PORTLAND, Maine — Donald Trump is dramatically describing a video that he says shows the U.S. paying off Iran as part of a deal to release U.S. sailors from Iranian custody. There’s no evidence such a tape exists.

He appears to have mistaken video footage of a plane in Geneva, Switzerland He also confused two groups of U.S. captives in Iran. Although concerns persist that the money was a reward for the release of Americans, those concerns relate to four private U.S. citizens — not the 10 U.S. sailors who went too close to an Iranian military installation.

Trump: “I’ll never forget the scene this morning. And remember this: Iran — I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here — Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off that airplane. Right? $400 million in cash.

“Now, here’s the amazing thing — over there, where that plane landed, top secret. They don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right? And they have a perfect tape. Done by obviously a government camera. And the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane, right?

“That means that, in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes, right? It’s a military tape.”

The facts: The Washington Post sent a Fox News video to Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks asking if that was the footage upon which he based his claims. She confirmed it was. But the video does not resemble his description.

It shows three people getting off a small plane, apparently in Geneva, and two of them or all three carrying bags, the size of a gym bag. The footage is labeled “January 17,” the day of the release of the U.S. citizens and of the announcement of the $400 million payment. It was also the day after the Iran nuclear deal took effect. No cash is shown.

Moreover, The Wall Street Journal, which this week reported previously unknown details of the payment, said the cash was flown to Tehran. The Geneva footage Trump saw, then, does not illustrate the transaction.

The $400 million payment — plus $1.3 billion in interest to be paid later — arose from a transaction in the late 1970s. The Iranian government, under the U.S.-backed shah, paid the U.S. $400 million for military equipment, but the shah was overthrown and U.S.-Iranian relations severed before the equipment was delivered.

In 1981, the United States and Iran agreed to set up a commission at The Hague that would rule on claims by each country for property and assets held by the other. Iran’s claim for return of the equipment payment was among many that had been tied up in litigation at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal.

— Associated Press