A post on X reads, “You won’t see this reported on Fox News or in the NY Times because they’re all busy calling President Biden old. But here’s trump calling his wife, Melania, ‘Mercedes.’ This should be a MUCH bigger story” and includes a video that appears to show President Donald Trump calling his wife “Mercedes.” The News Literacy Project has added a label that says, “FALSE.”

#DonaldTrump

#MelaniaTrump

#Misleading

#FalseContext

A post on X reads, “You won’t see this reported on Fox News or in the NY Times because they’re all busy calling President Biden old. But here’s trump calling his wife, Melania, ‘Mercedes.’ This should be a MUCH bigger story” and includes a video that appears to show President Donald Trump calling his wife “Mercedes.” The News Literacy Project has added a label that says, “FALSE.”

#DonaldTrump

#MelaniaTrump

#Misleading

#FalseContext

No, Trump didn’t refer to his wife, Melania, as ‘Mercedes’

A video clip of former President Donald Trump appearing to refer to his wife, Melania, as “Mercedes” racked up millions of views and sparked partisan derision on social media, but the clip is misleading. Trump was talking about someone else. Let’s look at the facts.

Quick Look

  • No

    Former President Donald Trump did not refer to his wife, Melania, as “Mercedes” during his Feb. 24 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

  • Yes

    The clip actually shows Trump referring to Mercedes Schlapp, Trump’s former White House director of strategic communications and the wife of Matt Schlapp, who heads the organization that runs CPAC.

The Takeaway

When an image or video appears to confirm a preconceived belief, it’s easy to give it less scrutiny and immediately accept it as genuine. This tendency toward confirmation bias can even persist after a piece of content has been proven to be false or misleading, as people often justify their erroneous conclusion by saying that it “might as well be true.” This flawed reasoning can lead to a skewed view of politics — one that places opinions ahead of facts, instead of using facts to inform opinions.

Spotting these misleading clips can be difficult, especially when they escape the confines of social media — as this one did when President Joe Biden and comedian Seth Meyers both repeated the claim during a Feb. 26 episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers. Remember, brief video clips rarely contain complete context. Seeking out the full original videos and additional context from standards-based news reports can confirm whether information in a viral post is reliable.

The 5 Factors

We’ve determined that this viral rumor is misleading or false based on its failure to pass the following credibility factors. Please note that these factors do not represent degrees of falsehood. A post that fails a single factor is generally just as false as a post that fails all five.

Snapshot

  • Source

  • Evidence

  • Context

  • Authenticity
  • Reasoning
Source

Has it been posted or confirmed by a credible source?

No.

While this claim did appear on some news websites, subsequent reporting from fact-checkers provided context that Trump did not mix up his wife with someone else.

Evidence

Is there evidence that proves the claim?

No.

The evidence shows that Trump was referring to Mercedes Schlapp and not to his wife, Melania.

Context

Is the context accurate?

No.

The video misses the important context that Schlapp, a former member of the Trump administration, was in the audience for the speech.

Authenticity

Is it authentic?

N/A

Reasoning

Is it based on solid reasoning?

N/A