Fact-check: Old video of Trump mocking Marco Rubio falsely linked to Pakistan-India water dispute

A video of US President Donald Trump is being shared online, appearing to show him mocking Pakistan after India held the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance last month.

The Indus Waters Treaty is a key water-sharing pact which regulates the division of river waters between the two South Asian nations.

The claim is incorrect. The statement by Trump is unrelated to Pakistan.

Claim

On April 30, an Indian account posted a short clip on Instagram with the caption: “Donald Trump trolled the whole Pakistan on water.”

In the video, the US president can be heard saying: “Oh I need water. Help me. I need water. Help.”

Trump is then seen dramatically emptying a bottle of water. The video had 39,100 views, 11,400 likes, and 5,488 reshares at the time of writing.

The same video has also been posted on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).

Fact

The video is from 2016, not recent, and has no connection to Pakistan. It resurfaced amid heightened tensions, following a deadly attack in Pahalgam that led to a stand-off between India and Pakistan, which ended in a ceasefire on May 10.

A reverse image search on Google led to longer versions of the video posted by CNN News and NBC News in 2016.

At the time, Donald Trump was a presidential candidate speaking at a rally in Texas. In the clip, he could be seen mocking then-Republican rival Marco Rubio, not making any reference to Pakistan.

Verdict: The claim that Donald Trump mocked Pakistan over a recent water issue is false. The viral video is from 2016, recorded during a campaign rally in Texas, where Trump was mocking Marco Rubio, not referring to Pakistan or the Indus Waters Treaty.

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— Thumbnail and header image by Gulistan News