Did Trump post ‘the KING decides’ what war crimes are? Here’s the truth

In December 2025, a purported screenshot (archived) circulated online that allegedly showed U.S. President Donald Trump had posted on Truth Social, “When I say something is LEGAL, it’s LEGAL” and that “the KING decides” what constitutes a war crime.

The claim circulated as the Trump administration and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faced questions over the legality of a Sept. 2, 2025, “double tap” strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug trafficking boat that killed survivors of the initial strike on the vessel.

One Facebook user who shared the alleged post wrote, “He finally admitted it Seeing himself as KING”

(Facebook user Allan Poulsen)

The alleged post read:

Saw Judge Andrew Napolitano on Newsmax saying Pete Hegseth and everyone under him committed ‘war crimes’ with the beautiful DOUBLE TAP on the boat. Absolute poppycock — total nonsense. Just because a bunch of so-called prominent Republicans are suddenly running around using the term ‘war crime’ doesn’t make it one. That’s not how this works. I’m the one who understands power, command, authority — and when I say something is LEGAL, it’s LEGAL. Very simple. They can lecture on TV all day, but the KING decides. And the King says: NOT a war crime. Case closed.

The screenshot of the alleged Truth Social post circulated widely on Facebook (archived, archived, archived), but also reached Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking if Trump really wrote the post.

Snopes found no evidence that Trump published the alleged post. It did not appear in searches of X or Trump’s Truth, a website that archives the president’s Truth Social feed. 

The alleged post used Trump’s profile picture from X alongside engagement statistics that appeared to be a poor imitation of those on Truth Social. Given the inconsistencies in the post’s appearance and the fact we could not find the alleged post on Trump’s public profiles, we find the post to be fake.

Though the fake post bore a passing resemblance (archived) to posts on Trump’s Truth Social platform, the screenshot presented several elements incorrectly. 

(Facebook user Allan Poulsen/Truth Social user @realDonaldTrump/Snopes illustration)

For example, the post used a profile picture from Trump’s X profile instead of his genuine Truth Social profile image, and it omitted a black, white and green badge next to the president’s name that shows he is a Truth+ subscriber.

The post appeared to use the same engagement icons for comments, shares and likes as Truth Social but did not present them how they appeared in authentic posts.

The fake post also omitted a line that showed “ReTruths,” “Likes” and the date and time the user published the post.

Snopes has previously debunked other fake Truth Social posts from Trump allegedly calling himself “the KING” or threatening voting rights. We also investigated a claim that a Navy admiral resigned over Hegseth’s Venezuela boat strike orders.

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