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

BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY

The claim: Biden wore a Trump hat

A Sept. 11 Instagram post (direct link, archive link ) includes an image of President Joe Biden wearing a red "Trump 2024" hat.

“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.

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Our rating: True

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.

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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.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Yes, Biden briefly wore a red Trump hat on Sept. 11 | Fact check

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