Biden's Trump Hat Controversy: Fact vs. Fiction

Biden wore a Trump hat for several seconds at 9/11 event | Fact check

"Biden Wears Trump Maga Hat," reads the start of the post. "I already thought the world was crazy now this." It was liked more than 300 times in one day, and other versions of the claim spread on Instagram and X, formerly Twitter. Commenters on various versions of the claim doubted it was real, labeling it as "fake" or the result of Photoshop or AI. A White House spokesperson said Biden briefly wore the hat as a gesture of unity at a Sept. 11 event. Biden said 'I need that hat' before putting it on Though the picture inspired a dubious response in an election rife with fabricated images and videos, that's not what's happening here. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates confirmed the image's authenticity in a Sept. 11 X post. "At the Shanksville Fire Station, @POTUS spoke about the country's bipartisan unity after 9/11 and said we needed to get back to that," wrote Bates. "As a gesture, he gave a hat to a Trump supporter who then said that in the same spirit, POTUS should put on his Trump cap. He briefly wore it." Biden attended the event in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11 to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It was near that town that United Airlines Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked that day, crashed - killing all on board. Video of the exchange shows Biden giving a man a blue baseball cap with a presidential seal on it, and the man asks if Biden would autograph it. As he does, Biden says "I need that hat" while gesturing to the man's "Trump 2024" hat. The man offers it to Biden, who placed it on top of his own hat for several seconds before removing it and returning it to the attendee. Fact check: No evidence there were transmitters in Kamala Harris' earrings during debate News outlets including The Hill, the Independent and RealClearPolitics also reported Biden wore the Trump hat. USA TODAY reached out to users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

Biden Briefly Put on a Trump Hat, and MAGA World Flipped Its Lid

Joking around with a Trump supporter at a Sept. 11 event this week, the president put on a "Trump 2024" hat for a few seconds. The pictures took on a life of their own. No, it wasn't A.I. But it was no endorsement, either. A smiling President Biden really did wear a Trump hat -- for about five seconds -- while visiting firefighters for an event commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks. The unlikely moment, which played out on Wednesday at the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department in a Republican-leaning area of rural western Pennsylvania, soon turned into another example of America's split-screen political culture. It started as Mr. Biden exchanged friendly banter with a man wearing a red "Trump 2024" hat, offering him a blue cap with the presidential seal to put on instead. The man asked if the president would autograph the blue hat. "Sure, I'll autograph it," Mr. Biden said. The man replied, "You remember your name?" "I don't remember my name," the president joked. "I'm slow." The man teased, "You're an old fart," and Mr. Biden immediately agreed: "Yeah, I know, man, I'm an old guy." Then, after signing the blue hat, Mr. Biden told him, "I need that hat." The man took off his red Trump cap and handed it over, and Mr. Biden, at the urging of the crowd, put it on his head, over a baseball hat he was already wearing. The crowd -- including the smiling and clapping Trump supporter -- let out a cheer as the president grinned, displayed the hat to the firehouse and then took it off and shook the man's hand.