Claim: Donald Trump expressed support for Imran Khan by wearing a cap bearing the numbers “45-47” during a recent event, implying that they refer to Form 45 and Form 47. Captions on different social media posts state that Trump believes the PTI was robbed of its mandate during Pakistan’s 2024 elections.
Fact: The numbers “45-47” refer to Trump being the 45th US president and his hope that he will become the 47th US president after the November 2024 elections. They are not a reference to the Form 45 and Form 47 used in Pakistan’s 2024 general elections, nor do they show Trump’s endorsement of the rigging allegations levelled by the PTI and Imran Khan.
On July 11, 2024, Soch Fact Check received a WhatsApp video of former US president Donald Trump, a Republican leader who served from 2017 to 2021 and is seeking a nonconsecutive second term in the upcoming November 2024 election.
In the clip, Trump is seen wearing a cap with “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” on the front and “45-47” on the side. The caption accompanying the video read:
“In Trump’s cap it’s written ‘45-47’. Is this in reference to the much talked about FORM 45 and FORM 47🤔”
The viral video was also posted on other social media platforms, including here on X (formerly Twitter) and here on Facebook.
The first is captioned:
“ٹرمپ کی ٹوپی۔۔ پر 47-45 ڈونلڈ ٹرمپ بھی مانتا ہے کہ پاکستان تحریک انصاف کے مینڈیٹ پر ڈاکہ کس نے ڈالا۔🔥
[45-47 on Trump’s hat. Donald Trump also knows who robbed the mandate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.🔥]”
The second is captioned:
“ٹرمپ کی ٹوپی۔۔ پر 47-45🫣 فارم 45 اور فارم 47 کی گونج امریکہ میں بھی ۔ کیا نام روشن کیا ہے الیکشن کمشن نے!
[47-45 on Trump’s cap🫣 Echoes of Form 45 and Form 47 in America as well. The Election Commission of Pakistan has made [the country] proud!]”
The Form 45, Form 47 controversy
Form 45 is a document containing unofficial voter data from polling stations across the country, whereas Form 47, issued by the returning officers (ROs), includes tallied data from Form 45.
Shortly before the 2024 general elections in Pakistan were conducted on 8 February, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) founder, Imran Khan, was jailed (archive) over multiple cases. Additionally, a Supreme Court ruling in January 2024 stripped (archive) the party of its electoral symbol, barring it from officially fielding its candidates in the election.
After the polls ended, the party cried foul (archive), claiming that the results of the 18 seats, which it allegedly won, were “falsely changed”.
Independent candidates backed by the PTI consequently filed petitions “contesting discrepancies between Form-47s and Form-45s. But the Lahore High Court (LHC) termed (archive) the petitions inadmissible on 13 February, directing “petitioners to seek redressal from the Election Commission under the Election Act”.
On 29 February 2024, the National Assembly of Pakistan convened (archive) its maiden session despite the PTI’s claims that the elections were rigged. On 4 March, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif was elected (archive) the country’s prime minister after beating the PTI-backed candidate, Omar Ayub Khan.
The party’s supporters have since regurgitated the rigging claims on various social media platforms and questioned the legitimacy of the Sharif government by prefixing “Form-47” to the names of its leaders and other government officials.
Fact or Fiction?
When Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video, we found that it was from May 2024, when Trump attended the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race, which took place at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, according to a 26 May 2024 report by USA Today.
It was “the first time in the track’s history that a current or former President has attended a race at the venue”, the report added citing Jonathan Coleman, the senior communications director for Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The former US president’s deputy communications director, Margo Martin, posted a video of him at the event. The Charlotte Motor Speedway also posted about his presence on its X account here and here.
The former US president “met with Austin Dillon, driver of the No. 3 car for Richard Childress Racing on the track”, The Charlotte Observer noted, while Sky News Australia reported that “spectators and supporters cheered on the 77-year-old”.
Our search also led to multiple posts and articles with images of Trump at the same event; these can be found here, here, here, here, and here. Additionally, Trump’s presence was documented by photographers associated with Getty Images and The Associated Press here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The pictures clearly show “45-47” on his cap.
We were able to trace the video to its original creator, TikTok user @victoriasmountain, who uploaded it on the platform on 27 May 2024. The clip, which has garnered 2.6 million views so far, is captioned, “Love him or hate him. It was neat to see hin [sic]. #donaldtrump @CLT Motor Speedway”.
In the viral video, a board behind Trump visibly reads, “Joe Gibbs Racing”, which is an American car racing organisation and is mentioned in two articles about the Republican leader attending the event.
As for the numbers “45-47” on Trump’s cap, they denote his former presidency and a potential victory in the upcoming presidential elections. While Trump was the 45th president of the US, the Republican leader now aims to become the 47th president. The incumbent, Joe Biden, is the 46th.
Furthermore, Soch Fact Check came across an article by The New York Times devoted to the same numbers, Trump’s embracing of them, and what his fans and loyalists think. Published on 17 June 2024 and written by Jess Bidgood, the managing correspondent of the NYT’s ‘On Politics’ newsletter, it is titled “The Trump Rallying Cry That’s Also a Math Problem” (archive).
The article states that Trump’s “supporters can’t quite agree on whether to call him the 45th president or the 47th president”. It also talks about how “he is sometimes introduced with both titles” and how a birthday cake presented to him by Republican senators contained “two sets of numbered candles — a 45 and a 47”.
Trump appears to have completely embraced the number 47 and has “plastered [it] all over his campaign’s infrastructure, including the name of his joint fund-raising committee, a URL for his fund-raising website and his grass-roots organizing program”, according to the publication.
“At his campaign website, however, one can buy polo shirts, hats and stickers that say 45-47 — with the two numbers separated by a small hyphen that also reads as a minus sign,” it adds. However, his followers have also sported caps that state “45/47”, not “45-47,” on the side.
Interestingly, Trump also wore caps with the numbers “45-47” in 2023, well before Pakistan’s elections were held on 8 February 2024, as evidenced by three X posts — here, here, and here — as well as another NYT article (archive) from 8 July 2023.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claim that Trump has expressed solidarity with Imran Khan by sporting a cap with the numbers “45-47” — denoting discrepancies between Form 45 and Form 47 from Pakistan’s 2024 elections — is false.
Virality
The claim has appeared here, here, and here on X and here on Reddit.
On Facebook, it was posted here, here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, images implying the same were shared here and here. While their captions clarified the truth, the images suggest an association between Trump’s cap and Imran Khan. However, visuals such as these are often copied and shared elsewhere on social media without the facts.
Soch Fact Check also came across video reports by Capital TV that mention the same claim here in July 2024 and here in March 2024. The reports were shared on X and Facebook here and here, respectively.
Conclusion: The numbers “45-47” refer to Trump being the 45th US president and the hope that he will become the 47th US president come the November 2024 elections. The numbers on Trump’s cap are not a reference to Form 45 and Form 47 from Pakistan’s 2024 general elections nor do they show his endorsement of the claims of rigging made by the PTI and Imran Khan.
Background image in cover photo: PakistanECP
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