Police confirm that there were no explosives found near Donald Trump’s Uniondale, New York, rally

After two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this year, reports of a third purported attack at his Sept. 18 rally in Uniondale, New York, spread quickly online. However, local police said that rumors about explosives found near the rally are false.

One Instagram user shared a Sept. 18 Daily Mail headline that said, "BREAKING: Police found ‘explosives’ in car near former President Donald Trump’s rally site on Long Island."

Screenshot from Instagram

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James Lalino, a journalist at conservative news outlet One America News Network, first shared the claim Sept. 18 on X. He said that a source from the Nassau County Police Department told him, "During K9, during their checks, they found an explosive device in one of the vehicles and that driver ended up running into the woods."

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Nassau police rebutted Lalino’s claim. Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder released a statement Sept. 18 saying reports about explosives at Trump’s Uniondale rally are "unfounded." The statement also said that a person training a bomb detection dog near the site falsely reported finding explosives.

But X owner Elon Musk had already reposted a false X post to his nearly 200 million followers that said "police with a bomb sniffing dog" found a bomb near Trump’s Uniondale rally. The post Musk reshared was later deleted.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene R-Ga., also amplified the claim on X, although she later shared the police statement saying the claim was false.

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, published an article citing Lalino, saying police had found explosives at the rally. The outlet later updated the article with a new headline and information, saying reports about explosives at the rally were false.

We rate the claim that police found explosives in a car near Trump’s Uniondale, New York,  rally False.

CORRECTION, Sept. 19, 2024: This fact-check was updated to clarify that the post Elon Musk reshared was the one deleted.