Wrote: Fatbardh Dema
A video content is circulating around social networks, which features US President Donald Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, among other world leaders.
The article with this video was published on Monday (March 9) by the news portal newspaper.net and on the official website "Metro newspaper" on Facebook.
It purports to present the current relationship between the US and Spain.
What's wrong with this content?
The video circulating online shows Prime Minister Sanchez and President Trump at a moment, which is described by the publishers as the moment when the Spanish leader attempts to greet the American leader, but the latter does not shake his hand and gestures for him to sit in his chair.
Hibrid.info has researched this content and found that, initially, the video is not new, but from 2019, from the G20 Summit in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. The video was published on June 28, 2019 by the Spanish news agency “Europa Press" on the official channel at Youtube.
Furthermore, the published images do not depict the real situation in its description, which is explained further down in the article.
This content was published by gazetametro.net with the title "'Sit down, sit down,' Trump's epic humiliation of the Spanish prime minister who stood up to speak to him," while it is not indicated in any case that we are dealing with an old video, but rather attempts to make connections with the current context of US-Spain relations.
"Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wanted to speak with US President Donald Trump, but as he tried to shake his hand, the President humiliated him with a "sit there" style in his epic strategy, Gazeta Metro reports."
""Spain has been terrible," Trump also said days ago, referring to Madrid's refusal to give the US‑s military bases pfor operations againstfor Iran", writes in the "Gazetametro" article.
Further, the article says: "Trump threatened strong measures, saying he would cut off all trade relations with Spain because the country does not meet his demands and is "not a true team partner."
"The president also stated that Spain had not agreed to increase defense spending to 5% of Gross Domestic Product, as he requested from NATO allies."
This content published on the media outlet "gazetametro.net" suggests that the video is new and related to recent relations between the two countries. (These reports are explained below)
Furthermore, the claim made about this video content is incorrect due to the fact that in a sequence a few seconds earlier, at the same event, the pair shake hands (here).
US-Spain relations after the launch of US-Israeli attacks on Iran
In a joint operation, the US and Israel launched a missile attack on Iran. The conflict continues today, and the two aforementioned countries have asked their allies to allow them to use their military bases for attacks on Iran.
Spain has opposed President Trump's request, while the latter has threatened the Spanish state with the interruption of trade relations. (here).
Analyze
A video has been published that claims to present current relations between the US and Spain. However, hibrid.info has found that the same content is old, more precisely from 2019, made during the G20 summit in Ottawa, Canada.
From this summit featuring President Donald Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, it is alleged that the American leader refuses to shake the Spanish leader's hand.
But, the published video, besides not being current, does not represent the real situation, as a few seconds before that moment, the Trump-Sanchez duo are seen shaking hands, but in the footage published on social networks, that moment is not seen (either it was cut completely or it is not seen as a result of the camera placement).
US-Spanish relations have soured recently, after the Spanish prime minister rejected the US president's request to use its military bases to attack Iran, which the US and Israel began hitting with missiles in a joint operation on February 28 of this year.
Therefore, based on hibrid.info's methodology, this content is rated as "Unverified".
rationale
The "Unverified" rating is given to those informative contents that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which could not be verified due to certain circumstances (speed, lack of sources) during the publication of the content.