Fact Check: Is the Donald Trump Panera lemonade speech real? Viral screenshots debunked as hilarious reactions spread online

Screenshots of Donald Trump complaining about the sales of lemonade during President Joe Biden’s administration has spread like wildfire across social media platforms. In the same, the former potus, seemingly holds the latter responsible for the shocking deaths that were allegedly caused by Panera Bread’s lemonade.

Despite the screengrabs looking realistic, it must be noted that they are not. Donald Trump did not speak about the beverage in reality.

X (formerly known as Twitter) user @ChrisJBakke took to the social networking site to share screenshots of what seems to be a news channel showing Donald Trump addressing a group of people. His speech reportedly took place in Coralville, Iowa, where he supposedly said:

“Everything is bad under Biden. Even the lemonade is killing people. Did you see that? People drink lemonade and die. The lemonade didn’t kill you when I was President. It was tasty and fun to drink. We loved the lemonade, didn’t we? We did, but not under Biden. Bacon is more money. Gas is more money. The lemonade is more money and it kills you. When life hands you lemons, Joe Biden kills you with them.”

At the time of writing this article, the tweet had amassed over two million views and was shared on platforms like Instagram as well.

It seems like Donald Trump was referring to Panera Bread’s lawsuits. The brand was sued for selling ‘Charged lemonade,’ which reportedly had more caffeine than a 12-ounce Red Bull and a 16-ounce Monster Energy Drink combined. The food giant has since faced two wrongful death lawsuits after a 46-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman allegedly died from the drink.

Despite the screenshots looking realistic, they are not. Donald Trump did not address the lemonade controversy.

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Donald Trump did not speak about lemonade in Coralville, Iowa

X released Community Notes after the screenshots began circulating online. They revealed that the screengrabs originated from comedy writer Keaton Patti. They shared:

“The image has been digitally altered to include captions that don’t match the transcript of Trump’s speech.”

X debunks viral screenshot (Image via X)

The comedian had uploaded the aforementioned screenshots on his X page, leaving many under the assumption that it was real. However, Patti often shares hilarious memes and pictures that look AI-generated. His quips were so popular that Patti published a book of fake AI creations, titled I Force a Bot to Write this Book, in 2020.

Forbes also confirmed that lemonade was never mentioned during Trump’s recent speech in Coralville.

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“Make Lemonade Great Again”: Netizens left in a frenzy as Donald Trump-Lemonade screenshots go viral

Despite X confirming that the screengrabs are fake, internet users had a field day with them. Many not only relentlessly trolled Trump, but also went on to joke about lemonade. A few hilarious reactions to the screenshots read:

Netizens react to the viral lemonade speech (Image via X)

Netizens react to the viral lemonade speech (Image via X)

Netizens react to the viral lemonade speech (Image via X)

Netizens react to the viral lemonade speech (Image via X)

According to Forbes, Trump recently blasted artificial intelligence and how it has repeatedly made him look bad by doctoring what he says. However, the former President has made blatant errors in the past without AI.

For instance, he once claimed that he beat Barack Obama to win the presidency in 2016 when in reality, he beat Hillary Clinton.