In late May 2026, a rumor spread online that a video captured the moment U.S. President Donald Trump soiled his pants while staring at the White House columns.
The footage showed Trump stepping out of a vehicle and standing outside the White House while staring and pointing at its pillars. Some social media users claimed it was evidence of Trump pausing to soil his pants, with one post stating (archived), "Anyone whose raised or helped raise a toddler will be familiar with his footwork." Another post (archived) simply described Trump as "incapacitated."
(Threads user @itsmemaudeholly)
Other examples of the claim spread elsewhere on Threads, as well as on X and TikTok.
While the video is authentic and shows no signs of digital manipulation or any indication it was generated using artificial intelligence software, neither did it provide any clear evidence that Trump soiled his pants. As there was no way to independently verify the claim, we consider it unfounded and have left it unrated.
Snopes contacted the White House to learn more about what Trump was doing and saying while apparently inspecting the columns. We will update this post accordingly.
Photographs on Getty Images, a credible image repository, show Trump touching the column. The moment occurred after he returned from visiting Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, May 25.
(Kevin Dietsch, accessed via Getty Images.)
Kellie Meyer, a White House correspondent for media outlet News Nation, posted the original clip on May 25. Her caption read: "President Trump just spent a few moments when he returned to the White House residents to look at one of the White House pillars and asking questions to his staff, directing them to take photos of it and touching the white pillar himself. Unclear why."
In another video Meyer shared, Trump appeared to closely examine one of the pillars and run his hand along it. Later, the News Nation correspondent quoted a Washington Post article from May 15 as a likely explanation for Trump's interest in the pillars:
Now the Trump-appointed head of a federal arts commission is proposing to replace [the columns] with a more ornate style favored by President Donald Trump. Those more decorative columns, a style known as Corinthian, are considered the most luxurious in classical architecture and appear on buildings such as the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court. They have long been deployed on Trump's properties, and the president has handpicked them for his planned White House ballroom, too.
Social media users pointed to the 47-second mark in Meyer's May 25 video, where Trump appears to shake his leg and do a "duck walk," as evidence that he pooped. Again, the footage does not prove that, nor is there public evidence the president suffers from incontinence or a medical ailment that might cause it.
On May 26, Trump went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for his annual checkup, as the White House told news media outlets. Trump later wrote on Truth Social (archived), "Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY."
For further reading, Snopes has previously investigated an unproven rumor that Trump pooped himself during an executive order signing, a satirical claim that an oil executive complained about Trump's farts and a false rumor that former President Joe Biden soiled himself in Rome.