Old video of Trump talking about lockdowns falsely tied to current mpox outbreak

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Aug. 14 that the increasing spread of mpox, also known as monkeypox, in Africa is a global public health emergency of international concern. 

On social media, a video of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has racked up millions of views with captions that say the former president is warning of looming lockdowns if he’s not elected because of the latest mpox outbreak.

“The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all their sudden fear-mongering about the new variants that are coming. Gee whiz, you know what else is coming, an election,” Trump says at the start of the video.

“To every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words, we will not comply,” he also says. 

The phrase “we will not comply” has been shared with the video in connection with the mpox outbreak. This post with more than 3 million views says, “Trump warns about lockdowns and election fraud with monkeypox.”

THE QUESTION

Does a viral video show Trump warning voters about possible mpox lockdowns?

THE SOURCES

• Original video posted by Donald Trump on Aug. 30, 2023
• World Health Organization
• InVid and RevEye, video and photo forensics tools

THE ANSWER

No, the viral video doesn’t show Donald Trump warning voters about possible mpox lockdowns if he isn’t elected. The video is from 2023 and shows Trump talking about potential COVID-19 lockdowns. Trump never mentions mpox in the video. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The video of Donald Trump issuing warnings to voters about potential lockdowns is real, but it’s a year old and he is not talking about an mpox outbreak. 

Using InVid, a video forensics tool, VERIFY analyzed the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. That led us to the original video posted on Aug. 30, 2023, by Trump on Truth Social and on his campaign's official X account.

In the original video, Trump was arguing that COVID-19 variants spreading in August 2023 were going to be used as an excuse by his political rivals to impose lockdowns and “rig” the election. He was not talking about mpox, nor is mpox mentioned. 

The full text of the original video is as follows:

“The left-wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates with all their sudden fear-mongering about the new variants that are coming. Gee whiz, you know what else is coming, an election. They want to restart the COVID hysteria so they can justify more lockdowns, more censorship, more illegal dropboxes, more mail-in ballots and trillions of dollars in payoffs to their political allies heading into the 2024 election. Does that sound familiar? These are bad people. These are sick people we’re dealing with. But to every COVID tyrant who wants to take away our freedom, hear these words, we will not comply. So don’t even think about it. We will not shut down our schools. We will not accept your lockdowns. We will not abide by your mask mandates and we will not tolerate your vaccine mandates. They rigged the 2020 election and now they’re trying to do the same thing all over again. By rigging the most important election in the history of our country, the 2024 election. Even if it means trying to bring back COVID. But they will fail, because we will not let it happen. When I’m back in the White House, I will use every available authority to cut federal funding to any school, college, airline or public transportation system that imposes a mask mandate or a vaccine mandate. Thank you very much.”

At the time Trump’s video was posted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had recently announced that BA.2.86, a COVID-19 subvariant of omicron, might be more contagious as compared to previous variants in people who already have COVID-19 immunity. That included both people who have previously been infected and people who have been vaccinated. There were false claims circulating at the time that lockdowns would be returning because of the new variant.  

World Health Organization Regional Director for Europe Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge on Aug. 20 said “mpox is not the ‘new COVID.’”

The Associated Press reports that it’s highly unlikely the current outbreak of mpox would reach pandemic level. Pandemics, including the most recent ones of swine flu and COVID-19, are typically sparked by airborne viruses that spread quickly, including by people who may not be showing symptoms.

Kluge said  the 2022 mpox outbreak in Europe was controlled thanks to “direct engagement” with the most affected communities among those infected. The WHO put in place robust surveillance, investigated new case contacts and provided health advice. He explained, “behaviour change, non-discriminatory public health action and mpox vaccination contributed to controlling the outbreak.”

He did not mention lockdowns being part of the emergency response.