National Guard soldiers were not called to address Israel

CLAIM: The National Guard was sent in on Wednesday to address war protesters at the University of Texas at Austin.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The National Guard was not called to the university in response to the demonstration against the Israel-Hamas war, the Texas Military Department and a university spokesperson told The Associated Press. Texas state troopers responded at the request of university officials and Gov. Greg Abbott, according to a Texas Department of Public safety spokesperson. Local police were also on the scene.

THE FACTS: Amid student protests on an increasing number of college campuses, social media users falsely claimed that a demonstration at UT-Austin was met by the National Guard.

“We send the national guard for kids protesting at college but not the open border?” reads one X post that shared a clip from a Fox News report showing officers marching on the university’s campus. It had received approximately 24,000 likes and 6,300 shares as of Thursday.

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