Fact Check: Unraveling Trump's Fabricated Narrative of Releasing 'The Tape'

Former President Donald Trump shared a made-up story on Saturday during a campaign rally in Ohio. He talked about a fictional scenario where he cleverly released a tape of his 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which played a role in his first impeachment.

According to Trump, he allowed Democrats to spread exaggerated claims about the call with Zelensky, building up anticipation, and then surprised them by releasing the actual tape. He claimed that Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi was shocked when she heard the tape, realizing that her allies had misled her with false descriptions of the call. Trump alleged that Pelosi exclaimed to her team, "What have you gotten me into? Did you listen to this call? He didn't do any of the things you said!"

Trump claimed that Pelosi was informed, "Let's just pretend he did and keep moving forward." He added, "After they fabricated the story and then listened to the tape, they were shocked. They didn't realize that the phone call was recorded. It was a clear case of a phone call being recorded. They were caught red-handed."

Facts First: Trump's statement is entirely false. There was never a tape released of his conversation with Zelensky; therefore, Pelosi could not have reacted to a tape she never heard. Up to nearly five years after the call in July 2019, there is no known US recording of the dialogue. The White House actually disclosed a rough written transcript of the call in September 2019, which supported the key accusations made by a government whistleblower about Trump's words. Pelosi's spokesperson, Aaron Bennett, dismissed Trump's account as "baseless nonsense."

Presidential phone calls with foreign leaders are usually not recorded by the American side. Instead, they are summarized in writing by a combination of software and US officials who are present during the calls.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who listened to Trump's call with Zelensky as the top Ukraine expert for the White House's National Security Council, confirmed in a text message to CNN that there is no recording of the call.

“He’s lying,” Vindman said.

Trump’s new story echoes his false claims from his presidency

Trump has been attempting to distort the truth since late 2019 regarding the phone call with Zelensky. During the call, Zelensky mentioned Ukraine's interest in buying weapons from the US, but Trump urged him to investigate Joe Biden, his potential Democratic opponent in the 2020 election, and to look into a baseless conspiracy theory about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.

At a recent rally, Trump presented a more exaggerated version of the false narrative he shared over four years ago, which was previously fact-checked by CNN. In the earlier stories, Trump boasted about releasing the rough transcript of the call with Zelensky to show he had outsmarted Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who had inaccurately summarized Trump's words. Trump claimed that Schiff would not have made those comments if he had known the transcript would be made public.

Trump's claim that Pelosi was dismayed after reading the rough transcript never made sense. In reality, he released the rough transcript before Schiff exaggerated it at a congressional hearing.

In Trump's 2019 version of events, he stated that Pelosi was upset with her allies after reading the rough transcript, not after listening to "the tape." However, there was no basis for this claim. After the rough transcript was made public, Pelosi criticized Trump for his actions, accusing him of "lawlessness" and trying to benefit his campaign by pressuring other countries. A spokesperson for Pelosi called Trump's account of her thoughts "complete fiction."

During the Saturday rally in Ohio, Trump made several more false claims. He continued to criticize Schiff, who is currently running for a US Senate seat in California, by telling his version of the story.

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