CLAIM:
Viral video of Donald Trump calling for Muslim ban
RATING JUSTIFICATION
The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is misleading.
To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a reverse image search and a keyword search to trace the original video.
Multiple people, including users who appear to be Indian propaganda accounts based on their past posts, were sharing a video on social media platform X since August 19, 2026, claiming it shows United States President Donald Trump calling for a Muslim ban. However, the video is old from December 7, 2015.
Trump recently received backlash for his Islamophobic remarks during a meeting in the Oval Office on August 10, 2026. He described Democratic candidates in the midterm US elections as “jihadists” in an apparent reference to Muslim Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
In response, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said, “America does not belong to any one race or religion, and President Trump does not get to decide who counts as an American. An American man of Egyptian descent is just as American as an American man of German descent, and an American woman wearing a hijab is just as American as an American woman without one.”
HOW IT STARTED
On August 19, an Indian propaganda account, based on its past posts, shared a video on X, claiming it shows Trump calling for a Muslim ban.
The caption of the post read: “Shocking: President Donald J Trump called for a ‘Muslim Ban’ on entering the USA. The world is waking up to the cancer of Islam belatedly.”
The post gained 418,400 views. It was seen that despite the nature of the propaganda account’s past posts, the majority of users in the comments seemed to believe the post, with only some questioning it.
The same video in a similar context was shared by several other users on X, as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, further amplifying the claim.
METHODOLOGY
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the state of Islamophobia and any legal curbs on Muslims in the United States.
A keyword search to corroborate the claim did not yield any recent news reports from credible American or international media outlets on Trump calling for a Muslim ban.
A reverse image search of the video led to Trump’s full six-minute campaign speech in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, covered by NBC News, dated December 8, 2015, and titled: “Trump calls for ’total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US’“.
At the 2:06-minute mark of the clip, he can be heard saying, “Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
Trump’s speech was further covered by Sky News on its official YouTube channel, dated December 8, 2015, with the following title: “Trump calls for ban on Muslims entering US”.
Moreover, CBS Evening News and Associated Press also covered his “Muslim ban” remarks.
A keyword search yielded a news report by CBS News, dated December 7, 2015, with the following title: “Donald Trump calls for ‘total and complete shutdown’ of Muslims entering US”.
As per the news report, Trump said, “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. If I win the election for president, we are going to make America great again.”
A further keyword search yielded several mainstream media outlets, such as BBC News, The Guardian, and Reuters, that also reported on Trump’s campaign speech in South Carolina, with the same context.
FACT-CHECK STATUS: MISLEADING
The claim that a viral video shows US President Donald Trump calling for a Muslim ban is misleading.
The video is old, from his campaign speech in South Carolina, on December 7, 2015, and no such recent remarks have been made.
EVIDENCE AND REFERENCES
Dec 8, 2015, NBC News official website:
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/trump-calls-for-total-and-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-entering-the-u-s-581768771855
Dec 8, 2015, Sky News YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLgTF8FrYlU
Dec 8, 2015, Associated Press YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUK2aMYGMCg
Dec 9, 2015, CBS Evening News YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6pNS8GKaq0
Dec 7, 2015, CBS News report:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-calls-for-total-and-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-entering-u-s/
Dec 8, 2015, BBC news report:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35035190
Dec 8, 2015, The Guardian news report:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/dec/08/donald-trump-calls-for-complete-ban-on-muslims-entering-the-us-video
Dec 8, 2015, Reuters news report:
https://www.reuters.com/article/world/donald-trump-urges-ban-on-muslims-entering-united-states-idUSKBN0TQ2QT/