Claim: A video shows Richard Grenell praising Imran Khan during a speech at the Republican National Convention.
Fact: The video is fake. In his original speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention, Grenell spoke about US President-elect Donald Trump.
Several social media users shared a video (archive) showing Trump’s special missions envoy, Richard Grenell, praising Imran Khan during the 2024 Republican National Convention. The video (archive) was shared across social media platforms with the caption:
“رچرڈ گرینل 🔥
میں آپ سے ایسے لیڈر کا ذکر کروں گا جو انصاف ،سالمیت اور عوامی مدد کی ایک مثال ہے نہ صرف اپنے ملک بلکہ پوری دنیا کے لیے مثال ہے “وہ عمران خان ہے”جو سچ بولتا ہے جس نے اپنی انتھک محنت سے لوگوں کی فلاح اور ملک کی ترقی کے لیے اپنی زندگی وقف کر دی ہے۔”
[Translation: Richard Grenell 🔥
I will mention a leader who is an example of justice, integrity, and public service—not only for his country but for the whole world. “’He is Imran Khan,”’ who speaks the truth and has dedicated his life to the welfare of people and the development of the nation through tireless effort.]
In the video, Grenell says, “Ladies and gentlemen, today I want to talk to you about a leader who has become a symbol of justice, integrity and service to the people. Not only for his country but for the entire world. This is the man who has dedicated his life to his people, who worked tirelessly to put his nation on the path of progress.
But today, he’s in prison. Why? Because he speaks the truth and stands for what is right. I want to ask everyone: should a leader be punished for his honesty? No, we must all come together and raise our voices.
Free Imran Khan! This is the time for justice. The time for liberating this great leader of the nation so he can once again serve his country. Ladies and gentlemen, remember, history does not forgive those who remain silent. We must speak up, we must stand up and we must ensure that Imran Khan is set free.”
Richard Grenell
According to the Associated Press, “Grenell served as ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first administration, special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations, and also briefly as acting director of national intelligence.”
On 26 November, foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell attracted the attention of many Pakistanis when he took to X to demand the release of the former prime minister. He posted about Khan again on 16 December, writing, “I’ll say it again, @geonews_urdu: Free Imran Khan.” When his post reached 10 million views, he wrote, “This is clearly popular. Free Imran Khan.”
In December 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced his selection of Grenell to serve as an envoy for special missions. AP’s report added that in this role, Grenell will assist the incoming administration in addressing some of its most challenging foreign policy issues.
Since his appointment, Grenell has reposted and written several posts on X, calling for Khan’s release and criticising the State Department’s statement on the issue. He also appeared on NewsMax’s show ‘Newsline’ where he spoke about US’foreign policy with Pakistan and Imran Khan.
Fact or Fiction?
It is highly unlikely for an American politician to speak about another country’s political leader at the Republican National Convention. Such speeches are typically focused on the candidates, their credentials, etc. Nonetheless, we conducted a keyword search to check if Grenell spoke about Khan at any point and did not find any reports from credible news outlets.
Since the video featured a TikTok watermark and username, we checked the associated TikTok account and found the video, which has since been removed. It was captioned: “امریکہ میں آنے والی نئی حکومت کھل کر عمران خان کی رہائی کا مطالبہ کر رہی ہے”
[Translated from Urdu: The new government in America is openly demanding the release of Imran Khan]
Several visual inconsistencies were evident in the TikTok video. For example, Grenell’s lip movements did not always align with his speech. Additionally, the video was pixelated and displayed slight glitches, suggesting that it had been manipulated.
We then conducted a keyword search, using the terms “Richard Grenell” and “Republican National Convention”, and found his original speech. The video, titled “WATCH: Richard Grenell speaks at 2024 Republican National Convention | 2024 RNC Night 3”, was shared by PBS NewsHour on YouTube nearly six months ago. It shows Grenell speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, particularly about foreign policy and national security.
Grenell’s facial expressions and movements, as well as the camera angles from 1:38 onwards match those in the video in the claim.
Additionally, the women featured in the viral clip can be seen at the 1:41 and 1:57 timestamps in the PBS footage, confirming that this part was used in the altered clip.
In the video in the claim, a significant discrepancy occurs when Grenell’s voice is heard, but the footage shows a member of the audience mouthing the same words.
Furthermore, we sent the video for analysis to Dr Hany Farid, a faculty member at the UC Berkeley’s School of Information and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, whose research focuses on digital forensics and misinformation among other topics. In an emailed response, Dr Farid — who is also a member of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab — said, “This is a clear — and poorly made — fake. The audio is AI-generated and the video is a poorly made lip-sync deep fake.”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that a clip showing Richard Grenell praising Imran Khan at the Republican National Convention is fake. The original footage of his speech shows he actually spoke about Donald Trump.
Virality
The video was shared widely on Facebook including here, here, here, here, here, and here. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
It was shared here, here, and here on X. Archived here, here, and here.
On Threads, it was shared here (archive).
It was also shared here on Instagram.
Conclusion: The video in the claim is fake. The original footage was manipulated to misrepresent Richard Grenell’s statement. His actual speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention focused on Donald Trump, with no mention of Imran Khan.
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Background image in cover photo: WTX News/US News
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