As part of the White House’s threats to send troops into Chicago, possibly by invoking the Insurrection Act, the Trump Administration has sought to create the impression that the nation’s third-largest city is out of control, due to rampant crime caused by immigrants. There have already been ICE deployments to that city.
President Trump himself tried to stoke those fears, including with a minute-long video, posted to his Truth Social account a week ago, that featured the Democratic mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois, along with images of crime from that city.
“An incompetent Mayor,” the White House X and Facebook accounts said when it posted the same video on October 8, 2025. “A delusional Governor. Chicago is in chaos, and the American people are paying the price. Chicago doesn’t need political spin — it needs HELP.”
An incompetent Mayor. A delusional Governor. Chicago is in chaos, and the American people are paying the price.
Chicago doesn’t need political spin—it needs HELP. pic.twitter.com/INR42XBdqA
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 8, 2025
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However, a new report from AFP has found that this video featured numerous videos that are both old, and not from Chicago.
“A dramatic voiceover video shared by the White House and US President Donald Trump claims to show immigration agents responding to the ‘mess’ in Chicago as the Republican seeks to justify deploying National Guard troops to the Democrat-run city,” AFP reported about the video. “But an AFP investigation found that the video is littered with outdated footage highlighting drug busts, arrests and deportation raids in other states, including Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska.”
The images, it turns out, are from several non-Chicago cities.
“An AFP investigation, based on reverse image searches and a review of the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service’s (DVIDS) video archive, has revealed that the White House’s video lifted numerous additional shots from footage of immigration-enforcement operations in California, Arizona, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska. Some of the videos date to 2024 and 2023, when former president Joe Biden was in office.”
NEW:
A dramatic voiceover video the White House and Donald Trump shared last week claiming to show “chaos” in Chicago is littered with outdated footage from Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Nebraska, California and Arizona, an AFP investigation found.https://t.co/AzfiomgKrf pic.twitter.com/Ofbs1oDtiM
— Bill McCarthy (@billdmccarthy) October 14, 2025
A handful were from Chicago, but they date from January, not the recent ICE deployments, AFP said.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
