Gawker took credit on Sunday for trolling Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with an account that tweeted quotes by dictator Benito Mussolini, but credited them as quips from the real estate mogul.
Earlier in the day, Trump retweeted one of them.
Here’s Trump’s retweet:
“@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain“
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2016
Trump defended retweeting the quote during an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” and said he wanted “to be associated with interesting quotes.”
But, the user “@ilduce2016” was created by Gakwer senior writer Ashley Feinberg and Gawker Media Editorial Labs director Adam Pash, the publication wrote on Sunday in a post entitled “How We Fooled Donald Trump Into Tweeting Benito Mussolini.”
Gawker wrote that it was a “trap for Trump” to see if he would retweet the account.
Read Gawker’s full explanation.