In the days after supporters of President Donald Trump gathered in Washington, DC, to challenge the certification of the 2020 presidential election results by Congress and finally storm the U.S. Capitol, an image of two vendors carrying Trump equipment near the scene sold, started circulating on social media.
In the text that accompanies the image, it is alleged that the two subjects of the photo were not actually supporters of Trump, but rather taxed the president’s supporters too much. However, the photo was written incorrectly.
Many posts have the following caption: “Sellers who would only identify themselves as ‘Nah’ and ‘Stop asking my questions before you get a hole’ sell goods near the Capitol. “I do not like this shit,” says Nah. “But these stupid fuckers who buy $ 100 sweatshirts put me in college.” ‘
It appears that the claim arose in a satirical article on January 8 published on the Medium page LEVEL (here). Entitled “FAKE NEWS”, the headline of the article reads: “We have added some details to Getty Photos of the terrorists who stormed the US capital.” The image of the sellers, along with the previously quoted caption, is the fifth at the bottom of the page.
On January 10th. Twitter user @HaitianDvorce tweeted the image and text and the caption “absolute kings” (here). Screenshots of the tweet were then shared on Facebook and Instagram (here, here, here)
The original photo, visible here: here, was taken on January 6, 2021 by Jon Cherry, a Getty Images leader. Getty does not identify the sellers, nor does it indicate that they said anything negative about Trump or his supporters.
Getty provides the following caption: ‘Street vendors selling President Donald Trump memorabilia will be seen on the sidewalk near the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, smashing windows and colliding with police officers. Trump supporters gathered in the country’s capital today to protest the ratification of President Joe Biden’s election college over President Trump in the 2020 election. ”
Reuters spoke by email to photographer Cherry, who said he had seen the fake caption and distribution of his image since the satirical article was published.
“First, I want to make it clear that I did not attribute the narrative that comes with the image, and the original caption that accompanied the photo is all the facts I have,” Cherry said, adding that his name appears with the image has led some to misinterpret the satirical caption as its own.
Cherry said he only spoke briefly with the sellers after taking the photo and moving on.
VERDICT
Satire. The caption to the image of two vendors selling Trump equipment near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was intended as satire, but has since been shared out of context.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.