A WhatsApp forward claiming that Donald Trump confronted Google's Sundar Pichai at an event at the World Economic Forum (WEF), where Pichai took a bold stand against the US president by defending his Indian roots, is fake.
The post further claims that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was present during the confrontation and backed Pichai as they were both representing India at the summit.
BOOM found the claim to be false. We found no credible evidence of any such confrontation ever taking place between Trump, Pichai, and Jaishankar.
The Claim
The viral post alleges that United States President Donald Trump confronted Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai at a WEF event, questioning whether Google’s loyalty was to India or America, in the presence of EAM S. Jaishankar. It further claims that Pichai surprised Trump by defending his Indian roots, with Jaishankar backing him. According to the post, Pichai stood firm against Trump’s remarks, and his response was met with applause from other leaders.
Click here to view one such post.
What We Found: No Such Event Took Place At WEF
BOOM first checked for news reports backing the claims in the viral post but didn’t find any. We also checked the WEF speeches by Trump, Jaishankar, and Pichai and found no evidence to back what the forward claimed.
We also found no reliable evidence that US President Trump and Google CEO Sundar Pichai clashed in front of EAM Jaishankar at a WEF event, as claimed.
1. Trump’s Remarks at WEF: We ran a keyword search and found that Trump spoke at WEF events in 2018, 2020, and 2025 as the US President. We reviewed these speeches and compared them with the statements attributed to him in the viral post but found no match.
2. Jaishankar at WEF: We checked the official MEA website and found a complete transcript of Jaishankar speaking with WEF President Børge Brende at the 2019 India Economic Summit. The discussion is also available on WEF’s official YouTube channel.
3. Speeches by Pichai at WEF: We ran a related keyword search and found that Pichai has spoken at WEF on multiple occasions such as 2018, 2020, and 2021 on different topics. His speeches do not include any such confrontation with Trump as claimed. Pichai’s statements during WEF conversations can be seen here, here, and here.