Photo showing seat reserved for NFL quarterback at Trump's Miami rally is edited

What is the claim?

An image of reserved seats at a Donald Trump rally is circulating on social media. Names on the seats include those of former U.S. President Donald Trump's family members, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. as well as one with the name of Tua Tagovailoa, quarterback for the Miami Dolphins American football team.

This was widely shared on social media, with people questioning why a seat at Trump’s rally was reserved for Tagovailoa. Users shared the image with captions such as, "Tua Tagovailoa with ELITE seating for tonight's epic Trump rally at Doral!" and, "What name do you notice at the Miami Trump rally?" Archives to the posts can be seen here, here, here, and here.

Screenshot of the viral social media posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the image has been altered. The original image shows a seat reserved for Trump’s youngest son, Barron, not the NFL quarterback.

What are the facts?

On July 9, 2024, Trump gave a speech at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami, Florida; the photo appears to be from the preparations for this rally. At this event, he criticized current President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and spoke about undocumented immigrants.

Through a reverse image search, we found that Henry Rodgers, Chief National Correspondent for media outlet The Daily Caller, had shared the original image on X (archived here) hours before the Miami rally. The caption of his post read, "NEW- Barron Trump and most of the Trump family will be in attendance and sitting front row at Trump's rally tonight in Miami."

Original image published by Henry Rodgers on X. (Source: X/Screenshot)

This image shows that the seat had the name of Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump, written on it, not Tua Tagovailoa.

American commentator and YouTuber Benny Johnson also shared the image on Instagram (archived here) and wrote, "Barron Trump will be at the rally."

We found that an X user shared the altered photo replied to another user (archived here), claiming that he had created the image. In addition, he also claimed in another post (archived here) that he had made the edited image, sharing a report that spoke about people falling for it. "I’m sorry I duped @ClayTravis,” he wrote.

 Was Barron Trump at the rally?

Several photos and videos by news organizations show that Barron Trump was indeed present at the rally and was seated in the front row. The reports show that he had received a standing ovation at the rally but did not address the crowd or answer any questions.

Sky News (archived here) also published a video from the rally that shows Barron standing up from the front row of seats and waving to the crowd after Trump introduced him, saying, “He's a very special guy, Barron Trump. This is the first time he's ever done this.”

Donald Trump Jr also posted a video of the event that shows Barron in the front row of the seats. Another photo of the crowd (archived here) also shows Barron Trump standing beside Eric Trump, as the original image of the seating plan had shown.

Trump and Tagovailoa

Tagovailoa met Trump at the White House in 2018 when the University of Alabama football team was invited to the U.S. president’s residence after the championship season in honor of their fifth national title in nine years.

During the meeting, Trump praised Tagovailoa on winning a touchdown pass in overtime; the quarterback had also reportedly posted a selfie with Trump on his Instagram account. There is no evidence to support or refute the claim that Tagovailoa has extended his support for Trump.

Clay Travis, founder of the American sports and political commentary website OutKick had also shared the viral image on X (archived here). In a follow-up post, he wrote that every athlete has the right to endorse any political candidate outside of work. However, in another post (archived here), he clarified that Tagovailoa was not present at the event, saying, “My bad."

The verdict

An image of a seat reserved for Barron Trump at Donald Trump's rally was altered to claim that NFL quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was invited to the rally and was provided with a reserved seat beside the Trump family.