Claim: Julian Assange said Donald Trump can prevent World War III from happening. Assange allegedly made this statement shortly after Iran attacked Israel on the night of 13 April.
Fact: Assange did not make any such statement. In an interview, from 11 years ago, he commented on the war in Afghanistan. Nowhere in the clip does Assange mention Trump’s role in preventing a World War III.
On 14 April, soon after Iran’s missile attack on Israel, X user @Huberton shared (archived) a short clip of Assange with the following caption:
“BREAKING: Iran has reportedly launched dozens of drones against Isreal. Julian Assange was telling you why President Trump is the only one who can prevent World War III(WWIII). Does it make sense now? Vote for Trump! Save your life.”
In light of the upcoming elections in the United States (US), a new wave of misinformation from Trump’s supporters has been making rounds online. In March 2024, BBC reported how “Donald Trump supporters have been creating and sharing AI-generated fake images of black voters to encourage African Americans to vote Republican.”
In this case, Soch Fact Check found that the misleading clip of Assange was shared by a user whose bio says he’s a “Conservative” and a “MAGA patriot”, the latter being a slogan widely used by Donald Trump and his supporters.
Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006. The website published leaked, confidential documents shedding light on the USA’s war atrocities in Afghanistan in 2010. The leaks became a global sensation prompting the USA government to launch an investigation into the leaks.
His case would span 14 long years, first facing the possibility of extradition to Sweden and then to the USA over possible charges for leaking confidential documents.
Assange was granted political asylum by Ecuador and entered its embassy in the UK in 2012 where he spent the next five years. He was indicted by the US Justice Department in 2019 over charges that the leaks were in violation of the Espionage Act.
In a historic plea deal with the US Justice Department on 26 June, Assange pleaded guilty to one felony charge of leaking confidential documents, securing him his freedom.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search of the keyframes of the video and found that the viral clip is part of a longer YouTube video of Assange dating back to 2011.
In the original video, Assange explains how the US and the European countries benefit from a prolonged war in Afghanistan. At the time, the US and NATO forces had stayed in Afghanistan after their invasion for more than a decade, and in the video, Assange attempts to answer whether they are “entering into a phase of continued war.”
The video shared in the viral claim, matches the timestamp 1:43- 2:09 of the longer YouTube interview. In both the clips, Assange can be heard saying, “But the goal is not to completely subjugate Afghanistan. The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the United States, out of the tax bases of the European countries through Afghanistan, and back into the hands of the transnational security elite. That is the goal, i.e., the goal is to have an endless war, not a successful war.”
While Assange does speak about a future where “a constant war” will become the norm, towards the end of the YouTube video, nowhere does he mention Trump or comment on the latter’s ability to prevent a “World War III” in particular.
Interestingly, Soch Fact Check found that this particular clip has gone viral in the past as well. TRT World News posted the same clip of Assange in 2021, reporting that it had “gone viral” at the time. Though we could not locate the exact context within which the clip resurfaced, the date suggests it went viral shortly before the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The wide circulation of the short clip over the years suggests the message on war by Assange, has a theme synonymous with any war and has been used misleadingly without any fact-check mechanism in place.
“Biden and Obama are responsible for the destabilization in the Middle East. Funding both sides. This would not have happened under Trump. War is a racket.” said one X user after the recent Iran attacks, sharing the same Assange clip that has no connection to the recent conflict.
“109% true,” said another after reposting the above claim.
Soch Fact Check therefore concludes that a clip from a 2011 interview of Julian Assange, in which he comments on the war in Afghanistan, was shared with a false caption in light of the upcoming US elections.
Virality
The claim garnered 2 million views.
Conclusion: A viral X post falsely claims that Julian Assange said Trump could prevent World War III in an interview in 2011. He does not make any such statement. In fact, Assange commented on the war in Afghanistan at the time, particularly on how the superpowers benefit from waging a prolonged war in the region.
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Background image in cover photo: RNZ
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