What was claimed

A video circulating online appears to show US President Donald Trump standing alongside the King and saluting as a Star Wars song plays.

Our verdict

False. In the original video, the US national anthem was playing when Trump saluted.

An edited video is being used to falsely claim US President Donald Trump saluted as a Star Wars villain’s theme song played at his recent formal welcome by the King and Queen.

Authentic footage from last week’s meeting shows The Star Spangled Banner was actually playing when Trump saluted.

The edited video has spread on social media after Trump’s widely covered state visit to Britain, where he was hosted by the royal family, last week.

One Australian Facebook post featuring the edited video has racked up 5.1 million views.

The video is captioned to suggest the King’s Guard trolled Trump by playing a theme song from the Star Wars films during official proceedings.

“This doofus is way too dumb to realise he’s being trolled by the British Guard,” text overlaying the video reads.

“He’s saluting like it’s the national anthem.”

The video claims to show official Sky News coverage of last week’s event.

But the audio with it is a song called The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme). It was composed by John Williams as a theme for the Star Wars villain Darth Vader.

In fact, genuine Sky News coverage from the day reveals the US national anthem was playing at the time.

The edited video echoes claims featuring the same Star Wars song during Trump’s 2019 visit to the UK. They were debunked by FullFact.

In the recent video, someone appears to have swapped The Star Spangled Banner for audio of a British military band playing The Imperial March.

Footage on YouTube shows the ceremonial Bands of the Household Division playing it, including just a few weeks earlier.

The edited video is not the only misinformation circulating on social media after Trump’s recent British trip.

An image purporting to show Trump slurping spaghetti as the King stands to speak during a banquet at Windsor Castle has also been shared widely on Facebook.

The image, however, is fake.

Trump was not eating when the spoke at the glittering event in St George’s Hall, as revealed in a YouTube video post by India’s Hindustan Times.

The image exhibits clear signs of being manipulated using artificial intelligence, including Trump appearing to have only four fingers on one hand.

AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network.

-AAP