A rumor circulating online in mid-February 2025 claimed an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump led to the end of the FBI's community outreach efforts. This rumor stemmed from a photo of a sign displayed on a table inside the Geauga Family YMCA facility in Chardon, Ohio, that advised people of the cancellation of a scheduled FBI presentation on Feb. 17, titled "Scams Targeting Seniors."
The sign read, "A new executive order from the federal government was signed that no longer allows the FBI to do community outreach."
This rumor combined a few different claims, some of which were true. A review of the available evidence confirmed the picture was authentic. Also, representatives for both the FBI's Cleveland office and the Geauga Family YMCA confirmed the cancellation of a Feb. 17 event — visible on its calendar (archived) — described as an FBI presentation about scams.
However, as of this writing, no information yet exists in the public domain to confirm that a Trump-signed executive order or any other Trump administration action specifically dismantled or paused the work performed by the FBI's Community Relations Unit or its community outreach specialists.
In a statement, an FBI Cleveland spokesperson said the one-time cancellation of the event had no relation to any of Trump's executive orders:
An Ohio-area YMCA representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, the first day of his second term, titled "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government." That order did not mention anything about the FBI's community outreach efforts but did begin with a reference to the bureau, with the words, "Federal law enforcement."
On Jan. 31, the Trump administration fired prosecutors involved in criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. About a week later, Trump and his administration spoke further about plans to fire FBI personnel or dismantle efforts within the agency, none specifically mentioning community outreach events.
How the rumor ballooned so big
On Feb. 16, a Bluesky user posted (archived) a photo of the sign at the YMCA facility, adding the caption, "Compliments of ?. Geauga County, Ohio, YMCA..." The orange circle emoji referenced Trump.
Compliments of ?. Geauga County, Ohio, YMCA….
[image or embed]— ?❤️?Mia?❤️? (@mommamia.bsky.social) February 16, 2025 at 2:30 PM
A user commenting (archived) under the post included a link to a since-deleted post in the Geauga Family YMCA Facebook group that confirmed its veracity as a genuine sign. A screenshot shared to Imgur also helped confirm an administrator of the group made the post.
As of Feb. 17, the latest post (archived) in the Facebook group displayed a picture of people at a table featuring the same wood design as the table with the sign. Further, a post (archived) in the same Facebook group included a photo of a Valentine's Day sign encased in a similar-looking plastic case, and in the same font. This indicated staff associated with the YMCA facility displayed the sign about the FBI presentation.
The next day, the same day as the canceled FBI presentation, a Reddit user shared the photo of the sign to the r/Ohio subreddit. The user added the words, "Get what you voted for." The post (archived) received around 85,000 upvotes — a very high mark for a Reddit thread. Then, an admin removed the post.
Around three hours later, another Reddit user shared the same picture of the sign on the r/pics subreddit. That post (archived) — receiving more than 115,000 upvotes — was captioned "FBI cancels outreach to seniors."
Reddit users contributing to finding the location and some of the origins of the sign photo included u/cheevling, u/glassarm1, u/jukesy and others.