Trump supporters are claiming that he has visited Maui with manipulated footage

Donald Trump supporters have used old footage of the former president to suggest he had visited Maui in the aftermath of the wildfires this month.

One social media post claimed on Aug. 16 that the former president and first lady had visited Maui, writing "The People's President, Donald J. Trump and our Beautiful First Lady Melania Trump, checking up on the people of Maui after #MauiFires."

In reality, the clip being shared is actually from 2019, when Trump visited Beauregard, Alabama after a tornado killed nearly two dozen people in the area.

The clip was seemingly circulated after TikTok account @me421 posted the video from 2019. Many tweets on the misleading video contain screenshots from the video posted to @me421's account. On Friday, the account posted a statement saying: "A few days ago I share a post about our President Trump. My intentions was never to make anyone believe that he was in Maui [sic]."

"My intentions was to show what kind of leadership Maui needed. President Trump is a kind soul. His reaction to situations are not emotionless [sic]," they added. "The power of unity he brings to this country is truly a gift from God."

The account ends the statement by saying: "I apologise if there was nay misunderstanding on that video God bless all Americans."

It seems the account has deleted their upload of the clip, but that hasn't stopped it from being shared by Trump fans across social media.

TikTok account @kaiser_ifa also shared the 2019 clip with the captions "Trump 2024" and "The Really President truly cares". The TikTok currently has over 120,000 views.

"Why don't we see this on the news?" commented one user.

Another said, "does it for America, not for publicity. Just beautiful to be a witness to. Trump 2024."

"Thank you for visiting this devastation. America needs you president Trump," read a further comment.

The original clip can be found on The Associated Press' YouTube channel with the title "Trump visits tornado-ravaged town in Alabama."

On August 14th, Trump posted a video on Truth Social in which he gave his "sympathy and warmest regards" to those affected by the wildfires. But he has not visited the site himself. In the video Trump also called president Biden "disgraceful" and claimed Biden "refuses to help or comment on the tragedy in Maui."

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