What’s the claim?

Several users on X (formerly Twitter) have shared a 17-second clip where former U.S. President Barack Obama says, “Michael and I also want to acknowledge” during a speech. This clip is followed by a reaction video of two laughing women.

The posts with the video claim that this marks the first instance of Obama publicly referring to his wife as ‘Michael’. Archived links to these posts can be found here and here.

An X post making the claim that former U.S. President Barack Obama referred to his wife Michelle as ‘Michael’. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, these claims are false. Obama was not referring to his wife but to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen’s family, specifically Mullen’s son Michael.

What we found

A reverse image search of keyframes from the video led us to the full speech uploaded on YouTube by the Obama White House (archived here). The speech is from the "Change of Office" Staff Ceremony on September 30, 2011, when Navy Admiral Mike Mullen’s tenure as United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded, and Army General Martin Dempsey assumed the position. The viral clip appears around the 13:09 mark in this video.

A reverse image search of keyframes in the video led us to the full video of the speech uploaded on YouTube by the Obama White House (archived here). The speech is from the "Change of Office" Staff Ceremony from September 30, 2011, when Navy Admiral Mike Mullen’s term as United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ended, and his position was filled by Army General Martin Dempsey. The clip used in the viral posts appears around the 13:09 timestamp in this video.

During the ceremony, Obama, then U.S. President, acknowledged the Mullen family’s contributions to the United States. In the extended clip, Obama states, “Most of all, Admiral Mullen, Deborah (Mike Mullen’s wife), Michael, and I also want to acknowledge your son Jack, who’s deployed today,” praising their extraordinary service to the country. Michael Mullen and Jack Edward Mullen are both sons of Admiral Mike Mullen, serving in the Navy.

The White House transcript of the speech verified this, confirming that Obama was referring to the Mullen family, not Michelle.

Earlier in the video, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta also mentioned Mullen’s family, specifically “his wife, Deborah, and his two sons, Jack and Michael.”

The posts debunked here contribute to a broader narrative and conspiracy theory regarding Michelle Obama’s gender identity, which has circulated since 2014. Similar claims have been previously debunked by Logically Facts here and here. 

The verdict

During a ceremony honoring the retirement of Admiral Mike Mullen as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 30, 2011, Obama referred to Michael, the son of Admiral Mike Mullen. The claim that Obama referred to Michelle Obama as ‘Michael’ in public is false and is part of a discredited conspiracy theory about Michelle Obama’s gender identity.