Last updated on September 23rd, 2025
Editor’ s Note：
In April 2025, we published a fact-check on Donald J. Trump’s post claiming “A Gift from China” in the Pacific Ocean. This archival version fully preserves the original verification to ensure long-term accessibility. All image sourcing and conclusions have been rechecked and remain unchanged, confirming that the claim is misleading.
Claim:
A social media post by Donald J. Trump shared three images of massive floating trash in the Pacific Ocean, captioned “A Gift from China.” This fact-check investigates the authenticity of the images shared in Donald J. Trump’s post.
Fact check:
Image verification
Donald Trump’s post included three photographs purportedly showing a huge accumulation of ocean garbage. Each image is examined below:
Image 1 – Indonesia (2014):
This photo was actually taken in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, and published in 2014 by photographer Ethan Daniels. The stock image description confirms it shows “plastic garbage” washing against a remote island in Indonesia.
Image 2 – Honduras (2017):
The second picture is a well-known “sea of plastic” near Roatán, an island off Honduras in the Caribbean – not the Pacific Ocean. Underwater photographer Caroline Power captured it in October 2017 to highlight local marine pollution. Sky News reported that the pollution mainly originated from Guatemala’s Motagua River, which carries large amounts of trash into the Caribbean Sea during the rainy season.
Image 3 – composite fake:
The third image Trump shared is a digitally composited fake. We discovered that it was stitched together from two separate images. The left half comes from an Associated Press photograph published in September 2018, showing a cleanup boom being assembled in Alameda, California, as part of the Ocean Cleanup project.
The right half comes from another photograph by Caroline Power, taken near Roatán, Honduras, in October 2017, showing dense plastic debris floating in the Caribbean Sea. It was originally published in her Huffington Post UK blog to raise awareness of local marine pollution.
The three images present different issues. The first image depicts real pollution in the Pacific region but cannot substantiate claims about China’s responsibility. The second image shows Caribbean pollution but was falsely presented as being from the Pacific Ocean. The third image is a fabricated composite made from two different photographs.
Conclusion
The post is Misleading. It combines manipulated visuals and partial text to produce a misleading impression about the origin of ocean plastic pollution.
Sources of Pacific Garbage Patch
Where do the plastics floating in these waters originate?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean is a transboundary problem. Much of the floating plastic waste consists of debris from scores of countries and drifts across international waters beyond any single nation’s jurisdiction.
Have a questionable video or claim? Submit it to Fact Hunter’ s investigation team at [therealfacthunter@outlook.com].
