Claim: Donald Trump shared a picture of himself shaking hands with Imran Khan on X and said, “We, Imran Khan and I, can bring peace to the world [so] come support us.”
Fact: There’s no evidence for this claim. The X post in question was published by @Trump47thPOTUS, an account that has now been suspended. Trump never posted such an image on his official X account.
On 6 November 2024, Facebook page ‘IK Tigers’ posted (archive) a visual comprising a graphic of US President-elect Donald Trump shaking hands with ex-prime minister and founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan. However, the former can neither be seen making eye contact nor looking at the latter. The text included in the picture reads as follows:
“ڈونلڈ ٹرمپ نے اپنے آفیشل ٹویٹر اکاؤنٹ سے اس تصویر کو شیئر کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ہم میں اور عمران خان دنیا میں امن لا سکتے آئیے ہمیں سپورٹ کریں۔
[Donald Trump shared this picture from his official Twitter account and said, ‘We, Imran Khan and I, can bring peace to the world [so] come support us.’]”
A banner behind the two politicians reads, “PARTNERS IN PEACE”.
The Instagram handle at the bottom of the visual — @iktigers9092 — indicates that the claim originated from the same Facebook page and was also posted on its other social media accounts, including X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok.
In the caption, ‘IK Tigers’ asked users for support, writing:
“آپ سے یہ التماس ہے کہ ہماری اس عظیم الشان جدوجہد کا حصہ بنیں اور ہماری آواز کو تقویت دیں۔ ہمارا عزم ہے کہ ہم شب و روز پوری محنت اور لگن کے ساتھ عمران خان اور پی ٹی آئی کے ٹائیگرز کے لیے کارفرما رہیں گے۔ ہمارا خواب ہے کہ ایک دن ہم اپنی طاقت اور عزم کے ذریعے ایک باوقار اور موثر میڈیا چینل قائم کریں گے، جو عالمی سطح پر پاکستان اور عمران خان کے نظریات کی حقیقی نمائندگی کرے گا۔ آپ کی حمایت ہمارے لیے مشعل راہ ہے، اور آپ کا ساتھ ہمارے ارادوں کو مضبوطی عطا کرے گا۔ انسٹاگرام اور ٹوئٹر پر ہمارا حصہ بنیں اور ہمارے مقصد کو فروغ دینے میں اپنا کردار ادا کریں۔ آپ کی ہمت اور تعاون کے بل بوتے پر ہم اپنے مقصد کو حقیقت میں ڈھالیں گے اور اس چینل کو پاکستان کی سب سے نمایاں اور معتبر آواز بنائیں گے۔
[We request you to join our grand struggle and strengthen our voice. Our goal is to work hard day and night with devotion for Imran Khan and the PTI Tigers. Our dream is to one day establish a dignified and effective media channel through our strength and determination that will truly represent the ideologies of Pakistan and Imran Khan on a global scale. Your support is our guiding light and your companionship will embolden our intentions. Join us on our Instagram and Twitter and play your part in promoting our cause. With your courage and cooperation, we will turn our goal into reality and make this channel the most prominent and credible voice in Pakistan.]”
Trump’s win and Imran Khan
There have been multiple reports that the PTI and its supporters have pinned their hopes on the president-elect to push for Khan’s release from jail.
Khan, as well as other party leaders, including Hammad Azhar and Raoof Hassan, congratulated Trump for winning the 2024 US elections, which were held on 6 November.
The same day, however, the former premier’s sister, Aleema Khan, when asked about if the Republican’s victory meant good news for her brother, said, “Are we slaves? Is Donald Trump our abba (father)? Are we a US colony? … We are 240 million Pakistanis and we need to respect ourselves and rise to get our legitimate rights.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reviewed the media available on Trump’s X account but did not find evidence of such an image posted.
We also searched Trump’s account for any X posts mentioning “imran khan” but there were none, while among the results for those that mentioned “khan”, only one from 20 August 2019 was about Imran Khan — during his first presidency — in which he said he spoke to Pakistan’s former PM and India’s Narendra Modi. Others were primarily in reference to other people with the surname Khan and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, with the last one published on 3 September 2019.
In the comments of the primary post that we are investigating, we found that one user said they could not find any such message on the Republican leader’s X account, to which the page replied with a screenshot of an X post by an account named “DONALD J. TRUMP POTUS…” containing the image of Khan and Trump shaking hands.
While the screenshot shows only part of the account’s name as “DONALD J. TRUMP POTUS…”, it also shows a repost by the same account, which allowed us to identify its full name — “DONALD J. TRUMP POTUS COMMENTARY”.
A search for the same led us to X user @Trump47thPOTUS, an account that has since been suspended and the link to their post, which, too, is unavailable now.
However, using archiving tools, we were able to locate snapshots of both the account and the same X post, which included the visual of Trump and Khan alongside the following caption:
“These both leaders can bring peace in world. Let’s bring back both of them for peace.”
When @Trump47thPOTUS was operational, it had a blue verification checkmark, which can be purchased through X Premium, the platform’s optional subscription-based service that also provides other additional options not available to non-paying users.
Trump’s official X account, on the other hand, is @realDonaldTrump and has a grey verification badge, which, according to “Profile labels” on the platform’s Help Center, “indicates that an account represents a government/multilateral organization or a government/multilateral official”.
Soch Fact Check has reached out to the Trump campaign for a comment and will update this fact-check if and when they respond.
We, therefore, conclude that the claim is false.
Virality
The post by ‘IK Tigers’ has so far received over 1,200 reactions and more than 170 shares.
Soch Fact Check found the claim shared on multiple social media platforms, including here and here Instagram, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here on X, here on TikTok.
Some YouTubers, who repeated multiple false claims, also used the image on the thumbnail of their videos here and here.
Conclusion: There’s no evidence for this claim. The X post in question was published by @Trump47thPOTUS, an account that has now been suspended. Trump never posted such an image on his official X account.
Background image in cover photo: DonaldTrump
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com