Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 13/11/2024; Author: Mladen Lakić
A 2020 post by Donald Trump Junior, the son of the newly elected President of the United States, was presented as current, along with a false claim about the closure of the Bondsteel base.
On November 7, 2024, the website Nulta tacka, published an article, with a headline claiming that “Bondsteel is being closed”:
“Bondsteel is closing! Donald Trump’s son calls for the return of American soldiers from Kosovo and Metohija (PHOTO)”
The article was published two days after the U.S. presidential elections, in which Republican candidate Donald Trump won. The text begins with claims that Donald Trump “announced several years ago the withdrawal of American troops worldwide, including from Kosovo”, but that the “COVID-19 plandemic” then occurred:
“Just as Donald Trump announced a few years ago the withdrawal of American troops from all over the world, including Kosovo and Metohija, the COVID plandemic happened.
Coincidence? Not at all…”
The article states that “today”, referring to the period after the U.S. presidential elections, “many are counting on the continuation of such foreign policy”. Allegedly, Trump’s son confirmed that Trump will stick to his previous plan to withdraw U.S. troops in his next term:
“Today, many are counting on the continuation of such foreign policy by the American president, while Albanians are making mistakes in fear and trying to appease the future administration.
Donald Trump will stick to the plan to withdraw American forces from Kosovo and Metohija and this was confirmed by his son, Donald Trump Jr, who stated on the X platform that he agrees with the idea of returning all American soldiers from the Bondsteel base in Kosovo and Metohija.
‘I agree. There are 650 American soldiers in Kosovo. It’s time to bring them home,’ said Trump’s successor”.
The alleged confirmation by Trump Jr. that President Trump will adhere to the plan to withdraw American forces from Kosovo was shared in a post on the X account SERBS for TRUMP 2024. The post from November 7 of this year contains a screenshot of Trump Jr.’s alleged confirmation, which was also posted on his X account. In his post, he wrote:
“I agree. There are 650 members of the U.S. military in Kosovo. It’s time to bring them home”.
However, the screenshot does not indicate when exactly the post was made.
Is Bondsteel closing?
Camp Bondsteel is a U.S. military base operating under the “Kosovo Force” (KFOR) mission, located in the southeast of the country. This mission, led by NATO since June 1999, aims to support peacekeeping efforts. According to its official website, KFOR was established following NATO’s air campaign against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic to end violence in Kosovo.
Contrary to the claim in the article headline on the website Nulta tacka stating that this base is “closing”, there are no official reports confirming such an event. According to the official KFOR website, 4,302 troops are currently deployed in Kosovo, including 598 from the United States.
Reports of a handover ceremony in October 2024 further confirm that the base remains operational.
Did Trump Jr. confirm anything?
Donald Trump Jr. is active on the X platform, and the post presented as evidence that the new U.S. president will adhere to his previous withdrawal plan is authentic. However, the post cannot be considered a confirmation of the claim in question.
This is because the post was made long before Donald Trump was re-elected as U.S. president. In fact, Trump Jr. originally published the post on March 10, 2020 – more than four years before it was portrayed as current in November 2024.
At that time, Trump Jr. was actually responding to another post on the X platform by David Perdue, who was a senator at the time. Perdue had previously stated that U.S. military forces play a significant role in maintaining peace between Serbia and Kosovo and that the necessity of this military presence should be reassessed if Kosovo continues with the tariffs imposed on Serbia. For context, the government of Kosovo introduced a 100% tariff on products from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018.
Trump Jr.’s four-year-old post was therefore manipulatively used as “evidence” that the new U.S. president would adhere to his old plans, despite having no connection to them.
It should also be noted that the newly elected U.S. president, who is set to begin his second term, is known for his views that the U.S. should reduce its military presence worldwide. However, there is no confirmation yet that these views will translate into action – at least not at this time. Additionally, the president-elect is not scheduled to take office until January of next year, meaning he currently has no decision-making authority.
Lastly, the claim about the “COVID-19 plandemic” mentioned in the analyzed article refers to a widely spread conspiracy theory suggesting that the pandemic was “planned”. The term “plandemic” gained “popularity” through a 26-minute video released in May 2020. In collaboration with the Faktograf, Raskrinkavanje analyzed several false claims made in the video that same year. You can read the detailed analysis at the link provided below.
The claim in the headline of the article on the website Nulta tacka, stating that “Bondsteel is being closed”, is rated as fake news since there is no official confirmation regarding the closure of this military base in Kosovo.
The claim featured in the article, asserting that “Trump Jr. confirmed that Donald Trump will adhere to the plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Kosovo and Metohija”, is rated as disinformation.
