Yet another fabricated quote card supposedly of United States President Donald Trump expressing admiration for former president Rodrigo Duterte amid the latter’s arrest is circulating online.
On March 12, a quote card allegedly published by American media organization Fox News circulated on Facebook (FB) and other social media platforms. A reader sent the same quote card to the VERA Files Misinformation Tipline for verification.
The graphic carried Fox News’ logo and a file photo of Trump. The U.S. leader supposedly said:
“Let me tell you, folks, I don’t admire a lot of people – very few, believe me. But one of the leaders I truly respect is the Former President of the Republic of the Philippines, Rodrigo “ROA” Duterte. During my time in office, he showed incredible love for his country. He fought hard, he stood strong, and you know what? I can’t blame him for the war on drugs he led. He did what he had to do. Tremendous leadership. Really, I have great respect for him.”
This is fake. Trump has yet to release any statement related to the arrest of Duterte and his subsequent detention in The Hague, Netherlands, where he is facing trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
No such pronouncements were found on Trump’s social media accounts or published by the White House’s official channels. Neither has the U.S. embassy in the Philippines posted anything about the former president’s arrest.
It is not true that Fox News published the quote card. While it released reports about Duterte’s arrest, it did not post any quote from Trump.
To fool netizens, the fabricated statement featured the phrase “let me tell you folks” and the word “tremendous” that Trump commonly uses in his speeches.
Some posts carried affiliate links that lead people to an e-commerce site.
The fake graphic circulated a day after Duterte was arrested on the strength of a warrant issued by the ICC and coursed through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). Duterte arrived March 12 in The Hague, where the ICC’s headquarters is located, to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity in connection with extrajudicial killings during his administration’s war on drugs.
VERA Files has earlier debunked another fake quote card attributed to Trump about Duterte’s arrest.
At least 10 posts from FB users and pages such as NewsforAll (created on Aug. 11, 2016 as Duterte News Network), FACE-TALK.com (Feb. 3, 2024) and Philippine Weather Alerts (July 19, 2024) collectively garnered 37,297 reactions, 2,187 comments, 37,079 shares. A copy uploaded on Threads also garnered 1,500 reactions, 27 comments and 82 shares.
