Category: News

Did Trump Use a Concrete Wall Metaphor During a 2004 Commencement Speech?

Jan. 10, 2019

Donald Trump in 2004: “‘If there’s a concrete wall in front of you, go through it, go over it, g …

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Claim:

A meme accurately cites facts and fundraising figures in comparing prosecutors charging Lindsay Clancy with killing her three children, with Clancy receiving more than $1 million in fundraising, and the story of Emma Schols sustaining severe burns while rescuing her six children from a house fire, then receiving only $42,000 in fundraising.

Rating:

What’s True

The meme provides some factual information about both stories and, as of this writing, an accurate GoFundMe tally of donations earmarked to defray Clancy’s parents’ travel and housing costs as they attended the trial. Also, it’s true that a Swedish news outlet reported that a church deacon in that country organized a fundraiser equaling, at current currency conversion rates, about $42,000. However …

What’s False

… the meme omits additional fundraisers and sponsors who pledged to help rebuild Schols’ home, according to information found in the same Swedish news outlet mentioned above and her 2022 book.

In late summer 2026, people shared a meme pitting a story of heroism involving a mother named Emma Schols against that of Lindsay Clancy’s murder case.

Schols’ story of heroism, which involved saving her six children from a house fire and sustaining severe burns in the process, appears on the meme’s left side, with a fundraising figure of $42,000. 

The right side features Clancy, the mother at the center of a highly-publicized Massachusetts murder trial — which ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4, 2026 — in which prosecutors charged her with killing her three young children, along with a purported GoFundMe fundraising figure exceeding $1 million.

On Sept. 15, an Instagram user posted (archived) the meme, which reads under photos of Schols: “Mother pulls all 6 of her children out of raging house fire, going back in three times despite burns covering 93% of her body. Money raised: $42,000.” Clancy’s caption reads: “Mother kills all 3 of her children by strangling them to death with exercise bands. Claims she is victim. GoFundMe: $1,044,318+.”

(@davidjharrisjr via Instagram)

Other users shared the meme on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived) and X (archived).

In sum, Schols’ book and news media outlets’ reporting confirm the meme features a few specific facts but also omits key information. For these reasons, we have rated the meme’s content as a mixture of true and false information.

Snopes emailed Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s attorney, and Schols to request comment.

Breaking down the Schols-Clancy meme

Schols, who lives in Sweden, saved all six of her children in a Sept. 3, 2019, house fire, taking three trips to remove all of them from the inferno. Her 2022 coauthored book, “Ärren bär jag med stolthet: branden i Edsbyn och livet efteråt,” which translates to “I Carry the Scars with Pride: The Fire in Edsbyn and Life Afterwards,” tells her harrowing story, including the fact that 93% of her body sustained burns, as the meme claims.

In September 2019, Swedish news media outlet SVT, quoting church deacon Christer Schwartz, reported Schols’ fundraising total at 400,000 Swedish krona, or at current exchange rates about $42,000. According to that report, Schwartz’s fundraiser was one of several on Schols’ behalf but no other figures were reported. 

On top of Schwartz’s and other fundraisers, a February 2020 charity hockey match reportedly collected an additional 200,000 Swedish krona ($21,000). Schols says in her book that people and companies also initially pledged to sponsor the rebuilding of her house, though she adds some of those sponsors pulled out after she separated from her partner.

As for Clancy, The Associated Press, Reuters and other outlets reported she admitted strangling her children with exercise bands on Jan. 24, 2023, and pleaded not guilty to her initial charges, which included three counts each of first-degree murder, strangulation and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors later dropped the strangulation charges, saying they were redundant to the murder charges.

The organizer of the Clancy case GoFundMe (archived), titled “The Musgrove Family Fund,” described the purported recipients of the fundraiser as Clancy’s parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove, citing their hotel, travel and relocation costs to stay close to their daughter over more than three years. The in-question meme does not mention Clancy’s parents, instead making the allegation that Clancy herself will one day collect the funds. At last check, the fundraiser had grown to more than $1.2 million with a goal of $3 million, bringing in more than 35,900 individual donations.

