target bag on their right arm.

There are also several other people who appear in both videos – a person with a red hat and white lettering, and a woman wearing a green shirt.

Using Google Maps, VERIFY confirmed the video was taken near Trump Tower in New York City. The street signs for 5th Avenue and West 56th Street can be clearly seen in Martin’s video. That intersection is roughly 120 feet from the entrance of Trump Tower. Signage for Trump Tower can be seen in the YouTube video that was posted the same day Martin took her video.

Biden was in New York for The Howard Stern Show on April 26, but Stern’s studio is located about a half-mile from Trump Tower, where the viral video was taken.