Investigating declare Trump seeks to decrease age of consent and marriage to 14

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A rumor that circulated on-line in August 2025 claimed U.S. President Donald Trump, and the Republican Celebration, deliberate to federally act to scale back the age of consent for sexual exercise, or the minimal age for marriage, to 14 — issues historically controlled on the state stage. Snopes acquired reader searches asking if this rumor was true.

Customers' posts alleged Trump and Republicans pursued this matter to protect the president from going through prices associated to his actions with deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, particularly relating to unproven allegations that undisclosed authorities information relating to Epstein's previous not solely mention Trump's name but additionally say he engaged in intercourse with underage ladies. Trump has beforehand denied information and involvement in Epstein's crimes.

In probably the most distinguished examples of customers sharing the declare, on Aug. 11, content material creator Monte Mader (@montemader) posted a three-minute video ( archived ) to their greater than 1.5 million Instagram followers. The clip acquired over 2.3 million views. Mader additionally posted the video on Facebook ( archived ), TikTok ( archived ) and YouTube ( archived ), collectively incomes almost 700,000 extra views. Mader, the one particular person talking within the clip, made quite a few claims, together with mentioning Trump's Aug. 11 press convention saying his takeover of Washington's police division.

This partial transcript highlights Mader's major assertions, which embrace alleging state governments in Missouri, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wyoming drafted laws to permit 14-year-olds to marry adults:

Donald Trump and Republicans try to scale back the age of consent for marriage to 14 years of age. In his press convention this morning, earlier than he federally seized DC, he claimed that there have been droves of violent youngsters inflicting crime, and that any particular person fourteen fourteen years previous or up needs to be tried as an grownup. However they're additionally altering the legal guidelines so {that a} 14-year-old lady can be eligible for marriage, and it might change how intercourse crimes are prosecuted.

There are 4 states — Wyoming, Missouri, New Hampshire, and West Virginia — who've already written little one marriage legal guidelines to permit for a 14 12 months previous to marry a grown grownup, and any age discrepancy that may be charged as a intercourse crime will not be against the law.

...

And the way handy that now that we all know that Trump is within the Epstein information, they're attempting to legalize the age of the ladies we all know he slept with as a result of there are victims who've testified about it.

Nevertheless, searches of Bing , DuckDuckGo , <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+lower+age+consent+marriage+14&newwindow=1&sca_esv=2dfd597b30ca6995&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A8%2F1%2F2025%2Ccd_max%3A8%2F11%2F2025&sxsrf=AE3TifNOOKKHpbyDMYmOw0Rlcv-vNCWndQ%3A1755026199571&ei=F5ObaKbRIpHMkPIPxu2B8Aw&ved=0ahUKEwjmuMmJ_oWPAxURJkQIHcZ2AM4Q4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=trump+lower+age+consent+marriage+14&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiI3RydW1wIGxvd2VyIGFnZSBjb25zZW50IG1hcnJpYWdlIDE0SIQSUPUGWJMQcAF4AJABAJgBVqAB-ASqAQE5uAEDyAEA-AEBmAIAoAIAmAMAiAYBkgcAoAe9B7IHALgHAMIHAMgHAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp">Google and Yahoo situated no information media retailers credibly confirming any developments about Trump and Republicans in search of to decrease the age of consent for intercourse or marriage to 14. A evaluation of Trump's posts on his personal Fact Social social media platform discovered no bulletins about this matter, both.

Additional, related searches produced no documentation about governments within the 4 aforementioned states drafting laws to permit youngsters as younger as 14 years previous to marry adults. Quite the opposite, retailers reported that, in latest months or years, Missouri , New Hampshire , West Virginia and Wyoming both prohibited or tightened restrictions associated to marriage for individuals beneath age 18.

Content material creator Vitus "V" Spehar, who manages the Under the Desk News group, additionally shared movies selling this declare on Facebook ( archived ), Instagram ( archived ) and TikTok ( archived ), collectively receiving round 4 million views. Different customers additionally shared posts in regards to the declare on Bluesky ( archived ), Facebook ( archived ), Instagram , Threads ( archived ), TikTok ( archived ) and X ( archived ).

In an electronic mail to Snopes, the White Home known as the rumor "faux." GOP Nationwide Press Secretary Kiersten Pels additionally mentioned, " This smear is a blatant lie pushed by far-left media propagandists. No state within the U.S. permits 14‑12 months‑olds to marry adults, and the false declare that Republicans try to vary that has zero foundation in reality." We additional contacted Mader and Spehar by way of electronic mail and Instagram messages to request proof to again up their claims, and can replace this story if we obtain extra data.

