At the beginning of February 2025, the statements extended on the social networks that Donald Trump Jr. , son of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, had illegally killed the ducks in Italy. For example, a user published the complaint about X (filed) on February 3:
The post had 2.5 million views as of this writing, and it had been shared more than 11,000 times.
It is true that politicians in Italy accused Trump of hunting a species illegally and presented judicial cases opposed to him, even if the judicial procedures had not yet begun. The type of duck in the video had not been confirmed, and it was not clear if Trump himself shot him. For these reasons, we have described this statement an aggregate of facts and indeterminate information.
On February 3, Andrea Zanoni, a regional councilor of Veneto, the Venice region, described Trump’s accusations in a Facebook post:
A translation of the position in English has shown that Zanoni had informed the incident to the Regional of Veneto and that Luana Zanella, a member of the Italian Parliament, had informed the Italian (ours.
In a video of Field Ethos, the global adventure search, I watched several scenes of ducks in the Venetian lagoon, recently filmed in Valle Pierrimpié in Campagna Lupia (VE).
[…]
The video shows some people, including Donald Trump Junior, while they kill several ducks.
The video shows Trump J. with an Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna Ferruggea) in the foreground, a very rare duck in Europe and through the EU Bird Directive and through Italian law on the coverage of wildlife, L. 157/1992. The death or maintenance of this animal is punished through the law and, consequently, according to Italian law, constitutes an express crime under the jurisdiction of the judiciary.
Trump J. would not have been hunting in Italy. Only citizens of one of the Italian regions can hunt in Italy because it is mandatory to have a hunting license issued through the law through the applicant’s residence region.
I presented a consultation so that the region implies the sanctions that it intends to implement, such as the suspension or revocation of the authorization opposite to the Wild Hunting Company and the guilty of acts in violation of Italian and European regulations. LUANA ZANELLA DEL ALLEANGE VERDI AND SINISTRA [LEFT AND GREEN ALLIAANCE] did the same, attacking the Italian government.
[…]
The existing Meloni government is now retained with a belt through the new American political program, with training of the USAF army in the EU spaces in the Treviso region (I reported the events last week the Tombs site of Piave in Ciano del Montello) and now Trump’s son hunt species in the Venice Lagoon.
Veneto and Italy are US properties.
Politicians discovered their accusations in a widely shared video in which Trump shows what he calls “a fairly rare duck for the region”, which his accusers have known as a Shelduck Blandish, a species in the board of directors of the birds of the ‘European Union also as Italian law. The Ruddy Shelduck is one of the indexed species in the list of European red birds, which evaluates the threat of extinction of the birds of the continent.
Zenella also claimed that Trump, as a nonresident, might not have received the hunting license.
The regional newspaper Corriere del Veneto published the video, which would have occurred through Field Ethos, a company that Trump has coincidental that organizes hunting adventure trips. We may not place the original video on the Ethos or YouTube website. The video also gave the impression in an article through The Guardian, accredited with Corriere del Veneto.
Guardian’s article quoted Massimo Buconi, president of the Hunting Federation in Italy, saying that even if it were not true that Trump was forbidden to hunt in Italy to not be a resident, if the duck in the consultation was observed as a fog , Trump’s shooting would be illegal. “At a glance, it looks like an order of Shelduck,” he told Guardian. “I don’t know if he is in America, but in Europe and Italy, he can’t expel him. “
The Italian media reported that Trump visited Italy with his girlfriend, Bettina Anderson, in December 2024, which would have been the film’s filming.
We contacted Zanoni, Zanella, Buconi and Trump to verify the main points of the story. We have also contacted the ethics of the table to request more information.
In the past, Snopes has proven the legitimacy of a symbol that appears to Trump holding an elephant tail cut on an African hunting trip.
“Donald Trump Jr. criticized Italian legislators for an alleged ducks. ” Politician, February 4, 2025, https://www. politico. eu/article/donald-trump-jr-iraly-du-du-hunt — Fotage-Birds-animals-shooting/.
European Bird List. 2021, https://www. birdlife. org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/birdLife-european-list-Of-birds-2021. pdf. pdf.
‘Home’. Andrea Zanoni, https://www.andreazanoni.it/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2025.
‘Italian Politicians Seek Action against Trump Jr. Hunting Party for Allegedly Killing Protected Duck’. AP News, 4 Feb. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/italy-trump-jr-duck-hunt-investigation-415a449c345800ee974bc12738fc4be1.
Niranjan, Ajit, and Ajit Niranjan Europe environment correspondent. ‘Donald Trump Jr Accused of Killing Protected Bird in Venice Lagoon’. The Guardian, 4 Feb. 2025. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/04/donald-trump-jr-accused-of-killing-protected-bird-in-venice-lagoon.
Roeloffs, Mary Whitfill. “Donald Trump Jr. accused of killing a duck in Italy. ” Forbes, https://www. forbes. com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/02/04/donald-trump-jr-acused-of-killing-potted-du-du-in-itally/. Retrieved on February 5, 2025.
“Adventure and cool gadget stories. ” Ethos de tierra, https://fieldos. com/. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
The European Commission Directive on “birds”, 20 January 2025, https://environment. ec. europa. eu/topics/nature-and-biodiversity/birds-directive_en.
XIX Legislature – Diputati and Organi – Splaka Deputato – Zanella Luana. https://www. camera. it/leg19/29?SHADOW_DEPUTATATO=300469&IDLEGALURE=19. Retrieved on February 5, 2025.
Anna Rascout-Paz is in Brooklyn, fluent in many languages and specializes in clinical and economic issues.