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Fact Check
US journalist mocks Indian reporter as he is speaking during the joint press conference held by US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on February 13, 2025.
Viral video is from February 26, 2020, when Trump was addressing a press conference on the coronavirus outbreak.
A 26-second video purportedly showing a US journalist laughing at an Indian reporter when he is speaking has gone viral with the claim that it happened during the joint press conference held by US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on February 13, 2025.
“Indian media is making India proud globally by embarrassing themselves with their bootlicking skills. Foreign media is literally laughing at them for their ridiculous questions,” read an X post, while others said that Americans were laughing at the accent of the Indian journalist.
Newschecker ran a reverse image search, which led us to a clearer version of the same video uploaded on X on May 21, 2020, indicating that it was not recent.
A relevant keyword search led us to this India Today report from February 28, 2020, headlined, “NY Post journo mocks, makes faces at Indian reporter at Trump presser in viral video. Twitter is furious,” with a screengrab of the viral video. “US President Donald Trump addressed the media at a conference on coronavirus at the White House, Washington DC, on February 26. A video of a New York Post journalist making fun of an Indian reporter during the conference has surfaced on the internet and has left netizens furious,” read the report, identifying the American journalist as Ebony Bowden who was mocking Indian-American correspondent Raghubir Goyal, who reports on the White House for the India Globe and has been attending White House press briefings from Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Similar reports can be seen here, here and here, stating that Goyal was raising questions about India-US relationships after Trump’s two-day visit to the country.
Trump’s February 26, 2020 press conference, addressing the coronavirus outbreak, was streamed live by CNBC Television, where you can hear Goyal’s questions at the 25:41 mark, further confirming that the viral video is not from February 13, 2025 as claimed.
Also Read: Viral Video Does Not Show Samay Raina ‘Apologising’ Over India’s Got Latent Controversy
Old video showing US journalist mocking Indian-origin reporter falsely linked to recent Trump-Modi presser at the White House.
Sources
India Today report, February 28, 2020
Youtube video, CNBC-Television, February 26, 2020
Vasudha Beri
March 8, 2025
Kushel Madhusoodan
March 8, 2025
Kushel Madhusoodan
March 6, 2025