No, Trump hasn’t called for a ban on video games

The presidential election is in the home stretch with both candidates making a final push to focus on key issues for voters. 

A video of former president and presidential nominee Donald Trump has gained millions of views on social media, showing him discussing plans to curb youth violence by banning violent video games.

An X post with more than eight million views claims, “Donald Trump says he will ban videogames [sic].” and includes a video clip of the former president. 

In the video, Trump says: “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately.”

The same video clip has also been shared on other platforms like Reddit and gaming blogs. 

Several VERIFY readers, including May, asked us if Trump wants to ban video games.

THE QUESTION

Did Donald Trump say he wants to ban video games?

THE SOURCES

• Original White House video from Aug. 5, 2019
• White House transcript from Aug. 5, 2019
• Review of Donald Trump’s campaign website, Agenda 47 and social media channels
• InVid and RevEye, footage forensics tools

THE ANSWER

No, Donald Trump didn’t say he wants to ban video games. The claims are being shared with a 2019 video of Trump talking about the influence video games have on young people. He does not call for banning video games in the video.

WHAT WE FOUND

Trump has not called for a ban on video games. VERIFY found no mention of a video game ban on any of Trump’s social media platforms or his Agenda 47 platform policy outline. 

The misinformation appears to stem from social media posts sharing a video clip from August 2019. The posts say the resurfaced video shows Trump calling for a recent ban on video games. But Trump was actually talking about video games contributing to the "glorification of violence,” following two mass shooting incidents in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.

On Aug. 3, 2019, Patrick Wood Crusius, 24, shot and killed 23 people and injured 22 others at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The next day, 24-year-old Connor Betts killed nine people and wounded more than a dozen others in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. 

In response to both those shootings, then-President Trump addressed the nation, outlining steps his administration would take to prevent violence, including monitoring online behavior and addressing how video games contribute to the exposure of violence. 

Here is a portion of his remarks, with the segment in bold about video games that has been shared in the viral social posts:

“First, We must do a better job of identifying and acting on early warning signs. I am directing the Department of Justice to work in partisan — partnership with local, state, and federal agencies, as well as social media companies, to develop tools that can detect mass shooters before they strike … Second, we must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.  It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence.  We must stop or substantially reduce this, and it has to begin immediately. Cultural change is hard, but each of us can choose to build a culture that celebrates the inherent worth and dignity of every human life. That’s what we have to do,” Trump says.

Trump never mentions banning video games in his address.

This story is also available in Spanish / Lee este artículo también en español: No, Trump no ha sugerido una prohibición de los juegos de video