Following former U.S. President Donald Trump's reelection in November 2024, a claim that the White House would soon be listed on a sex offender registry went viral on X.
One such post making the claim, shown below, had amassed more than 5.1 million views as of this writing.
Other examples of the rumor appeared elsewhere on X after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day.
However, the claim is false. It is rooted in a misunderstanding of the implications of a civil defamation lawsuit between author E. Jean Carroll and Trump regarding the former president's denial that he sexually assaulted Carroll in the mid-1990s.
While Trump was found liable for sexual abuse in civil court proceedings, that is not the same as being convicted for a crime, as Snopes has previously reported. Inclusion on a sex offender registry requires a criminal conviction — something that a civil case is legally unable to provide.
A criminal justice webpage on the website of New York State, where the civil court proceedings in Carroll and Trump's case took place, outlined that only criminal cases can lead to someone being required to register as a sex offender.
Because Trump is not a convicted sex offender, the claim that the White House's address will be included on any sex offender registry come Inauguration Day is false.