Claim : U.S. President Donald Trump was welcomed at Windsor Castle during his state visit to the UK with the “Darth Vader” theme song (also known as “The Imperial March” from Star Wars)
Conclusion : Misrepresentation. The footage is edited. Trump was saluting ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, the national anthem of the United States of America not Darth Vader theme song.
Rating : Misrepresentation. 
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Following US President Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom several social media users have shared claims that he saluted ‘The Imperial March song from Star Wars. The Imperial March, also known as “Darth Vader’s Theme,” is a famous musical piece composed by John Williams for the 1980 film ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’. It serves as a musical motif to represent Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire in the movie.
On September 18, 2025, X user ‘UzoAnazodo’ posted a video purporting to show U.S. President Donald Trump being welcomed with the “Death Vader” theme song. The caption described it as “Classic British humour,” implying a subtle troll by the British military band. View the post below –
Classic British humour. 🤣🤣🤣
Only the initiated will get it. Trump welcomed with the Darth Vader theme song. pic.twitter.com/W6RBzQCa75
— Rally (@UzoAnazodo) September 18, 2025
A verified X user ‘Suzierizzo1’ shared similar footage with the caption : “OMG do you actually hear what they’re playing and Trump is saluting them!” This post gained more than 633,000 views and around 7,300 likes. View the post here.
OMG do you actually hear what they’re playing and Trump is saluting them! 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/4f5z2oxIFJ
— Suzie rizzio (@Suzierizzo1) September 19, 2025
Several other users too shared the same claim here and here.
FACT CHECK
DigitEYE India decided to fact check this claim and found that it was misrepresentation. The footage is edited, overlaying the original “Star-Spangled Banner” which was played with “The Imperial March” song.
To confirm the event, we conducted a keyword search with the phrase “Trump’s state visit to the UK”. Several media outlets like The New York Times and BBC news reports confirm Trump’s state visit to the UK from September 16-18, 2025, including a ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle with King Charles III. View a snippet from the NYT report below –
We then searched for the original footage of the clip where the song was played as shown in the claim. The Official White House Youtube channel had live streamed the event which took place on 17 September, 2025. View the original footage here.
During the 16:44 mark in the video, the musicians begin playing Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the United States of America. Trump standing near First Lady Melania Trump, King Charles III, and Queen Camilla is seen saluting out of respect.
We also cross checked with other media outlets such as APT that shared a Youtube short of this incident. View the clip here. Though frame-by-frame review of the viral clip matches these visuals, the audio has been altered in the claim.
Thus, the claim is Misrepresentation.
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This fact-check is really helpful! Its great to see how DigitEYE India breaks down the claim with evidence and timestamps. Very informative and reliable work.