Remember me
A photo circulating online authentically showed a Craigslist ad from January 2026 recruiting paid protesters to demonstrate against U.S. President Donald Trump.
Rating:In January 2026, as protests spread across the U.S. after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, a photo (archived) circulated online purportedly showing a Craigslist ad in Philadelphia looking to hire people to "STOP TRUMP."
The alleged advertisement was offering people up to $1,500 per week — at an hourly rate of up to $18, plus bonuses and overtime — for unspecified work.
One Facebook user posted the picture on Jan. 10 without stating when the ad first started circulating. The caption read, in part:
PAID PROTESTERS CAUSING CHAOS NEED JAIL TIME
Let's stop pretending this is "activism."
These people are being PAID to:
And every time this happens, innocent people get hurt. Property gets destroyed. Officers get attacked. Lives get ruined — sometimes even lost — all because a handful of professional agitators are hired to manufacture outrage and destabilize cities.
Other social media users suggested the ad was circulating in response to the demonstrations over Good's death. For example, one X user wrote: "Craigslist Philly: More proof emerges that the protests are not organic. I'm sure we have the equivalent in New York City and other urban centers. Time to get to the source and shut this noise down!!"
(X user @LT44536706)
The ad photo also circulated elsewhere on X (archived), Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived), while Snopes readers contacted us to ask whether the advertisement was authentic.
In short, it was not possible to independently verify who created and published the ad. However, it was not created in response to Renee Good's death. It first started circulating online in 2016, before President Donald Trump's first administration. Therefore, we determined that social media users sharing the ad in 2026 had miscaptioned the photo.
A search for "stop trump" on Craigslist, adding Philadelphia as a filter, did not bring up the advertisement (archived), as of this writing, though it could have been posted and since deleted. Wider searches for the ad's title revealed Fox News reporting from November 2016 (archived), which said an advertisement with identical text circulated on Craigslist in major American cities, including Philadelphia, before that year's presidential election.
Fox News linked the ads to Planned Parenthood affiliate Community Outreach Group, which the report said was a "for-profit organization formed by Planned Parenthood." The group's tasks reportedly included protesting. According to Fox, neither group confirmed it had posted the ads. Snopes contacted Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization, to ask if it posted the ad in 2016 and/or reposted it in January 2026 and await a reply. Community Outreach Group appeared to no longer be active.
We also called the phone number listed on the ad in some postings, which had a Philadelphia area code, but received a Verizon out-of-service message. Therefore it was not possible, as of this writing, to determine who or what organization posted the ad.
A user of discussion platform QBN.com also posted a version of the listing in November 2016 (archived), corroborating Fox News' reporting that the ad first circulated that year. That listing carried a tag reading "non-profit organization," which could refer to the poster or the nature of the work.
The QBN posting appeared to be a clearer, larger version of the photo circulating in 2026. Both pictures featured identical text and a small, blurred dot over the word "commission" in the listing's penultimate line. Some versions that circulated online in 2026 were cropped and may have been a picture of the 2016 listing displayed on a computer screen, or even a screenshot of such a picture, which would account for the poorer quality.
While it was unclear who originally posted the ads and why, it was clear that they circulated years before Good's death and the resulting protests in January 2026. There was no evidence the ads were circulating on Craigslist in 2026.
Snopes has previously reported on various Craigslist advertisements that appeared to be recruiting paid protesters for various causes.
SourcesBIESECKER, MICHAEL, et al. 'Family and Neighbors Mourn Woman Who Was Shot by ICE Agent and Made Minneapolis Home'. AP News, 8 Jan. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/ice-shooting-minneapolis-minnesota-9aa822670b705c89906f2c699f1d16c5.
Craigslist Ad of the Day - Reply #61 - QBN. https://www.qbn.com/reply/3823148/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
Deng, Rae. 'ICE Shooting of Renee Good Was 1st Recorded Minneapolis Homicide of 2026'. Snopes, 9 Jan. 2026, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/renee-good-ice-shooting-2026-minneapolis-homicides/.
Duster, Chandelis. 'Nationwide Anti-ICE Protests Call for Accountability after Renee Good's Death'. NPR, 11 Jan. 2026. National. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2026/01/10/nx-s1-5673229/ice-protests-minneapolis-portland-renee-good.
'Home'. Community Outreach Group, https://www.communityoutreachgroup.net/.
'Philadelphia Gigs "Stop Trump"'. Craigslist, https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/search/ggg?query=stop%20trump. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
'Philadelphians Protest Fatal Shooting by ICE Officer in Minneapolis'. WHYY, https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-protest-ice-shooting-minneapolis-renee-good/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
Planned Parenthood | Official Site. https://www.plannedparenthood.org. Accessed 14 Jan. 2026.
Richards, Tori. 'Is Planned Parenthood Affiliate Fueling Anti-Trump Protests?' Fox News, 15 Nov. 2016, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/is-planned-parenthood-affiliate-fueling-anti-trump-protests.
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