FACT CHECK: Does This Photo Show A Woman Wearing A Nazi Shirt At A Trump Rally?
An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a woman wearing a Nazi shirt while attending a rally for former President Donald Trump.
Verdict: False
The photo was captured during a National Socialist Movement rally in 2010, not at a Trump rally. The image has been altered to include the Trump sign visible in the background.
Fact Check:
The photo appears to show a woman in a crowd giving a Nazi salute while wearing a shirt with a swastika on it. Behind her appears to be a poster of Trump’s face superimposed onto the body of Jesus Christ.
“Trump rally – let’s see you’ve got your Nazi swastikas, Sieg Heil Hitler salute, individuals wrapped in both Confederate and Nazi flags,” the post’s caption claims. “But I believe the pièce de résistance here has to be the massive painting of Trump as Jesus Christ their savior. These folks are just swell.”
The photo has been digitally altered and predates Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. A reverse image search revealed an unedited version of the photo was featured in a 2019 article published by the Royal Gazette. In that photo, there is notably no poster featuring Trump’s likeness in the background but rather a historical marker commemorating the Treaty of Holston. The marker is located in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, according to the Historical Marker Database.
While the 2019 article gives no indication as to when the photo was taken, an internet search revealed there was a National Socialist Movement rally held in Knoxville in August 2010. A video of the rally uploaded to YouTube by the Knoxville News Sentinel shows the woman in the swastika shirt attending the event. (RELATED: Image Claims To Show KKK Members Carrying A Trump-Pence Campaign Banner)
The Nationalist Socialist Movement is currently the largest neo-Nazi group in the country, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The 2010 Knoxville rally is mentioned in the ADL’s description of the group.