Fox News used old video of Donald Trump in multiple reports on Saturday and Sunday, concealing from viewers that the commander-in-chief wore a golf hat throughout a ceremony on Saturday in which he saluted six flag-draped transfer cases carrying the remains of the first US troops to die in his war on Iran.
The president had stirred outrage online by failing to remove his Trump-brand white hat during the ritual homecoming at Dover air force base in Delaware on Saturday for six army reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait.
On Saturday afternoon, Fox News did initially broadcast the correct video of Trump at the ceremony, showing that he wore a hat as he saluted alongside first lady Melania Trump, JD Vance, second lady Usha Vance, and other officials.
Less than an hour later, however, when a Fox News host described the president’s visit to the base for the “dignified transfer earlier today”, viewers were shown 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 December video, of Trump saluting as his hair was blown about by the wind, was used again in at least two Fox broadcasts on Sunday morning.
At 6.18am ET, one of the hosts of Fox & Friends, the president’s favorite morning show, turned from a laugh-filled discussion of possible US action to topple the government of Cuba to solemnly say: “President Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, and secretary lady Usha Vance [sic], attending a dignified transfer to honor the final homecoming of the six US service members killed in Kuwait.” As the host spoke, Fox showed viewers video of Trump at the ceremony in December, with an on-screen label wrongly stating that it had been recorded on Saturday. The first lady, the vice-president and the second lady were not visible in the old video, since they did not attend the December event.
Over three hours later, the same host acknowledged on air “a mistake made earlier on our program: during our coverage of yesterday’s dignified transfer, we inadvertently aired video from an older dignified transfer instead of the ceremony that took place yesterday. We deeply regret the error.”
The same video was used at least one more time on another Fox show, Fox News Sunday, in which a host said, “as the fighting continues, the president pausing for a moment Saturday afternoon to offer a final salute to the six US service members killed in an attack in Kuwait,” while viewers were again shown Trump saluting at the December ceremony and an on-screen graphic wrongly called it video recorded on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon, after the misleading use of the old video was documented on social media by critics of the network – including an X account dedicated to chronicling “Bad Fox Graphics”, the journalist Aaron Rupar, and anti-Trump outlets the Bulwark and MeidasTouch – Fox used parts of the video recorded on Saturday in a subsequent report, but the footage was edited to show just the flag-draped transfer cases and no images of Trump wearing his hat.
The president was photographed on Sunday wearing the same hat as he golfed in Florida. The white hat, with gold USA letters on the front and the embroidered numbers 45 and 47 on the side, in honor of Trump’s terms as the 45th and 47th president, is sold online at the Trump Store.
Trump and Fox News producers are well aware that behavior considered undignified by presidents at ceremonies for US 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 commentary from then Fox host Pete Hegseth – and ended up in a 2024 Trump campaign ad.
A Fox News spokesperson said in a statement to the Guardian: “Fox News Media programs inadvertently aired file footage from a previous dignified transfer while discussing yesterday’s ceremony at Dover Air Force Base. The archival footage was mistakenly used during the video sourcing process. We regret the error and apologize for the incorrect footage.”
The mislabeled December video, wrongly described as having been recorded on Saturday, remains on the Fox News website.
