Following the swearing-in ceremony of US President Donald Trump on 20 January 2025 at U.S. Capitol, a video (here, here & here) is being widely shared on social media claiming that India’s Minister of External Affairs, S. Jaishankar, who attended the event, was asked by a woman to leave the event midway. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: A woman asked External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to abruptly leave Donald Trump’s swearing-in ceremony
Fact: The full video shows a photographer being asked to move to the back row for obstructing the view, not S. Jaishankar being asked to leave. Jaishankar was present at the event, seated in the front row during the oath-taking and inaugural speech. No reports or evidence support the claim that he was asked to leave. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We analyzed the entire inaugural ceremony video, which was live-streamed on the YouTube channels of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and other prominent media outlets (here and here). During the event, S. Jaishankar can be seen (here & here) in the front row while Donald Trump takes the oath of office and delivers his inaugural speech. Relevant media reports regarding the ceremony can be found here and here.
At the 3:08:04 timestamp, a woman photographer is seen kneeling and taking photos of individuals on the dais while moving beside Jaishankar. By 3:08:35, she steps in front of Jaishankar to capture photographs of Donald Trump and others. Noticing that she was obstructing the view of the guests, a woman staffer asked the photographer to move to a back row at 3:08:52. Subsequently, at 3:09:20, the photographer can be seen moving to the back row. This sequence of events is highlighted in the images below.
Furthermore, no reports suggest that Jaishankar was asked to leave the event midway. Moreover, Jaishankar shared images from the event, where he was seen interacting with several officials, and stated that it was an honour to represent India at the ceremony.
To sum up, the claim that a woman asked S. Jaishankar to leave Donald Trump’s swearing-in ceremony midway is baseless.
