Former President Donald Trump rescued deformed children who were born into sex slavery in tunnels under Central Park in New York.
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Trump didn’t rescue children born into sex slavery under Central Park, despite online claims
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- There’s no evidence to support this claim.
- The proof the Facebook post offers includes images of a supposed site where children were rescued; it was actually a COVID-19 field hospital.
A video being shared on social media pulls together several images as a narrator claims that former President Donald Trump dispatched ships "to take care of children rescued from tunnel system under Central Park in New York."
"Children that were born in sex slavery in these tunnel systems," the narrator continues. "Kept as sex slaves. They are deformed and completely shattered and broken."
Multiple posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
There’s no evidence to support the claim that anyone rescued child sex slaves from tunnels under Central Park. Such an event would draw widespread news coverage, and there’s none. Nor did we unearth any credible sources to corroborate this claim.
Some of the images in the video show white tents alongside a description that says, "Children being rescued from tunnels now?"
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Wrong. It shows a COVID-19 field hospital in Central Park during the pandemic’s early days.
Another video clip is described as showing a "little baby save(d) from the underground tunnels." In the clip, a uniformed member of an air force — it’s not clear from which country — can be seen rocking and feeding an infant a bottle.
PolitiFact asked the U.S. Air Force about what’s happening in the video but did not immediately hear back. However, earlier posts featuring the footage describe it as showing a child who was evacuated in 2021 from Kabul, Afghanistan. We found no credible sources alleging that it’s a baby rescued from tunnels under Central Park.
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Similar claims have cropped up over the years.
In 2020, for example, Reuters debunked one that alleged U.S. military members rescued 35,000 "malnourished" and "caged" children from tunnels under Central Park.
That wasn’t true, and neither is this claim.
We rate it Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Instagram post, June 4, 2023
Facebook post, June 4, 2023
TikTok post, Aug. 8, 2021
Agence France-Presse, NYC photo does not support child trafficking conspiracy theory, June 8, 2023
ABC News, Central Park will be the site of a new hospital for coronavirus patients, March 31, 2020
YouTube, Coronavirus: relief agency sets up field hospital New York City's Central Park | AFP, March 30, 2020
NBC News, ‘It's surreal,’ nurse practitioner says of field hospital set up in Central Park amid coronavirus pandemic, March 30, 2020
YouTube, Soldier on Active Duty Rocking Baby During Transport || ViralHog, Aug. 30, 2021
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Trump didn’t rescue children born into sex slavery under Central Park, despite online claims
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