In early September 2026, social media users shared (archived) an alleged Truth Social post by U.S. President Donald Trump that appeared to declare the moon a U.S. territory.
Some social media users discussed whether this meant the U.S. actually owned the moon. For example, on Sept. 7, one Facebook page wrote:
For a few hours, the internet has been asking the same strange question: can a country actually own the Moon?
President Donald Trump posted an image on Truth Social on September 6 with the words "THE MOON IS OURS" beside an American flag. The post is real, but the claim that he has formally made the Moon U.S. territory goes further than what actually happened. There was no accompanying executive order or legal declaration transferring the Moon to the United States.
Similar posts discussing whether Trump had or could declare U.S. ownership of the moon circulated on Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), X (archived) and Bluesky (archived).
Trump did appear to claim U.S. ownership of the moon through a Truth Social post. The president posted (archived) "The Moon is Ours" on Truth Social followed by a U.S. flag on Sept. 6.
However, it was unclear whether the post amounted to the U.S. officially claiming ownership of the moon and, if so, whether other nations would respect it.
Snopes previously reported that according to the United Nations Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, no country, including the U.S., can own the moon.
The treaty's Article II said that celestial bodies, including the moon, are not subject to "national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means." This essentially means that nations signing the treaty agree not to claim celestial bodies as their own.
The U.S. was a founding signatory of the treaty and has ratified it, meaning it could face political or economic consequences such as sanctions or embargoes for breaking it. It was unclear whether Trump's Truth Social post amounted to a breach of treaty.
We contacted the White House Press Office to ask whether Trump would withdraw the U.S. from The Outer Space Treaty in order to move forward with laying formal claim to the moon.
A spokesperson for the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, which helps countries draft and revise international space laws, said via email on Sept. 10, 2026, that the office could not "determine whether a particular statement or action by a State Party constitutes a breach of its treaty obligations."
The spokesperson wrote:
A statement does not alter the legal status of the Moon under the Treaty. Whether a particular statement by a State amounts to a 'claim of sovereignty' within the meaning of Article II would depend on its legal character, the circumstances in which it was made and the intent behind the statement.
It was unclear at the time of this writing what would come of Trump's apparent declaration. Declarations that a nation owns a territory are contingent on other nations respecting such an announcement. Given the fact that China, Russia, India and Japan (the other four nations that have reached the moon aside from the U.S.) also signed The Outer Space Treaty that said the moon was not subject to "national appropriation," it appeared unlikely that they would recognize a U.S. claim.
The Sept. 8 post that suggested Trump viewed the moon as a U.S. territory was consistent with his administration's messaging about space.
Trump worked towards establishing a U.S. presence on the moon during his second administration. In a Jan. 25, 2025, executive order titled "Ensuring American Space Superiority," Trump wrote that his administration aimed to establish "elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030." The executive order also said the administration would work to deploy nuclear reactors "on the Moon and in orbit, including a lunar surface reactor" that would be ready for launch by 2030.
During his first administration, Trump signed an executive order titled "Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources" that said the U.S. did not view space as a "global commons," meaning areas that lie outside of national jurisdiction. Essentially, the order suggested Trump's first administration thought that space could be governed by individual nations like the U.S.
For further reading, Snopes has investigated a series of other rumors about the moon and space.