Since President Donald Trump took office on Monday, Jan. 20, his administration has issued multiple executive orders and proclamations aimed at overhauling U.S. immigration policies.
The Pentagon is deploying as many as 1,500 active duty troops to help secure the southern border in the coming days, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, Jan. 22. VERIFY partner station KHOU reported on Jan. 24 that U.S. troops had already arrived in El Paso, Texas.
Amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, people on socialmedia recently claimed a video shows a U.S. military convoy in Texas that’s headed to the southern border. One version of the video shared on TikTok has garnered over 700,000 likes and more than 200,000 shares.
THE QUESTION
Does this viral video show a U.S. military convoy in Texas heading to the southern border?
THE SOURCES
- InVid and RevEye, video and photo forensics tools
- Video posted by Visegrád 24 on X on Aug. 18, 2024
- Video posted by MonitorX on X on Aug. 17, 2024
- Misbar, an Arab fact-checking platform
- U.S. Army website
- Associated Press report published on Aug. 15, 2024
- Google Maps street view
THE ANSWER
No, this video doesn’t show a U.S. military convoy in Texas heading to the southern border. The video shows Polish tanks and military vehicles during a military parade in Warsaw, Poland, and it predates President Trump’s second term.
WHAT WE FOUND
The viral video does not show a U.S. military convoy in Texas heading to the southern border in the days after Donald Trump took office for his second term. The video shows Polish tanks and other military vehicles parading through Warsaw.
Some of the earliest versions of this video that we found online were shared in August 2024 and identified the location as Warsaw, Poland.
Using footage forensics tools InVid and RevEye, VERIFY was able to find an early version of the video shared on X by Visegrád 24, an international news aggregator, on Aug. 18, 2024. The same landmarks and people wearing the same clothing are visible in both the viral video and the footage shared by Visegrád 24.
“Poland bringing out their [sic] some of their tanks, IFVs and howitzers for the world to see during the annual military parade in Warsaw,” the Visegrád 24 post says.
Another X account shared the same video one day earlier, but miscaptioned it as the Polish army “preparing for war with Russia.” Misbar, an Arab fact-checking platform, debunked the claim on Aug. 20, 2024, and confirmed the video showed a military parade to celebrate Poland’s Armed Forces Day.
Poland’s Armed Forces Day is celebrated annually on Aug. 15 and commemorates Poland’s victory over Soviet Russia at the Battle of Warsaw during the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, according to the U.S. Army website.
Poland held a parade in its capital of Warsaw on Armed Forces Day in 2024, where more than 2,500 Polish troops joined dozens of U.S. and other allied soldiers to ride in military vehicles or tanks and fly fighter jets, the Associated Press reported.
Using Google Maps street view, we were also able to match structures and signs in the video shared online to a street in Warsaw, Poland.
At the beginning of the video shared on social media, there’s a high-rise building in the distance. That same building is visible on Google Maps’ street view of the road in Warsaw.
Three identical billboards and the same green bridge are also seen in both the video shared on social media and Google Maps street view.
