Claim:
MSNBC aired footage from 2017, claiming it showed a “No Kings” protest in Boston on Oct. 18, 2025.
Rating:
On Oct. 18, 2025, as demonstrators participating in “No Kings” protests against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump took to the streets across the U.S., a claim (archived) circulated online that the news channel MSNBC had used footage from 2017 to illustrate a protest in Boston.
One version of the claim on Facebook read, “BREAKING: Analysts are calling this the biggest FRAUD in American history. MSNBC falsely aired a Video from 2017 claiming it was LIVE footage from yesterday’s ‘No Kings’ rally in Boston.” A graphic at the bottom right identified the footage as coming from MSNBC host Ali Velshi’s show “Velshi on MSNBC.”
The claim was especially popular on Facebook (archived) and X (archived). It also circulated on Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived). Snopes readers wrote in, asking whether the claim was true.
The footage circulating in online claims showed a “No Kings” protest on Boston Common on Oct. 18, 2025, and did not appear to be from 2017 as online claims said. Two other local media networks in Boston broadcast near-identical footage from the “No Kings” protest Oct. 18. Reverse searches of screenshots from the footage did not bring up results prior to Oct. 18, 2025. Therefore, we rate the claim that MSNBC aired footage from 2017 to illustrate the Oct. 18 “No Kings” protest in Boston false.
A spokesperson for MSNBC confirmed via email that the channel aired the footage circulating in online claims and that the footage’s recording date was Oct. 18. We’ve followed up with the spokesperson to ask for details about who filmed the footage and will update this story if we learn more.
Snopes compared the footage aired on “Velshi on MSNBC” to other footage of the “No Kings” protest news stations WBTS and WCVB. WBTS shares a parent company — NBCUniversal — with MSNBC.
(X users @RpsAgainstTrump/NBC10/WCVB/Snopes illustration)
Side-by-side comparisons of the three videos showed several similarities. All three showed an identical stage, speaker and screen setup and a raised platform in the crowd. A green gazebo that was not a permanent fixture in the park also appeared in all three clips. These similarities indicated the footage was recorded on the same day.
All three videos of the Oct. 18 “No Kings” protest showed trees with green and orange leaves, as would be expected in fall in Boston. The crowd in the three clips also appeared to be of a similar size and density.
The claim appeared to have originated from a proposed Community Note on a post (archived) featuring the “Velshi on MSNBC” footage from a popular anti-Trump X account, @RpsAgainstTrump. Community Notes are annotations on X posts that contain additional information about the post. X allows users to suggest and vote on these notes and shows only the ones that enough users rated helpful. The proposed note alleging the footage came from 2017 did not appear under the @RpsAgainstTrump video at the time of this writing.
The proposed Community Note came from “an experimental AI contributor responding to requests for a note,” according to X. It was unclear whether this “experimental AI” was Grok, xAI’s generative artificial intelligence chatbot. Grok, in a reply to one user under a different post, appeared to confirm (archived) that the footage showed the Oct. 18 protest in Boston.
“No Kings” is an anti-Trump protest movement that describes itself on its website as peaceful. According to the group, more than 7 million protesters joined “No Kings” demonstrations across the U.S. on Oct. 18.
According to organizers, more than 100,000 people were expected to attend the protest in Boston. Local media reported that police made no arrests.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance appeared to mock the Oct. 18 “No Kings” protests on their social media accounts, with Vance sharing a video of Trump wearing a crown in front of kneeling Democrats and Trump posting one of himself dropping what appeared to be feces on protesters. The videos appeared to be generated using AI software.
Sources
“ABOUT.” No Kings, https://www.nokings.org/about-nk. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.
“About Community Notes on X.” X, https://help.x.com/en/using-x/community-notes.
Alanez, Tonya. “‘No Kings’ Protests Return to Boston Common with Turnout Expected to Surpass 100,000.” The Boston Globe, 18 Oct. 2025, https://archive.ph/8JCiC.
D, Victoria, et al. “Organizers Say 100,000 People Gather at Boston ‘No Kings’ Rally, No Arrests Reported – CBS Boston.” CBS, 19 Oct. 2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/no-kings-rally-boston-security/.
Diversity of Perspectives. https://communitynotes.x.com/guide/en/contributing/diversity-of-perspectives. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.
“JD Vance (@jd-Vance-1.Bsky.Social).” Bluesky Social, 18 Oct. 2025, https://bsky.app/profile/jd-vance-1.bsky.social/post/3m3ijow42tc2z.
NBC10 Boston. “Massive Turnout for ‘No Kings’ Rally on Boston Common; No Arrests, Police Say.” YouTube, 19 Oct. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbOo6io3H8&t=81s.
Notes Shown on X. https://communitynotes.x.com/guide/en/contributing/notes-on-twitter. Accessed 20 Oct. 2025.
@realDonaldTrump. Bluesky, 19 Oct. 2025, https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115398251623299921.
WCVB Channel 5 Boston. “Ted Has a Recap of Boston’s ‘No Kings’ Rally.” YouTube, Oct. 18, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7kzTKPYDbI&t=4s.
