Video does not show Donald Trump floating a Biden body double conspiracy theory

A recent Instagram post leans into long-running conspiracy theories that President Joe Biden has been replaced by an impostor. 

The June 1 post features two photos of Biden in which his earlobes are circled. The changes in his earlobes over the years are often cited as evidence that the person supposedly now claiming to be Biden is not the same man who once served in the U.S. Senate. 

Above these images is a video montage of comments made by former President Donald Trump. 

"You know and I know it," Trump says in the first clip. "Joe doesn’t know he’s alive." 

The Trump comments continue: "Cause Biden doesn’t know he’s alive."

"Biden doesn’t know, I mean he doesn’t know he’s alive."  

"Now I have to tell you, he’s a different guy. He looks different than he used to, he acts different than he used to, he’s even slower than he used to be so I don’t know. But I call him 1% Joe. Joe Biden is a dummy."

"It’s not him. He’s a puppet." 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

But Trump wasn’t suggesting that Biden has been replaced by an impostor, as the post suggests. 

Featured Fact-check

Instagram posts

stated on November 26, 2024 in an Instagram post

“The CDC says that little 6 month old babies must get SEVEN doses of the Covid vaccine in order to be considered fully ‘up to date’ on their vaccinations.”

Rather, he was commenting on Biden’s mental health and speculating that he’s not fit to serve as the commander in chief. 

The first clip, for example, comes from a September 2020 Fox News interview in which Trump said: "You know it and I know it. Joe doesn’t know he’es alive. If you asked him that question without teleprompters, I don’t think he could answer the question."

That echoed remarks he made during a July 2020 Fox News interview: "I say he’s not competent to be president. To be president, you have to be sharp and tough and so many other things. He doesn’t even come out of his basement … Joe doesn’t know he’s alive, OK? He doesn’t know he’s alive." 

Trump even posted a clip from that interview on YouTube with this title: "President Donald Trump says Joe Biden is not competent to be president."

Trump’s quote about Biden being a "different guy" comes from remarks he made in June 2019, when he called Biden "mentally weak." 

We rate the claim that this video shows Trump saying Biden has been replaced by a literal impostor False.