No, the video showing a Trump billboard being pulled down is a fake, the original video doctored with Adobe After Effects

There’s a viral video going around showing a diesel truck using all its torque to pull down a Trump billboard displayed on the side of a freeway somewhere, but unfortunately the video is a fake. The video gained a lot of traffic on Twitter but was quickly debunked.

According to meteorologist Jason Stiff, who linked the original story on one of the copied viral tweets, this story is at least five years old. United Press International blogged a couple of words on the momentous, albeit odd occasion in 2015.

According to UPI,

The video, posted to YouTube by user Sully222, shows the billboard with cables attached crumbling to the ground when pulled by the truck on the other end of the cables. The uploader, posting on Reddit as room222, branded his method of tearing a billboard down “the fun way.”

A quick look at user /u/room222 on Reddit reveals he’s probably the guy who doctored the original video given he’s the one who owns the HD footage.

It looks like, for the past two weeks, he’s been trying his hardest to make his video go viral. And, in some ways, it sort of did.

But this is the internet and an event that happened five years ago isn’t all that old.

Also, it didn’t help he uploaded his viral take on the same channel his original video is from.

Here’s the original video.

Other videos on this man’s channel reveal working with billboards is what he does.

My guess is this billboard worker learned a new skill during this pandemic, specifically editing videos. After effects, and similar video editing software, is somewhat easy to learn and a powerful tool. A quick search brings up this example of how it’s done.

Even though the vid’s a fake, seeing Trump billboard fall might be cathartic for some. If that was the purpose, mission accomplished, I guess.

HayHaystack said it best when OP tried to make this video go viral two weeks ago,

The only way to beat fake news is to slow down, take a moment to think about what you’re looking at. Don’t be sheep, you all have brains use them. The people making this stuff think you’re stupid, don’t make them right.

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