For years, social media users have shared an image purportedly showing a news story about U.S. President Donald Trump supposedly evicting a 74-year-old stroke victim in the 1980s, when he was a New York landlord.
"Trump Evicts Stroke Victim, 74," the alleged article's headline read in posts on Facebook, Reddit and Instagram. The clipping also featured two photos, one of an elderly woman in bed and one of Trump.
We first covered this claim in 2025, but a Snopes reader asked us about it again in 2026, prompting another look. The facts remain the same: This image originated from a legitimate news article (archived) originally published on May 5, 1980, by the Village Voice, a liberal, alternative newsweekly publication based in New York City and, at the time, owned by conservative media mogul and former Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch.
The real article did indeed state that the Trump Organization, one of the largest landlords in New York City at the time, evicted 74-year-old Mary Filan, who had suffered a "recent" stroke. Trump ran the Trump Organization (formerly Elizabeth Trump & Son) from 1971 until early 2017, just before he was sworn in as president for his first term.
While the report came from a reputable journalist and we've found nothing to contradict its allegations, we have not rated this claim due to a lack of primary evidence.
In mid-April 2026, another version (screenshotted) of the newspaper clipping image circulated online. This version featured a similar headline, though worded differently, and the same photos of Trump and Filan. However, it appeared to be "enhanced" using artificial intelligence, as indicated by details such as blurred, unreadable text, inconsistent fonts and the incorrect date. Nonetheless, it was based on the authentic Village Voice article.
(Facebook user Gary Cintron)
A credible picture of the actual story, when it ran in a physical newspaper, is
Joe Conason, the reporter behind the story, said in a 2025 email that he no longer has the relevant files and notes given how old the article is. Conason, a well-known and credible journalist, did say his reporting for the article "was extensive and thorough, including interviews not only with Mary herself but her neighbor, attorney, social worker and several public officials— as well as a spokesman for the Trump Organization."
"I remember the specifics of this vile incident all too well," he added.
The Trump Organization did not immediately return an inquiry about the incident.
Breaking down Conason's report
Here's how the article,
For more than 30 years Mary Filan — widowed, 74 years old, and half-paralyzed from a recent stroke — has lived in apartment 6B, 143-15 Barclay Avenue in Flushing. Last Friday afternoon, she answered the insistent doorbell, only to be pushed aside by the henchmen of city marshal Norman Katz, who proceeded to cart her belongings out to an idling truck. Taped to her door was an eviction notice from her landlords, the Trump Organization.
They took Filan's sofa, chairs, TV, jewelry, dishes, and silverware, leaving nothing but a hamper for her to sit on. The marshals and the police tried to convince her to leave, but she refused to go until a neighbor, Bob Hennessy, convinced her to stay in his apartment until she could get help.
"She was distraught," said Hennessy, and by Monday afternoon he was still unable to ascertain where her belongings had been taken. Thanks to her doctor and the Human Resources Administration, Mary Filan is resting in a bed at Parsons Hospital.
"They rang the bell," recalls Filan, "and I was still in bed. I don't get up much unless I have to. They rang and rang, and when I got to the door they pushed it open, and walked in, these three big fat men. They went right in the kitchen and started pulling out drawers, turning 'em upside down into one of these big cartons.
"They said they'd come to put me on the street because I owed four months rent. I don't owe back rent. The last thing I got from Trump was a bill for $10.20 about two weeks ago, and I sent that. They just want me out because they can get twice as much rent." Mary Filan currently pays about $200 a month for her apartment. Her income — from Social Security and a telephone company pension — is under $500 a month.
In a May 12, 1980, follow-up story, Conason reported that a Trump official visited Filan and offered her a different apartment in New Jersey. In that report, Filan's social workers said they found many of her possessions damaged beyond repair in a depot. An unidentified official for the Department of Social Services reportedly said he had "never seen an eviction like this one in 25 years."
"Ordinarily, he said, evictions don't take place on Friday afternoons or in inclement weather, nor are bedridden tenants evicted in this fashion. The ill Filan was thrown out, in the pouring rain, on a Friday — at 5 p.m.," the article said.
It is worth noting that the situation described in Conason's article aligned with other reputable reports about Trump's history of evictions and alleged discriminatory conduct as a landlord.