The meme adds that Clancy has claimed she’s the victim. During her criminal trial in summer 2026, Reddington, her attorney, said “there is evidence of lack of criminal responsibility” and suggested “a required finding of not guilty should be entered on the case.” He repeatedly argued Clancy suffered from postpartum psychosis, a disorder an estimated one or two in 1,000 women experience after giving birth that can include delusions, depression, hallucinations, insomnia, paranoia and other changes in behavior. Prosecutors, on the other hand, argued she knew what she was doing.

Schols’ harrowing rescue story

On Sept. 3, 2019, Schols awoke before 6 a.m. in her home to early-morning light shining through her window, with the faint memory of minutes earlier hearing some of her children playing in another room.

In Schols’ book, which we translated to English, she said her then-partner, Anders, was working a night shift, leaving her to sleep alone. She wrote of the morning, “Great, I think, now I have a few minutes to lie down and catch up before I have to start my morning routine.” 

Moments later, the book recounts, she felt a very different sense of “fear, panic and desperation” when one of her children screamed from downstairs, “Help, mom, there’s a fire. There’s a fire in the TV room!” 

She wrote, “To make sure all the children have woken up, I scream at the top of my lungs: ‘Everyone has to get out of the house!’”

In the minutes that followed, Schols first managed to guide her young children Albin and Oliwer out the front door, then looked for William, Melwyn and Nellie. After seeing William and showing Melwyn to safety, she made it to her youngest child, Mollie, who was standing in her crib with a full diaper. 

Schols became unable to move from the flames covering her body. She wrote, “If I have managed to give birth to six children, I will swear to get six children out of this burning house,” and that she gathered strength, picked up Mollie and looked to escape. She described William as positioning a ladder they happened to have left out from a long-neglected painting job as their method of escape from the balcony.

Once outside, Schols described hearing her dog, Sally, inside making noises and thinking of her cat as well. A neighbor, seeing burns all over Schols’ body, told her it was too late to save her pets.

Several Swedish outlets published news of the fire on the same day.

Following extensive hospital stays for her burns and a period of rehabilitation, Schols returned home.

In her book, Schols wrote of Schwartz, the deacon, organizing the fundraiser following the fire. A Facebook post from days after the incident mentions Schwartz by name.

Schols said locals helped find clothes for her children, writing, “I am struck by the incredible care that exists in our country.” Other examples of that care included “Playing for Emma,” a charity hockey match organized in Schols’ honor in February 2020. Schols wrote about the match, as well as her family’s home insurance situation at the time of the fire:

On Sunday, February 2nd, a tribute match will be held for me, where the money raised will go to help me and my family get back on their feet. For all the years we have had home insurance, but just a month or so before the accident, we had, due to our financial situation, fallen behind on that particular bill. This fact is something I am ashamed of today. As I have been mulling this question over here in the hospital. This very month, when the house burns down, we were forced to skip that bill. What are the odds of that?

Later in December 2020, the Swedish Heroes Gala awarded Schols the title “Lifesaver of the Year.”

Near the end of her book, Schols wrote that some companies and people sponsoring the rebuilding of their former home pulled out after she and Anders separated.

To close her book, Schols thanked numerous locals and medical personnel, as well as her family, former partner and friends, saving a message for her children for last:

My biggest thanks go to William, Nellie, Melwin, Albin, Oliwer and Mollie. I may have saved your lives, but you are the absolute biggest heroes in this whole story. You are my everything and I love you with all my heart.

For further reading, we previously reported on other matters involving donations, including a rumor alleging prison inmates donated over $4,000 to a Kansas school district’s lunch debt.

Sources

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In September 2026, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his agency was investigating claims that Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota married her brother to commit immigration fraud. 

In the past, U.S. President Donald Trump and other Republicans have also amplified the claim, which has circulated since 2016. 

Mullin said in a video interview (archived), “We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States” and that federal officials were investigating alleged “illegal activity.”

Snopes has previously reported on this claim about Omar marrying her brother and concluded it was unfounded, meaning there’s no credible evidence supporting it. In 2016, Omar became the first Somali American elected to the Minnesota state House of Representatives. As a young immigrant with progressive politics, Omar has been targeted by numerous unfounded rumors about her religion and family. 

Snopes sent a list of questions to Omar’s spokesperson at the time we first investigated this claim but did not receive responses. 

