An old video of a journalist laughing at questions posed by another reporter to the then US president Donald Trump during a press interaction has surfaced with claims falsely linking it to the joint press conference held by Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 13.
BOOM found that the video is from a Coronavirus press conference held on February 26, 2020, when the then New York Post journalist Ebony Bowden made a funny face while journalist Raghubir Goyal asked questions to Trump.
On February 13, 2025, Trump held a joint press conference with Modi, where he dismissed a journalist’s question on ‘anti-India activity,’ stating that the reporter’s accent was difficult to understand. The incident sparked a debate on social media.
In the 26-second video, an Indian journalist can be heard asking Trump a question about his trip to India and his popularity in the country, as a journalist laughs and makes a funny face in the background.
The video is being shared with the caption, "American journalists are laughing at the stupidity of India’s brainless spineless journalists during the joint Trump-Modi press conference!"
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Fact Check
BOOM broke the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search, which led us to news reports from 2020 featuring the same visuals.
A report from India Today, published on February 28, 2020, identified the woman as New York Post journalist Ebony Bowden. It further mentioned that she faced criticism for making funny faces while Indian reporter Raghubir Goyal spoke at a press conference of then US President Donald Trump.
The same press conference, streamed live on Washington Post's official YouTube channel on February 26, 2020, features Goyal asking the same question starting at 59:00 minutes.
On LinkedIn, journalist Raghubir Goyal identifies himself as the editor of the news outlet India Globe and has been seen with former U.S. presidents, including George Bush, at the White House.