In August 2025, online users shared a rumor that said U.S. President Donald Trump and Republican politicians sought to lower the age of consent for sexual activity, or the minimum age for marriage, to 14. States have historically handled legislation regarding both matters. Some users also claimed legislatures in Missouri, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wyoming recently drafted laws allowing children as young as 14 to marry adults. Snopes received reader searches about this matter.
Some users' posts alleged Trump and Republicans pursued this matter to shield the president from facing charges related to his activities with deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, specifically regarding unproven allegations that undisclosed government files regarding Epstein's past not only mention Trump's name but also say he engaged in sex with underage girls. Trump has previously denied knowledge and involvement in Epstein's crimes.
In one of the most prominent examples of users sharing the primary claim, on Aug. 11, a content creator named Vitus "V" Spehar — who manages the Under the Desk News organization — shared videos on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and TikTok (archived), collectively receiving around 5.6 million views. Spehar's clip mentioned Trump's Aug. 11 press conference announcing his takeover of Washington's police department but did not specifically talk about the part of the rumor relating to Epstein. A user submitting a comment — receiving nearly 100,000 likes — did, however, mention the alleged reasoning concerning Epstein. Spehar further claimed Missouri, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wyoming "all recently rewrote laws that allow children to get married."
Other users also shared posts about the claim on Bluesky (archived), Facebook, Instagram, Threads (archived), TikTok and X (archived), including a content creator named Monte Mader (@montemader) — whose posts received over 4.3 million views on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), TikTok (archived) and YouTube (archived). Mader claimed Missouri, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wyoming "have already written child marriage laws to allow for a 14-year-old to marry a grown adult." The account also mentioned Epstein, saying, "And how convenient that now that we know that Trump is in the Epstein files, they are trying to legalize the age of the girls we know he slept with because there are victims who have testified about it."
However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo located no news media outlets credibly confirming any developments about Trump and Republicans seeking to lower the age of consent for sex or marriage to 14. A review of Trump's posts on his own Truth Social social media platform found no announcements about this matter, either.
Further, similar searches produced no documentation about governments in the four aforementioned states drafting legislation to allow children as young as 14 years old to marry adults. On the contrary, outlets reported that, in recent months or years, Missouri, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wyoming either prohibited or tightened restrictions related to marriage for persons under age 18.
In an email to Snopes, the White House called the rumor "fake." GOP National Press Secretary Kiersten Pels also said, "This smear is a blatant lie pushed by far-left media propagandists. No state in the U.S. allows 14‑year‑olds to marry adults, and the false claim that Republicans are trying to change that has zero basis in fact." Spehar and Mader have since posted further videos about the subject. We contacted both of them via email and Instagram messages to request evidence to back up their original claims, and will update this story if we receive more information.
Trump's Truth Social post about prosecuting teenagers
Users' assertions about Trump's press conference in Washington concerned his intention to prosecute alleged criminals age 14 and up as adults, which he mentioned days earlier in a Truth Social post. On Aug. 5, Trump posted (archived), in part:
Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control. Local "youths" and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released. They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it's going to happen now! The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these "minors" as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.
PolitiFact reported about some of Trump's claims regarding "totally out of control" crime in Washington, including the fact he made no mention of a drop in homicides from the year 2023 to 2024 — a year with the lowest number of homicides since 2019, according to crime data hosted on Washington's Metropolitan Police Department website.
For further reading, a previous fact-check article examined the claim Trump signed a law effective Aug. 1 that makes couples who have been in a relationship for five years automatically legally married. Another story reported Trump truly once called Epstein a "terrific guy," and added, "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."