On January 19, 2021, one day before the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, supporters of former President Donald Trump began sharing a video in which they claimed to show military vessels of the coach of Long Beach, California. They either claimed or suggested that US naval ships arrived to keep Trump in office.
The allegations are unfounded and form part of the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose followers support a series of beliefs based on anonymous web posts by ‘Q’, who claim to have inside knowledge of the Trump administration (here). A core tenet of the conspiracy theory is that Donald Trump secretly includes a cabal of child sex predators that includes prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites and ‘deep state’ allies.
Examples of Facebook posts that make or suggest this claim can be found here, here and here.
The 32-second video is being filmed from a highway along the coast to show several large ships in the water. The person who filmed it says, ‘It’s absolutely unreal. So many ships out there … All along the California coast. I’m at Long Beach, but I have a feeling these ships are going all the way through LA. This is unreal. ”
One hour after Biden was sworn in as president of the American Capitol, one Facebook user shared the video with the following caption: “Breaking !!!! What’s up with the California coast … Long Beach … Remember that Q said, look at the water ”(here).
“Look at the water” is a common phrase used by QAnon fans in reference to “the Storm,” which is described here by the Washington Post as the imaginary moment in which Trump finally corrects his enemies “for military tribunals and mass. executions in a show of strength.
Reuters contacted Phillip Sanfield and Rachel Campbell, spokespersons for the Port of Los Angeles (here), a marina in San Pedro Bay that stretches 43 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, covering 4,200 acres of land and 3,300 acres of water ( here).
Sanfield and Campbell said the ships anchored in the video are inside and outside the entrance to the San Pedro Bay Harbor complex, which contains both the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Sanfield said these ships were not military vessels, but cargo and cruise ships and liquid bulk carriers.
Data from MarineTraffic, which provides real-time information on moving ships in ports and ports around the world, showed that 58 vessels arrived at the Anchorage of Long Beach on January 19, the day the video was first shared, and 67 on Jan. 20, the day Biden (here) was inaugurated.
Of the 58 recent arrivals anchored at Long Beach Harbor on January 19, six were classified as ‘passenger’, two as ‘cargo’, five as ‘tanker’, 22 as ‘tugboat’, three as ‘pleasure craft’ and 20 as ‘other’. Of the 67 recent arrivals anchored on 20 January, 10 were ‘passengers’, nine were ‘cargo’, five were ‘tanker’, 22 were ‘tugboat’ and 21 were ‘other’ (here).
MarineTraffic spokesman Georgios Hatzimanolis confirmed in an email to Reuters that the group’s data did not show any U.S. Navy ships or any kind of military vessels in the Long Beach Anchorage area in the past week. “The large number of ships that people see in the bay are mostly cargo ships, because Long Beach and LA ports are currently being hit hard in the port,” he said.
Hatzimanolis explained that the category “other” usually refers to non-commercial vessels that are not registered with the International Maritime Organization. Hatzimanolis said these ‘other’ vessels would not be U.S. Navy ships as the Navy issued new orders in 2017 instructing its commanders to turn on their automatic identification systems in busy waterways following a series of naval accidents.
On 29 September 2017, NPR reported here on the policy change of the fleet.
As noted here in a Dec. 28 CNBC interview with Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, he said that during the coronavirus pandemic, the port was lagging behind in shipping and that its supply chain ‘tense ‘was.
“It’s all the change in the American consumer,” Seroka said. “We do not buy services, but we buy goods.”
As reported here by Reuters, QAnon fans had to face reality on Inauguration Day: Trump left office without mass arrests or other victories against the alleged ‘deep state’. Instead, Democratic President Joseph Biden was quietly sworn in.
The Reuters Fact Check team has previously unraveled the social media claims related to the QAnon conspiracy theory, including that the martial law and the Insurrection Act were enacted; that the power of outgoing President Trump has been transferred to the military; that there were mass arrests; that Biden is not president; and that Trump will come to power again on March 4 (here).
VERDICT
Missing context. A video showing the port of Long Beach does not show military vessels in the water, but rather cargo, cruise ships and liquid bulk carriers. Allegations that the U.S. Navy arrived to prevent the peaceful transfer of power and keep Trump in office, which is part of the QAnon conspiracy theory, are unfounded.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.