Video of ‘anti-Trump protest’ in Switzerland is actually Basel’s annual Carnival parade

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Video allegedly taken at a Switzerland protest against U.S. President Donald Trump circulated online in March 2025, with participants wearing masks shaped like a human hand forming a middle finger gesture. The cavalcade also included a large hand-painted lantern depicting Trump’s face on an extended middle finger. 

Users on social media shared the video on platforms like Reddit, X (archived) and Facebook (archived), with many comments calling it a “protest” and expressing surprise that the famously internationally neutral country of Switzerland would feature such a blatant display.

Protests in Switzerland against Trump
byu/RoyalChris inFauxmoi

The video appeared to originate from a post on TikTok (archived) that accumulated 2 million likes and over 40,000 comments as of this writing. 

The video is indeed authentic; however, there is important context. 

The TikTok video has no caption attached to it, but posts and comments calling it a “protest” are misleading. While presenting Trump in this manner could be considered an act of protest, the event itself was not a protest.

The video captured a parade procession called the cortége, part of the Carnival in Basel, the third most populous city in Switzerland. The event occurs every year the Monday following Ash Wednesday. In 2025, the event spanned March 10 to 12.

The user who posted the original video in question has a variety of other videos showcasing the event that were posted the same day. 

According to the city of Basel’s official website, the cortége features groups, also called cliques, who adhere to a “sujet,” or theme, and march a predetermined route as part of the procession. 

The site explains:

In some cases, a formation’s sujet [theme] is already recognizable from a distance – namely on the large lantern that precedes each traditional clique. The sujet is also represented and reflected in the head-masks (Larve), costumes, and props (Requisiten). Behind the lantern and the so-called “Vortrab” (vanguard) come the pipers, the drum major and the drummers. Some of the large floats and props (Requisiten) that feature in the cortège can be admired at the Kaserne where they are on display throughout the day on Tuesday.

According to the city, the event is “where socio-political topics, stories and current events are communicated in a typical Basel manner: proudly, with acerbic wit and biting humour.” 

The Basel website continues, “The Carnival in Basel is part of the city’s identity – culturally speaking, it is at the heart of its creative energies and represents three days when the city goes wild. The largest carnival of Switzerland is so unique and of such exceptional quality that it appears on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.” 

Further, the lantern on display is another traditional part of the festival. According to the Basel website, “the lanterns reveal their true magic after dark when they are lit for the first time.” Photographs from the 2025 event found on Getty Images depict the same Trump lantern seen in the TikTok video lit up later in the evening. 

The modern incarnation of the festival has its origins in the Protestant branch of Christianity. “The oldest document about the Carnival in Basel dates back to 1376,” according to the city, though its origins are even older. Due to a devastating earthquake in 1356, many documents from before that time are lost to history. 

However, the city of Basel’s website notes that the festivities “trace back to ancient Celtic and Germanic origins and practices relating to ancestor worship, fertility rites and the expulsion of winter.” 

During the Reformation, a period in the 16th century when Protestantism emerged as theology challenging the authority of the Catholic Church, “merrymaking and feasting were increasingly restricted.” As a result, the Carnival in Basel eventually “developed into a display of resistance against the city’s authorities.” Later in the 19th century, “the parades became more political and gradually adopted their typical satirical bent.”

Finally, it was in the years following World War II that the festival as it is known today took full shape. 

The city’s website adds, “In the years after the Second World War, many new cliques were established, the quality of piping and drumming rose to new levels, while the costumes and head-masks (Larve) took on their typical Basel touch. New traditions and rituals sprang up which are still celebrated today as if they had existed already for centuries.”

The Swiss media covered the Carnival in Basel throughout the week. Trump is not the only American politician to be featured as a sujet in the cortége. An image on the photo depository Alamy depicts former U.S. President George W. Bush on a hand-painted lantern on display during the event in 2003.