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| - On Feb. 18, 2025, progressive political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen reposted (archived) on X a drone-captured video purportedly showing a New York City protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and tech billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump appointed (archived) to lead and oversee the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Cohen's post read, "Incredible footage of a massive anti-Trump/Musk protest that broke out in New York City. MAGA is awakening a sleeping giant." The post received over 7.5 million views.
Many users replying to the post criticized the people in the video for protesting instead of working. Other users expressed skepticism about the clip's authenticity, claiming someone created the footage as a fake with artificial intelligence (AI), or that they believed it showed Paris, France or was not recently captured. Users also drafted community notes — a special indicator some users can draft for consideration to appear under X posts to provide clarifying information — and again claimed the footage involved AI, depicted Paris or was not recent. As of Feb. 19, none of the drafted community notes received enough credibility to display to the public.
Despite those users' assertions, Cohen's claim the footage showed a New York City protest against Trump's administration and Musk was true. The protest took place, in part, in New York's Washington Square Park on Feb. 17, 2025 — Presidents Day, a federal holiday when some American workers have the day off. The video showed the park's Washington Square Arch, which some users mistook for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The Associated Press reported details of numerous other anti-Trump administration protests happening on the same day across the U.S.
Locating the original protest video
Using Google Images, a reverse-image search of the video's first frame located a longer clip reposted on Reddit. That longer video displayed a larger, colorized version of a logo reading "AA," which also appeared in Cohen's repost on X in the lower-right corner. A Google Lens search identified the logo as belonging to Anadolu Agency, a state-run media company in Turkey.
A manager of the official Anadolu Agency Instagram account originally posted the video on Feb. 17, in a visual quality much higher than Cohen's repost. The caption read, in part, "On Presidents Day, Feb. 17, demonstrators gathered in New York City to protest the policies of President Donald Trump."
New York Post published a YouTube video from the same day showing protesters walking down Broadway from Union Square Park to Washington Square Park. The video's title and description incorrectly described the protesters' destination as Union Square Park.
NYT: 'Thousands' protested Trump and Musk
On Feb. 17, the same day Anadolu Agency posted the video, The New York Times reported on Presidents Day protests across the U.S., whose participants rallied against Trump's administration and Musk. The article's authors said thousands of people participated in the protest partially occurring in Washington Square Park:
In New York, thousands of people marched from Union Square to Washington Square Park on Monday afternoon. Under the arch, they held up American flags and handwritten signs like "Stop the Coup" and "No Billionaire Kings," alluding to the role of the tech billionaire Elon Musk in Mr. Trump's efforts to shrink and remake the federal work force.
Dominic Santiago, 29, an artist from Flatbush, Brooklyn, said he came to show solidarity with other New Yorkers who opposed the Trump administration.
"I have faith because of these demonstrations," he said. "I have faith that we can change things."
Lillian Bacon, 25, a college student majoring in political science, said, "I'm here today to fight for democracy and fight for the liberty and dignity of all people."
It was her first time participating in a public protest. She said she had become furious and disappointed with Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk and Republican leaders over what she saw as their violation of the constitutional separation of powers. "I'm hoping there will be solidarity among all American people even if they did vote for Trump," she said.
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