Fact check: Posts claiming Cuomo threatened Trump about visiting NYC are missing context

McKenzie Sadeghi, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened President Donald Trump when he said Trump ‘better have an army’ to protect him if he comes to New York

A feud between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump escalated last week, when Cuomo suggested Trump would need an "army" to visit New York, causing controversy across social media platforms.

“SHOCKING: Democrat New York Governor Threatens President Trump: He “Better Have an Army to Protect Him if He Comes to NYC,” reads a screenshot of a story by the Gateway Pundit posted to its Instagram account on Sept. 4.

Similar versions of the claim also appeared on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

"Andrew Cuomo threatened that Trump would need 'an army to protect him' if he wants to come to New York City," tweeted Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA. "Is he admitting that the 'peaceful protests' aren't that peaceful and defunding the police made the city more dangerous?"

USA TODAY reached out to The Gateway Pundit and Charlie Kirk for comment.

The claims follow Cuomo's emergency media call in response to a five-page memo released by the White House that stated the federal government would cut funding to any city that has “refused to undertake reasonable measures” to stop violence and property destruction. The memo specifically mentions New York City, Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Fact check: Ernest Hemingway quote falsely attributed to Joe Biden

Cuomo comment taken out of context

Cuomo called the president's memo "another attempt to kill New York City" and warned that Trump would not be welcomed in their shared hometown.

"He’s going to walk down the street in New York? Forget bodyguards, he better have an army if he thinks he’s going to walk down the street in New York," Cuomo told reporters during the call.

The New York governor then went on to clarify his remarks at the end of the call when questioned by USA TODAY reporter Jon Campbell.

"And Jon, when my comment about the president’s bodyguards in New York City ... all I’m saying is that he is persona non grata in New York City," Cuomo said. "I think he knows that, and he’ll never come back to New York because New Yorkers will never forget how gratuitously mean he has been to New Yorkers and how many times he has tried to kill the city that gave him his start and that birthed him. That’s what I meant about the bodyguards."

Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi afterward took to Twitter to clarify the governor's remarks.

"And what did he say after that? That’s right what he meant was Trump was persona non grata after everything he did to his now abandoned home town," Azzopardi tweeted. "Where was this faux outrage energy when Trump did 5th Ave. shooting comments?"

Fact check: Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial aren't at risk of removal

Our ruling: Missing context

We rate the claim that Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened President Donald Trump by saying he would need an "army" to protect him if he were to come to New York as MISSING CONTEXT. Cuomo later clarified that he did not literally mean Trump would need additional protection, but rather, that he was not welcomed in his hometown.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Posts about Cuomo's 'army' comment are missing context