Rumors circulated online in late January and early February 2026 that U.S. President Donald Trump ended an Oval Office news conference early after soiling himself.
Users on social media networks such as X (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Facebook shared the rumor, with some claiming video of the purported incident offered evidence that the president “s*** his pants” and then had reporters ushered out of the room.
In a video posted to YouTube by Forbes from the Jan. 29, 2026, news conference during which Trump signed an executive order aimed at addiction recovery efforts, the president appears to abruptly end the discussion and signal for reporters to be removed from the room.
Photographs from the event are available to view on the credible image repository Getty Images.
While the video was authentic and showed no signs of digital manipulation or content generated by artificial intelligence, there was no evidence to support the claim that Trump pooped himself during the meeting. There was no way for Snopes to independently verify the rumor, so we have left this claim unrated.
By email, White House spokesman Steven Cheung said the rumor was “not true.”
The rumor was the latest in a series of speculation about Trump’s alleged bodily functions, including rumors that he soiled himself at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in December 2025. Such rumors are typically used by critics as a way to point out the president’s age or fitness for the job.
The rumor began when social media users pointed out a sound around the 34-second mark in the Forbes video, which could be perceived as a “fart noise” or an indication of defecation. Some users claimed that attendees at the news conference visibly reacted to the noise.
For instance, Reddit users pointed out that the blond woman in green over Trump’s right shoulder, identified as Kathryn Burgum, wife of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared to react.
Kathryn Burgum and Bondi both appeared to look toward Trump at the moment in question and then turn away. However, it was just as possible that the women were reacting to the words being spoken by Martin Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who was addressing Trump and standing to Bondi’s right.
For further reading, Snopes previously investigated claims of an oil executive complaining about Trump’s farts and whether former President Joe Biden pooped his pants in Rome.