Fact Check: Did Military Play 'Hit the Road Jack' Outside White House on Trump's Last Day?

In the final hours of President Donald Trump's presidency, Washington, D.C. was bustling with preparations and heightened security for the inauguration. Trump also was busy, making final moves for pardons, executive orders and closing words before the end of his term.

Social media was also active, as users shared memes to mark Trump's last day in office.

The Claim

The popular Twitter account from Rex Chapman shared a clip of a military marching band outside of the White House allegedly playing "Hit the Road Jack."

The tweet has more than 24,000 retweets, more than 6,000 quote tweets and close to 104,000 likes.

The Facts

Chapman shared the video that was originally posted by Cathay Dawkins, who is a Digital Marketer, Strategist, Executive Director of BBOC, according to his Twitter bio.

In the threads of Chapman and Dawkins' posts, other users have mentioned that the video was doctored and shared the original clip.

CNN reporter Jim Acosta took the video and posted it to his Twitter account on January 18. The video was then edited to overlay music so it appeared the band was playing a different song. According to the Shazam app, the song played in the doctored video was performed by The Ohio State Marching Band and Dr. Jon R. Woods.

Dawkins confirmed to Newsweek that he edited the video on TikTok and posted it to "troll Trump."

"Depending on which one you saw, one I added the music and another I added laughter," Dawkins said. "The goal was to show how Americans are ready for a change."

He added, "It was always a joke."

The Ruling

False.

This video was edited with "Hit the Road Jack" played over the clip of the marching band.

Chapman has been critical of Trump on social media over the past four years and often posts funny or inspirational videos. It is unclear whether he knew the video was fake when it was posted.