Fact Check

Donald Trump Protester Was Not ISIS Member

A video claiming that a protester arrested at a Donald Trump rally was a member of ISIS is fake.

Published March 13, 2016

Claim:
A video provides evidence that a protester who was arrested at a Donald Trump rally was a member of ISIS.

On 12 March 2016, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump posted a video on Twitter along with a message stating that Thomas DiMassimo, a protester who was arrested at his rally in Dayton, Ohio, had ties to ISIS:

The above-displayed video, however, has nothing to do with a terrorist organization. The video was originally uploaded to DiMassimo's YouTube page on 29 April 2015 and shows a protest at Wright State University concerning the death of Eric Sheppard:

DiMassimo's video did not feature Arabic music, did not begin with a photoshopped image of a man holding a gun, and originally included an English caption:

Students at Wright State University #NotMyFlag protest. The protest occurred to stand in solidarity with the symbolic actions of Eric Sheppard.

Furthermore, the caption included with the video posted by Donald Trump did not state that DiMassimo was a member of ISIS or that the footage was taken at an ISIS rally. Instead, the caption mocked DiMassimo and made a crude remark about his genitals.

In summation, the video posted by Donald Trump linking protester Thomas DiMassimo to ISIS is a hoax. The video features real footage from a April 2015 Black Lives Matter protest, but the Arabic music, caption, and photoshopped image of a man holding a gun, were all added after the fact in order to falsely tie the protester to a terrorist organization.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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