Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s online presence is just as outlandish and generally off-color as his in real life persona – so maybe that’s why people keep falling for fake tweets attributed to the ex-reality TV star.
On Thursday, Twitter user @Rivermansky63, who describes himself as a “musician, fascinated by politics + a lover of travel” from South Wales, and who has about 2,100 followers, posted an image that appeared to show a tweet from Trump’s verified Twitter account.
The “Trump” tweet criticized Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton and said “my ancestors didn’t make their way to this great country to have immigrants come in and take their jobs!!!”
@Rivermansky63’s tweet quickly went viral. By Friday morning, it had received almost 11,000 retweets and more than 7,000 favorites.
Is Trump insane? Just read this, read it and try to imagine how his mind makes logic out of this statement pic.twitter.com/23QDoIFMfg
— Alex M (@Rivermansky63) October 15, 2015
The tweet sounded believably par for the course from a candidate who launched his 2016 campaign calling Mexican immigrants entering the U.S. “rapists” and drug runners.
There was just one problem – it was fake.
Trump never tweeted the remark, and @Rivermansky63 eventually explained over and over again to his followers that the “Trump” tweet was fake. It’s unclear, however, where the fake image originated.
@H0ggman I have no idea where it’s from. I spotted it on my timeline this morning, copied it and tweeted my reaction. Probably a fake
— Alex M (@Rivermansky63) October 15, 2015
The Trump tweet I copied and posted this morning looks like a hoax. I thought it was comedy gold at the time but sadly it doesn’t seem true
— Alex M (@Rivermansky63) October 15, 2015
Ok we’ve all been fooled by the original post. Calm down, my Twitter app is freezing up
— Alex M (@Rivermansky63) October 15, 2015
I wish my other tweets were as popular as the Trump one 🙁
— Alex M (@Rivermansky63) October 15, 2015
@The76Percent yes! I wish I had taken notice of the account I copied it from but wasn’t planning on a viral post
— Alex M (@Rivermansky63) October 15, 2015
@krazyfrog I have realised that now, waiting for everyone else to catch up
— Alex M (@Rivermansky63) October 15, 2015
Still, the fake Trump tweet tricked more than just @Rivermansky63 and faceless egg accounts.
The Nation’s national affairs correspondent Joan Walsh and musician Neko Case were among those who retweeted the fake “ancestors” tweet.
Case later tweeted she was “sure it’s fake.”
@ElCoso8 @Rivermansky63 I’m sure it’s fake, but it’s so funny. The whole ball of wax is a shit-show.
— Neko Case (@NekoCase) October 15, 2015
On Friday, CJ Werleman, whose Twitter identifies him as an “Op-Ed Columnist for Middle East Eye” and boasts some 31,000 followers, gave the fake tweet another viral moment on Thursday with more than 4,300 retweets. Markos Moutlitsas, founder of the Daily Kos, retweeted Werleman’s message to his 131,000 followers.
Take all the time you need to process what Trump just said. pic.twitter.com/u2oG8zHFTo
— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) October 15, 2015
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened during Trump’s campaign.
Twitter user Jared Oban, a self-described “Internet Overloard,” told TPM he created the original fake Trump tweet, pointing to an image he posted on Oct. 13, a day before @Rivermansky63’s tweet went viral. He also said others on the web had stolen his “work.”
@kath_krueger Just read your Trump article on TPM. Can you please credit me, as I created the fake tweet, not the tweet with 15k RTs?
— Jared Oban (@jaredoban) October 16, 2015
@kath_krueger happy to provide the original file, but here is the link to my tweet: https://t.co/d5fJgqaorB. Followed you if you’d like more
— Jared Oban (@jaredoban) October 16, 2015
The Internet: A place where everyone steals my fucking work http://t.co/FOJ0CoPRyi @TPM @kath_krueger @Rivermansky63
— Jared Oban (@jaredoban) October 16, 2015
In August, Newsweek reporter Zach Schonfeld found out how hard the Internet will fall for a diss attributed to the Republican. Schonfeld wrote an article for Vice detailing how he used a site that generates fake tweets to create one in which Trump appeared to call the legendary indie rock band Pavement “total clowns!!”
Trump went too far this time pic.twitter.com/R8wDSaUpEI
— Zach Schonfeld (@zzzzaaaacccchhh) August 8, 2015
The fake tweet incited angry Pavement fans, got aggregated by music news sites, and generally played perfectly into the narrative that Trump doesn’t shy away from sharing what’s on his mind.
Countless journalists have also taken tweets from Twitter user @realDonaldTrunp for the real thing. The account has garnered 21,200 followers with just over 100 tweets parodying the GOP frontrunner.
This story has been updated.
