The video started circulating again following the disastrous Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, raising tensions between the US, Ukraine and the rest of Europe.
A video is going around on social media supposedly showing a recent pro-Donald Trump, anti-Ukraine protest in London, following the US president’s hostile behaviour towards Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The video shows crowds of people on a London street waving the flags of the UK, England, Wales and the US, while chanting “We love Trump” in unison.
It’s been shared on X and YouTube, with captions claiming that the protest shows the UK’s support of Trump and the country’s desire to stop supporting Ukraine against Russia’s war.
Others say that the UK government wants to go to war with Russia and that the government doesn’t represent the views of the British public.
A reverse image search of stills from the video, however, shows that while the video does show a pro-Trump rally, it’s old.
It’s actually from July 2018, during an official visit to the UK by Trump while serving his first term as president.
The reverse image search not only shows us reports and posts from the time containing the footage, but also articles by other fact-checkers who have already debunked the video and accompanying captions.
The video resurfaced following Trump and Zelenskyy’s disastrous meeting in the Oval Office at the end of February, which led to the US temporarily suspending support for Ukraine, and the UK and other European countries reaffirming their backing.
The Trump administration lifted its suspension of military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine after talks in Saudi Arabia earlier in March during which Kyiv also signalled that it was open to a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Russia, pending Moscow’s agreement.
The claims that the British public overwhelmingly supports Trump and wants to stop helping Ukraine are also false.
Opinion polls consistently show that the majority of Brits back support for Ukraine, and that they have an unfavourable view of Trump that continues to grow.
Overall, just 19% of Brits think that Trump is doing a good job handling the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while 64% say he is doing a bad job. This is up from 38% the month before.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have gone up in recent weeks thanks to his stance on the war in Ukraine, as has Brits’ approval of Zelenskyy.
As of early March, Starmer’s favourability score stood at 31%, with 59% of British respondents ranking him unfavourably, according to YouGov. This is a boost from the 26% ranking him favourably compared to the 66% ranking him unfavourably in mid-February.
Zelenskyy meanwhile saw his favourability among Britons jump from 64% to 71% in the same timeframe, with his unfavourability dropping from 16% to 14%.
It’s the opposite story for Trump, whose unfavourability in the UK rose to 80% from 73%, while his favourability fell to 15% from 22%.
There is also no substance to the claim that the UK government is trying to go to war with Russia — it has repeatedly said that it will stay out of the war, while supporting Ukraine in its own defence.