Trump's Fact Social put up about prosecuting youngsters Mader's assertion, which claimed Trump mentioned at his press convention he sought to prosecute alleged criminals age 14 and up as adults, referenced Trump's remarks from a Fact Social put up from the earlier week. On Aug. 5, Trump posted ( archived ), partly:

Crime in Washington, D.C., is completely uncontrolled. Native "youths" and gang members, some solely 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and taking pictures harmless Residents, on the similar time understanding that they are going to be nearly instantly launched. They don't seem to be afraid of Legislation Enforcement as a result of they know nothing ever occurs to them, however it will occur now! The Legislation in D.C. have to be modified to prosecute these "minors" as adults, and lock them up for a very long time, beginning at age 14.

PolitiFact reported about a few of Trump's claims relating to "completely uncontrolled" crime in Washington, together with the actual fact he made no point out of a drop in homicides from the 12 months 2023 to 2024 — a 12 months with the bottom variety of homicides since 2019, in response to crime knowledge hosted on Washington's Metropolitan Police Division website .

For additional studying, a earlier fact-check article examined the declare Trump signed a regulation efficient Aug. 1 that makes {couples} who've been in a relationship for 5 years routinely legally married. One other story reported Trump really as soon as known as Epstein a "terrific man," and added, "It's even mentioned that he likes lovely girls as a lot as I do, and lots of of them are on the youthful aspect."

Sources

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Clara Bates. "Missouri Gov. Kehoe Indicators Legislation Banning Little one Marriage, after Years of Failed Efforts." KCUR - Kansas Metropolis Information and NPR , Missouri Impartial, 10 Jul. 2025, https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2025-07-10/missouri-child-marriage-ban-foster-kids-benefits.

Cullen, Margie. "Little one Marriage Legislation Holds in NH as Senate Rejects Creating Exception for Some 17-12 months-Olds." Portsmouth Herald , 17 Might 2025, https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/information/politics/2025/05/17/no-child-marriage-in-nh-senate-rejects-exception-to-new-law/83666819007/.

"District Crime Knowledge at a Look." Metropolitan Police Division (MPD) , https://mpdc.dc.gov/dailycrime.

FindLaw Employees. "State-by-State Marriage 'Age of Consent' Legal guidelines." FindLaw , 4 Apr. 2016, https://www.findlaw.com/household/marriage/state-by-state-marriage-age-of-consent-laws.html.

Gurman, Sadie, et al. "Justice Division Instructed Trump in Might That His Title Is Amongst Many within the Epstein Information." The Wall Avenue Journal , 23 Jul. 2025, https://www.wsj.com/politics/justice-department-told-trump-name-in-epstein-files-727a8038.

"LIVE: Trump Holds Information Convention on Crime in D.C. | NBC Information." YouTube , 11 Aug. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcS3wkDf4MU.

Lusvardi, Amber. "Behind the Gaetz Scandal, There is a Larger Challenge: Most States Have Loopholes That Let Males Exploit Teenage Ladies." The Washington Submit , 13 Apr. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/13/behind-gaetz-scandal-theres-bigger-issue-most-states-have-loopholes-that-let-men-exploit-teen-girls/.

Megerian, Chris, and Eric Tucker. "Trump Says Epstein 'stole' Younger Ladies from Mar-a-Lago Spa, Together with Virginia Giuffre." The Related Press , 29 Jul. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-congress-ghislaine-maxwell-justice-department-3ca45e130deb5f2eee8deff36d99734f.

Raby, John. "West Virginia Bans Marriage for Youngsters Age 15 or Youthful." The Related Press , 29 Mar. 2023, https://apnews.com/article/child-marriage-ban-west-virginia-713a340ee516c6377db7bb52a817d133.

Roll Name FiscalNote. "Roll Name Factba.Se - Press Convention: Donald Trump Proclaims Navy Deployment in Washington - August 11, 2025." Roll Name Factba.se , 11 Aug. 2025, https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-press-conference-law-enforcement-washington-dc-august-11-2025.

"Trump Deflects Questioning on Epstein Information, Revives Outdated Grievances As an alternative." The Related Press , 22 Jul. 2025, https://apnews.com/stay/donald-trump-news-updates-7-22-2025.

Trump, Donald. "Crime in Washington, D.C., Is Completely out of Management." Fact Social , 5 Aug. 2025, https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114977985620971126.

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"Wyoming Takes Steps to Restrict Little one Marriage." Tahirih Justice Middle , 28 Feb. 2023, https://www.tahirih.org/information/wyoming-takes-steps-to-limit-child-marriage/.

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