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Ambulances were at Mar-a-Lago for Vance motorcade, not for Trump | Fact check

Joedy McCreary   Paste BN
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The claim: Trump taken from Mar-a-Lago in an ambulance on Nov. 21

A Nov. 21 post on X, formerly Twitter (direct link, archive link) claims President-elect Donald Trump left his Florida home in an emergency vehicle.

“Now trump in an ambulance out of mar a Lago with vans full of secret service,” the text’s post reads.

Similar claims speculating about ambulances leaving Mar-a-Lago also spread elsewhere on social media.

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Our rating: False

Neither Trump nor anyone else at Mar-a-Lago who is protected by the Secret Service left the property in an ambulance or experienced any issues, a Secret Service spokesperson said. The ambulances were there as part of Vice President-elect JD Vance’s motorcade, according to media reports.

‘No issues or concerns’ for those under Secret Service protection

Social media posts circulated Nov. 21 referencing dispatches from pool reporters in the area that mention ambulances, a helicopter and more than 20 automobiles spotted at Mar-a-Lago.

But the claim in the X post in question is false. Trump was not taken from his home in an ambulance, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in an X post.

Fact check: Debunking false, misleading claims about President-elect Trump

“We are not tracking any Secret Service-directed medical transports from Mar-a-Lago, and from our personnel on the ground, there are no issues or concerns with any Secret Service protectees on property,” Guglielmi said in the post.

At 78, Trump is the oldest person elected president, and when he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025, he also will become the oldest person to take office. He will be five months older than current President Joe Biden was at the start of his term in 2021.

But the ambulances at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 21 had nothing to do with Trump. They were there as part of Vance’s motorcade, according to multiple posts from a reporter for The Independent. It is common practice for ambulances to trail presidents and other officials in motorcades to provide immediate medical care in case of emergency.

Steven Cheung, hired as director of communications in the Trump White House, was critical of the reports about the ambulances, saying in an X post that one reporter “overreacted and set off the fire alarm for no reason.”

Paste BN previously debunked false claims that a bomb was found near the site of a Trump rally on Long Island and that he posted to social media that his attempted assassins have a record of “0-2.”

The social media user who shared the post could not be reached for comment.

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