Fact Check

President Obama Removes 'God' from Pledge of Allegiance?

A fake news article reported that President Obama had removed the phrase 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance and banned its use in all government buildings.

Published Feb. 4, 2016

Claim:
President Obama has ordered the phrase "under God" to be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.

On 31 January 2016, the web site TD Alliance published an article reporting that President Obama had ordered the phrase "under god" to be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance and banned from use in all government buildings:

In a flurry of executive orders signed by President Obama this week, one order will edit the Pledge of Allegiance to remove the phrase ‘Under God'.

For several years, Atheist and Muslim activists have put pressure on the White House for the move citing religious freedom regulations.

"The separation of church and state outlined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution is an important founding principle of our nation. Our nation’s Bill of Rights guarantees not only that the government cannot establish an official religion, but also guarantees citizens' rights to practice the religion of their choosing or no religion at all." White House spokesman Josh Earnest told Fox News

There is no truth to this report, however. It originated with TD Alliance, a web site associated with the spoof Fox News Facebook page called "Fox News The FB Page." Although both TD Alliance and "Fox News The FB Page" are misleadingly designed to appear as if they were associated with the Fox News channel, they have no affiliation with that latter entity. One giveaway is that "Fox News The FB Page" only has a few hundred likes, while the real Fox News channel FAcebook page has garnered millions of likes.

Also, a list of President Obama's executive orders is readily available on the White House web site, and those records do not show the president signing a "flurry of executive orders" at the end of January 2016, nor issuing any executive order to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance or ban its use in government facilities.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.