As we previously reported, the origins of the rumor surrounding Omar’s relationship with her brother are unclear. The claim first appeared on an online Somali community discussion forum called SomaliSpot and was then picked up by Powerline, a conservative blog. An August 2016 blog post stated: 

A reader has written us to point out that the Somali website Somalispot posted information suggesting Omar’s involvement in marriage and immigration fraud. The post notes that Omar married Ahmed Hirsi in 2002. Hirsi is the father of Omar’s three children. Omar is depicted with Hirsi and their children on Omar’s campaign website here.

The post further notes that Omar married her brother Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009, implying that the latter marriage assisted his entry into the United States. Her brother was a British citizen. “As soon as Ilhan Omar married him,” the post continues, “he started university at her [a]lma mater North Dakota State University where he graduated in 2012. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Minneapolis where he was living in a public housing complex and was later evicted. He then returned to the United Kingdom where he now lives.”

Snopes sent questions to Powerline blogger Scott Johnson in 2019, who did not provide any substantive evidence supporting the claim.

Omar denied the rumor in a 2016 statement, calling that marriage “a difficult part of my personal history that I did not consider relevant in the context of a political campaign.” Her full statement can be found below:

In 2002, when I was 19 years old, Ahmed Hirsi (whose name before he received citizenship was Ahmed Aden), the father of my children and love of my life, and I, applied for a marriage license, but we never finalized the application and thus were never legally married. In 2008, we decided to end our relationship in our faith tradition after reaching an impasse in our life together.

I entered into a relationship with a British citizen, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and married him legally in 2009. Our relationship ended in 2011 and we divorced in our faith tradition. After that, he moved home to England. I have yet to legally divorce Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, but am in the process of doing so. Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.

Since 2011, I am happy to say that I have reconciled with Ahmed Hirsi, we have married in our faith tradition and are raising our family together. Like all families, we have had our ups and downs but we are proud to have come through it together.

In 2002, Omar and Hirsi reportedly applied for a marriage license. The couple married in an Islamic ceremony but never completed the process for a civil marriage, according to Hirsi. By 2008, Hirsi and Omar had separated (per Islamic custom). After that relationship ended, Omar had a civil marriage with Elmi in 2009. When that relationship ended, Elmi moved to England and they divorced per Islamic practice in 2011, but without receiving a legal divorce. 

Omar later reconciled with Hirsi and remarried in an Islamic ceremony. In 2017, Omar formally petitioned for divorce from Elmi, and legally wed Hirsi in 2018. Hirsi and Omar legally divorced in 2019.

Snopes found no credible evidence that Elmi and Omar were siblings in a fraudulent marriage. 

According to Omar, she and her family fled the Somalian civil war in 1991. They moved to the U.S. in 1995 after residing for four years in a Kenyan refugee camp. Omar’s mother had died, so her father and grandfather raised her and her siblings. In 2018, Omar showed a reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune photos of documents from her family’s entry into the U.S. after fleeing the civil war. She did not provide the reporter with copies of these papers but showed that they listed her father and showed her as the youngest of seven children. There was no one named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi listed in the documents.

We previously noted that Omar and her siblings all arrived in U.S. with refugee statuses. Omar was a minor when she became a naturalized U.S. citizen. How one sibling could end up with a completely different immigration status from the others remains unexplained by the claims. 

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy, immigrants can apply for permanent residency status (opening the pathway to naturalization) if they are siblings of a U.S. citizen, or if they are married to a U.S. citizen. Any sibling of Omar’s would not have to marry her in order to secure a path to citizenship. 

Additionally, if Elmi desperately wanted U.S. citizenship, he would not have immediately returned to England after his split with Omar. 

Snopes has covered numerous claims about Omar, including the rumor that her father participated in war crimes or genocide, and the false claim that Omar said al-Qaida made her “proud.” 

Snopes’ archives contributed to this report.

Sources

In August and September 2026, a popular meme claimed to show the alleged contradictory positions of Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany, known in Germany by the abbreviation AfD. The meme states that Weidel is anti-immigration yet has an immigrant wife, supports anti-LGBTQ+ policies but is a lesbian, and opposes adoption for LGBTQ+ families despite having adopted two children. 

The claim states:

Alice Weidel becomes the first leader in the world who is anti-immigration but has an immigrant wife, is anti-LGBTQ+ but is a lesbian herself, opposes LGBT adoption but has adopted two children, and is a hardcore German nationalist but lives in Switzerland.

