Claim: Donald Trump said, “I’ve learnt a lot from Imran Khan, his Islamic style, and his independent policy. He is not only the leader of Pakistanis but he is also my leader.”
Fact: Trump has never made any such remarks.
On 11 November 2024, Facebook page ‘تحریک انصاف’ posted (archive) a reel with the following caption:
“*_🌟🇵🇰 میں نے عمران خان سے بہت کچھ سیکھا ہے اسلامی طرز اور آذاد پالیسی ، وہ صرف پاکستانیوں کا لیڈر نہیں میرا بھی لیڈر ہے۔صدر ڈونلڈ ٹرمپ_*
[I’ve learnt a lot from Imran Khan, his Islamic style, and his independent policy. He is not only the leader of Pakistanis but he is also my leader, [said] Donald Trump.]”
The claim surfaced after Trump won (archive) the race to become the 47th president of the US, bagging the 270 electoral votes required to enter the Oval Office. Biden’s term officially ends “at noon ET” (archive) on 20 January 2025.
Khan has been incarcerated since 5 August 2023 over various charges, but he has either been acquitted or secured bail in some; the sentence for one has been suspended (archived here, here, here, here, and here, respectively). He was, however, indicted in a case pertaining to inciting attacks against the Pakistan Army in 2023 and arrest warrants issued for Bushra Bibi, his wife who was released in October after almost nine months of imprisonment.
On 26 December 2024, a military court sentenced 60 of the former premier’s supporters for their involvement in the May 2023 riots, just days after it handed sentences to 25 others for similar offences.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check searched for news reports on such remarks made by Trump by reputable media outlets but did not find any.
We then browsed through transcripts available on the archived website of Trump’s White House from his interactions with Khan during his presidency.
The two leaders met at least three times: twice at the White House in July and September 2019 and once in January 2022 in Davos, Switzerland. However, in none of those interactions did Trump make such remarks about Khan, instead only saying that Pakistan’s then-premier was “a great leader”, “my friend”, “a good man”, “a nice man,” “a great athlete”, and a “very good friend of mine”.
Then, in a November 2023 campaign rally in Houston, Trump talked about Khan, as well as the latter’s response to the 2020 assassination of Iran’s Gen Qassem Soleimani. In this speech, too, he said the Pakistani politician was a “great cricket player”, the “biggest cricket player”, and “the best handsome guy” who “became the boss of Pakistan”.
The visuals in the reel are from 11 September 2024, when Trump went to the 9/11 memorial service and was slammed by some for pointing, giving a thumbs up, winking, and blowing kisses at a sombre event. The clip was used by his campaign in a Snapchat advertisement as well. We found this after first coming across these videos from 13 and 14 September 2024 and then using keywords searches to locate the original footage.
Trump’s actions were also caught by photographers, whose pictures are available here, here, here, and here on Getty Images. We also came across the same video posted by photographer Stephen Tierney, who included the hashtag “#original” in his TikTok and Instagram posts, which were viewed 38.9 million and 720,000 times, respectively.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claim is false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, and here on Instagram, here on X (formerly Twitter), and here on TikTok.
Conclusion: Trump has never made any such remarks.
Background image in cover photo: ImranKhanOfficial
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