User posts on social media platforms on Thursday shared an image claiming that incoming US official Richard Grenell called for the resignation of Army Chief of Staff General Asim Munir. However, the image was edited; The original post did not mention the army chief, but instead referred to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Grenell, Trump’s pick for presidential envoy for special missions, has unexpectedly become a notable figure in Pakistan’s political landscape after frequently posting in support of PTI founder Imran Khan and calling for his release.
His outspoken comments, part of a growing series of statements and posts made over the past few weeks, have attracted significant attention in Pakistan, where both the government and opposition are grappling with the implications of his comments.
A post by a PTI supporter on TikTok on January 9 shared a video with the screenshot of an alleged X post, dated January 9 at 8:42 am, by Grenell that read: “Resign, Karen. “Asim Munir.”
The video also had a picture of Imran and the following caption: “It took you quite a while to appear. “Richard Grenell has demanded the resignation of Asim Munir.”
The publication received 112,800 views, 14,200 likes and 193 shares.
The same image and title of Grenell’s edited X post were shared by several Facebook users as seen here, here, here, here and here.
A fact check was launched to verify the claim due to its virality and high public interest in the military and Grenell at a time when the latter is gaining popularity in Pakistan for his comments.
A review of Grenell’s official X account found a post dated January 9 at 8:42 a.m. that read, “Resign, Karen.”
As can be clearly seen, the post does not mention the army chief and a reverse image search of the alleged original post did not return any results or any coverage of it by reputable news outlets.
A closer inspection of Grenell’s X timeline showed a series of posts criticizing “Karen Bass” and calling for her to resign.
A search for the keyword “Karen Bass” showed that she was the mayor of Los Angeles, a city in the US state of California.
Thousands of structures have been burned and nearly 180,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes as at least five separate wildfires burned in Los Angeles County. Fast-moving flames fanned by powerful winds leveled more than 2,000 structures, many of them multimillion-dollar homes, in a tragedy that U.S. media described as the worst in the city’s history.
Grenell and Republicans sharply criticized Bass for his administration’s response and mismanagement of resources amid the wildfires, during which he was on a foreign trip in Ghana.
Therefore, it was clear that Grenell’s reference in his position X was to the mayor of Los Angeles.
Besides, ‘karen‘in Urdu is derived from the root word ‘Kar‘ which translates as “do”, while the former is a more respectful version of the latter. A literal translation of supposed post X would be: “Do it, resign. “Asim Munir.”
However, this translated sentence does not make grammatical sense considering the punctuation marks that Grenell used, the comma and the period. Therefore, the viral posts misinterpreted or overlooked the punctuation in Grenell’s post X and understood the word “Karen” literally according to the Urdu language instead of checking the context of his post.
The same observation regarding the Urdu understanding of “Karen” was also pointed out by PTI leader Shahbaz Gill in an X post.
Therefore, the fact check determined that the claim that Grenell asked for the army chief’s resignation was FAKE. The viral image from his X post was fake and edited as Grenell did not mention the army chief in his original post; which instead referred to the mayor of Los Angeles amid criticism of her handling of the wildfires in Southern California.
This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan, a project of CEJ and UNDP.
