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Viral clip shows Trump pausing to call medic for audience member | Fact check

Portrait of Hannah Hudnall Hannah Hudnall
USA TODAY

The claim: Trump froze during rally

An Aug. 10 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows a recording of a rally for former President Donald Trump. A person off-screen counts to 21 as Trump stands silently behind a lectern.

"BREAKING," reads text within the post, which was originally shared on TikTok. "Trump freezes for 21 seconds during speech at his rally and Fox News has to cut away!"

The post's caption says, "Looks like Don Old has tied Mitch the Glitch's record for locking up on camera," and includes the caption "#trumpisnotfittobepresident."

Other versions of the claim were shared on Threads and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

This isn't a clip of Trump freezing. Footage of the rally shows Trump paused while an audience member was treated by a medic.

Clip of Trump pausing misrepresented online

Soon after Trump spoke at an Aug. 9 rally in Bozeman, Montana, social media users speculated about a lengthy pause during his speech.

But unedited video of the rally shows that Trump didn't freeze.

Footage published by C-SPAN shows audience members yelling, "Medic" during the former president's speech, after which he announced, "A doctor, doctor please," and said, "Take your time." He paused, as the Threads post shows, while the audience member was treated.

Less than a minute later the crowd began chanting and Trump returned to his speech.

Fact check: Picture of Hitler raising fist altered to resemble photo of Trump

Footage captured by PBS shows the same sequence of events.

USA TODAY reached out to Trump's team and the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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