Trump fact-checked on odd claim about former Disney child star

President Donald Trump endorsed the potential political ambitions of former Disney Channel child star Jake Paul — and also made a statement so bizarre about Paul’s career, he had to get fact-checked.

“I just want to say I predict, I'm going to make a prediction, that you will be in the not too distant future, running for political office, OK?” Trump said about Paul while the two appeared together at a Wednesday rally in Kentucky. “And you have my complete and total endorsement, OK?’’

USA Today’s Josh Peter, who covers sports and often fact-checks false athletic claims, did not focus on the president’s political prognostication, but took issue with Trump’s subsequent characterization of Paul as “a hell of a fighter.”

“False,” Peter wrote. “Paul is 12-2 with 7 knockouts and, before his KO loss to Joshua, benefitted from careful matchmakers.”

The “Joshua” in question is Anthony Joshua, a 6-foot-6 boxer with an 82-inch reach who won the Gold Medal at the 2012 Olympics representing the United Kingdom. By contrast, Paul began his own career as a social media influencer in 2013, posting numerous viral videos on social media platforms like Vine and YouTube. Thanks to his social media success, the Disney Channel hired him to play a fictionalized version of himself called Dirk Mann for their TV series “Bizaardvark” from 2016 to 2018. Paul did not begin his career as a boxer until 2018, and even that was against a fellow YouTuber (Deji Olatunji).

“He built his record with victories over aging MMA fighters, an ancient Mike Tyson, a retired NBA player and a YouTuber,” Peter wrote. (Peter also incorrectly identified Paul’s Disney Channel career as being a “stint with the Disney Channel from 2005 to 2007.”)

Peter concluded, “This is not to say Paul is a terrible boxer. But ‘a hell of a fighter’ is a big stretch.”

Paul is an outspoken supporter of Trump, often appearing on talk shows to criticize Trump’s political opponents like President Joe Biden and claimed Trump did not die during the 2024 assassination attempt against him because “when you try and kill God's angels and saviors of the world it just makes them bigger.” He has leveraged his relationship with Trump to promote his boxing career, even though respected boxing commentators referred to his fights with legitimate boxers like Joshua with terms like “clown show.” When Joshua knocked out Paul, he broke his jaw cleanly in two separate places.

In the case of his 2024 fight against Mike Tyson, a 59-year-old who literally broke his back during his last boxing victory in 2003, Paul won but only after many questioned the ethics of the fight itself even occurring.