While Weidel has stood by her party’s positions on immigration and LGBTQ+ issues—while expressing minor disagreements on occasion—we have not been able to verify certain details of her personal life directly from her, and as a result we have relied on her interviews and reporting from other sources. Snopes reached out to AfD to learn more and will update this post accordingly. Until we have more information, we will keep this claim unrated.

Below we break down the truth behind several of the above claims. The above meme is largely true in that Weidel has a Sri Lankan-born wife with Swiss citizenship, while also supporting anti-immigration policies. Despite her party’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies, she has said there is “no contradiction” between her personal life, her belief that same-sex couples deserve equality, and her public advocacy for a “traditional” family. 

While Weidel is at the time of this writing the most prominent leader internationally associating with a party that contradicts her personal lifestyle, she is not the only public figure to follow this pattern. For example, U.S. President Donald Trump’s ally and former Acting Director for National Intelligence, Richard Grenell, is openly gay despite having opposed pro-LGBTQ+ policies. 

Weidel’s family life

A 2021 interview with the German politician’s Sri Lankan-born wife, Sarah Bossard, noted that the couple was in a registered partnership. We should note that as of July 1, 2022, same-sex marriages are allowed in Switzerland and new registered partnerships are no longer offered. We reached out to the AfD to learn if Weidel and Bossard legally converted their partnership to a marriage and will update this post accordingly.

In a televised interview, Weidel said Bossard, whom she referred to as her wife, became Swiss through adoption as a child, not through “migration”:

INTERVIEWER: You brought your wife along; she was born in Sri Lanka. Is that sort of thing ever discussed at home — given that it touches on something fundamental?

WEIDEL: It’s not about skin color. And my wife — as you’ve just done yourself — is labeled as having a “migration background.” My wife is Swiss and was adopted; consequently, she doesn’t view herself as having a migration background.

In a 2021 interview, Bossard noted that she grew up in Biel, Switzerland. A 2025 NBC News report said the couple resided in Willerzel, a village in Switzerland. A 2025 Time magazine profile noted they have a home in Switzerland and their sons attend school there. 

According to The New York Times, they are raising two sons together. According to the Financial Times, their sons are adopted. Pink News, an outlet focused on LGBTQ+ news, said Bossard gave birth to the sons and Weidel adopted them. Snopes was unable to determine the exact circumstances of the sons’ adoption and whether they are biologically related to either parent.

AfD’s positions on LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and adoption

Weidel’s AfD party opposes same-sex marriage and does not support same-sex adoption, according to German news outlet DW. The party website states: 

We, the AfD, as the only serious political force, have the will to counter the family policy failures of recent decades with clear political measures. We will put the family, consisting of father, mother and as many children as possible, back in the center of political and social thinking and action. With us, parents get the best possible conditions for starting and managing a family and our children the best possible chances of good and healthy development.

Weidel addressed her party position in an interview: 

Well, we live in a completely different reality now. Same-sex relationships should be treated as equal. But if I, as a politician, speak of a societal ideal—and that happens to be the traditional family—then I am entitled to advocate for it. There is no contradiction there.

Weidel also said the party position “was written by conservatives who might not see things exactly the way I do. As for me personally … my children have the best upbringing and the best foundation — let them write whatever they want. I live a different reality.”

She has also reportedly said, “I’m not queer, I’m just married to a woman who I’ve known for 20 years.”

In a 2021 interview, Bossard criticized a campaign against marriage equality in Switzerland: 

The campaign is not only distasteful, but completely misses our reality of life. I would have wished the committee would have more closely experienced the people and life constellations that it is criticizing. But that also shows what is still going on in the minds of some people. This is why marriage equality is an important step towards changing that.

AfD has a firm anti-immigration policy and calls for more local skilled workers. In 2025, in an interview with billionaire Elon Musk, Weidel said former German Chancellor Angela Merkel “ruined” the country after she “opened our borders through illegal immigration.” Weidel also said Germany allowed migrants to “throw away” their passports and papers before entering the country in order to avoid deportations. 

Snopes has previously reported on false claims that migrants committed mass sexual assaults in Germany.

Snopes reporters Laerke Christensen and Aleksandra Wrona provided the German translations in this report. 

Sources