Truth behind viral video showing Trump ‘banning Pride Month’
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
Gregory Robinson
Featured Image Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
A video claiming to show Donald Trump 'cancelling Pride Month' has gone viral, but while the footage appears convincing, it’s not what it seems.
The clip shared on X on 19 May appears to show the president in the Oval Office delivering the message: “It is with great pleasure that I am announcing that Pride Month is cancelled. Pride is a sin… instead June will be known as confidence month or maybe just June.”
Pride Month is celebrated every June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. It was a pivotal event in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality.
At the time, police frequently raided LGBTQ+ establishments under the guise of enforcing alcohol or public decency laws, but on 28 June 1969, the community fought back, marking a turning point in activism.
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Lesbians, such as Stormé DeLarverie, trans women, including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, drag queens, and gay men participated in the uprising.
Millions of people have viewed the video, with one version shared in an X post accumulating 76,000 likes, 13,000 shares, and over 2.4 million views, at the time of writing.
It goes on to include crude homophobic statements about gay sex. But at the end of the clip, a message on the screen says: “This is a deepfake, but let people dream.”
So, despite some people falling for the digitally altered video, Trump has issued no such orders.
The deepfake was created by an account named Maverick Alexander who has 40,000 followers. The bio for the account claims it posts 'mostly satire'.
Trump has previously acknowledged Pride Month two years after his first term began.
On 31 May, 2019, he tweeted: “As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognise the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.”
The president added: “My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalise homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort!”
Despite his Pride message, Trump's administration reversed protections for transgender Americans against sex discrimination in healthcare in 2020.
During his second term, Trump also overturned various executive orders issued by his predecessor, president Joe Biden, that prevented discrimination against LGBTQ+ Americans.
In 2025, the president signed an executive order to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports, among others.
This could explain why some people initially believed that the video was genuine.
Tyla has contacted the White House for comment.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the LGBT Foundation on 0345 3 30 30 30, 10am–6pm Monday to Friday, or email [email protected].