Manipulated ATN News Clip Falsely Claims Trump Said Sheikh Hasina Is Still Bangladesh’s Prime Minister
The Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina was overthrown by a student-people’s mass uprising on August 5, 2024. Sheikh Hasina left the country and took refuge in India immediately after losing power. Subsequently, an interim government was formed on August 8 of that year, with Dr. Muhammad Yunus as the Chief Adviser. Recently, a video bearing the logo of the private electronic media outlet ATN News has been circulated on social media, claiming that US President Donald Trump commented that Sheikh Hasina is still the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
In the video, an ATN News anchorwoman is heard saying: “The US President-elect Donald Trump claims Sheikh Hasina is still the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Donald Trump made such a comment about Sheikh Hasina after the fall of the Awami League government due to the mass uprising. On August 5, 2024, Sheikh Hasina went to India amidst the mass uprising, and on that very day, President Shahabuddin Chuppu and General Waker-uz-Zaman announced that Sheikh Hasina had resigned. Although people did not believe this. However, the matter gained traction due to President Shahabuddin Chuppu’s new, unique comment regarding Sheikh Hasina’s resignation letter. Shahabuddin Chuppu told a national daily that he did not have any documentary evidence of Sheikh Hasina’s resignation letter. Nevertheless, the discussion did not stop. During a greeting to the US President-elect Donald Trump, Sheikh Hasina again claimed herself to be the running Prime Minister of Bangladesh. However, netizens questioned why the established issue of Sheikh Hasina being the running Prime Minister of Bangladesh is being brought up repeatedly. Meanwhile, a claim by Trump that Sheikh Hasina is still the Prime Minister went viral on social media, reported by the news agency AFP. The news agency reported this in a November 20 report. The AFP report further stated that months after the overthrow of Bangladesh’s ruler Sheikh Hasina’s government, US President Donald Trump said in a podcast interview that since Sheikh Hasina did not resign, she is still the Prime Minister, and this issue of Sheikh Hasina’s resignation being illegal came up after the President of Bangladesh recently mentioned to a local newspaper that he had not seen Sheikh Hasina’s resignation letter. The AFP report mentioned a post written in Bengali on Facebook on November 9, 2024. The post stated that, in an interview with PBD, Trump said he believes Sheikh Hasina is still the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Addressing the illegal agents of the Bangladesh government, Trump said, ‘Those who say Sheikh Hasina has resigned, show me the resignation letter.'”
See the video circulated on TikTok with this claim: Here (Archive).
Fact Check
Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation reveals that ATN News did not publish any report citing the international news agency AFP with the claim that Donald Trump commented that Sheikh Hasina is still the legitimate Prime Minister of Bangladesh. In fact, the viral video was created by digitally editing and splicing an ATN News report, which was originally based on an AFP fact-check debunking the false claim that ‘Trump made such a comment that Sheikh Hasina is the Prime Minister of Bangladesh’.
To investigate this matter, the team initially found a video report published on the ATN News YouTube channel on November 21, 2024, titled ‘What Donald Trump said about the claim that Sheikh Hasina is still the ‘Prime Minister of Bangladesh”. Observation of this 4-minute 32-second long video revealed that several parts were cut to create the viral video containing the false claim.
For instance, the sentence “তবে তার কিছুদিন পর শেখ হাসিনার কণ্ঠ সদৃশ্য একটি অডিওতে দাবি করা হয় তিনি নাকি পদত্যাগ করেননি” (However, a few days later, an audio resembling Sheikh Hasina’s voice claimed that she had not resigned) from the 56-second mark of the original video was omitted in the viral video.
Subsequently, the sentence “তবে ট্রাম্প এমন মন্তব্য করেননি বলে জানিয়েছে বার্তা সংস্থা এএফপি” (However, the news agency AFP has reported that Trump did not make such a comment) from the 1-minute 58-second mark of the original video was also cut out.
The viral video containing the claim was created by removing such key sentences from multiple parts of the original video.
To further confirm the matter, the Rumor Scanner team reviewed the AFP fact-check report published on its website. The report found no evidence of any such comment by Trump regarding Sheikh Hasina and stated that the circulating claim was false.
Furthermore, no evidence of such a statement by Trump regarding Sheikh Hasina was found in any other international news media.
Therefore, the video circulated under the name of ATN News, citing the international news agency AFP, with the claim that Donald Trump commented that Sheikh Hasina is still the legitimate Prime Minister of Bangladesh, is edited.
Sources
- ATN News: Youtube Video
- AFP: Fact Check