An image shared on Twitter purportedly shows a Fox News article claiming Alec Baldwin, who fatally shot a co-worker on the set of the film “Rust,” was waving around a prop gun and ranting about former President Donald Trump when the shooting occurred.

I picked the wrong day to take a break from shit-posting. pic.twitter.com/F1ypDrmiFw

— CurbsideRX (@CurbsideRX) October 22, 2021

Verdict: False

The tweet shows an altered version of a Fox News article. Archived versions of the actual Fox News article make no mention of Baldwin ranting about Trump.

Fact Check

At approximately 1:50 p.m. on Oct. 21, Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on the set of the film “Rust,” wounding director Joel Souza and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, The New York Times reported. The circumstances of the incident are currently under investigation, according to the outlet.

In the aftermath of the incident, a screenshot of a Fox News article was shared on Twitter that allegedly claimed the firearm involved in the incident “was being waved around by Baldwin during a rant about Trump when he discharged it at the crew.” However, Check Your Fact found no record of Fox News reporting the shooting coincided with a rant from Baldwin about Trump.

The supposed part of the sentence underlined in the tweet appears to have been digitally inserted into a real Fox News report about the incident, taking the place of a sentence that originally stated, “Investigators said that the prop firearm was being used on the scene during filming when it was discharged.” The article has been updated as new information has become available, and the line currently reads, “Investigators said that the prop firearm was being used during filming when it was discharged by Baldwin, hitting his director of photography, Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza.”

Check Your Fact examined dozens of archived versions of the Fox News article available on the Wayback Machine, none of which included the phrasing underlined in the tweet. The rest of the article captured in the viral screenshot matched the original version of the story.

A Fox News spokesperson confirmed in an email to Check Your Fact that the screenshot shared on Twitter is fake. Check Your Fact found no mention of the alleged Trump rant in any other article published by Fox News or by any other news outlets. (RELATED: Was Trump ‘Praised’ By Tom Selleck In A ‘Meeting’ With Breitbart?)

Baldwin has publicly criticized Trump on several occasions, such as tweeting on Jan. 3, “Nixon + Stalin X Hoffa + Putin …equals Trump.”