No, Trump’s sister did not publicly back him. He was duped by a fake account.
On Friday morning, President Trump shared a seemingly innocuous article on Twitter. The piece mentioned that his sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, had publicly voiced her assist for her brother amid his baseless claims that he gained the 2020 election.
“Thank you Elizabeth,” Mr. Trump wrote to his sister, who has lengthy averted the highlight. “LOVE!”
There was only one drawback: Ms. Trump Grau had not mentioned what the article claimed. In truth, the article Mr. Trump shared was primarily based on a fake Twitter account that posed as his sister.
That article, on the web site of a conservative talk-radio host named Wayne Dupree, quoted a put up from a Twitter account named “Betty Trump” that used a photograph of Ms. Trump Grau as its profile image.
“This election inspired me to break my silence and speak out on behalf of my family,” the account mentioned in a put up on Wednesday. “My brother Don won this election and will fight this to the very end. We’ve always been a family of fighters.”
The article on Mr. Dupree’s web site known as the feedback “so powerful” and mentioned they confirmed how “our president really does have such an amazing family.”
Had the article’s writer seemed extra carefully, although, she would have observed some suspicious particulars in regards to the account. It was a day previous. The photographs it used of Ms. Trump Grau were taken from Getty Images and previous information articles about her. And since that first put up, the account had tweeted increasingly bizarre messages, sharply criticizing Democrats, journalists and Republicans who had questioned the false declare that Mr. Trump was re-elected.
“If someone pours gravy down Chris Wallace’s pants at Thanksgiving dinner, I promise, I will take care of the legal fees!” the account mentioned, referring to the Fox News anchor. Another put up mentioned, “The perfect Trump drink on a rough day,” with a photograph of a can of Natty Daddy, a low cost malt beer.
The weird episode illustrates how simply misinformation spreads on-line, typically with the assistance of the president himself. Right-wing web sites that search to assist the president’s baseless claims, or just appeal to clicks to allow them to promote extra advertisements, typically eschew the normal rules of journalism, akin to easy fact-checking. And the social media firms help the cycle by making it easy to share misinformation, together with permitting the usage of fake accounts, and by coaching their algorithms to advertise materials that draws extra consideration, as sensational and divisive posts typically do.
Ms. Trump Grau did not reply to messages left at a telephone quantity and e-mail listed for her in public information.
Vice News reported on Friday that a one who recognized herself as Ms. Trump Grau had mentioned she was making an attempt to get the account deleted. “I have no statement,” the person was quoted as telling Vice. “I’m just annoyed about this whole thing.”
President Trump’s tweet about his sister introduced the fake account a sudden rush of consideration on Friday morning. Shortly after, Mr. Dupree’s web site up to date the piece with a disclaimer that mentioned the account may be an impostor.
“While this has not been officially ‘fact-checked’ by social media executives and professionals, we’re hearing from many others that this is not actually the account of Ms. Elizabeth Trump,” the location mentioned. “We’ll leave it up with this update, and wait for official fact-checkers to weigh in.”
Hours later, the account got here clear. “I would’ve clarified sooner that I was a parody but I certainly didn’t anticipate President Trump himself taking notice of the account,” the particular person working the account posted on Twitter. “Hope y’all will forgive me — feel bad for creating any confusion. LOVE!”
The president’s put up remained up hours later.
Mr. Dupree mentioned in an e-mail that the article’s writer had merely rewritten a put up she had discovered on one other conservative web site. “When I found out, I was confused and I immediately went to the author and they went back to the website they claimed it was from but they didn’t see it so we came up with the statement,” he mentioned. “I don’t want people, readers to think we are fake news.”
The article remained on his web site on Friday afternoon.
By that point, Twitter had deleted the account that posed as Ms. Trump Grau. A Twitter spokesman mentioned the account was “permanently suspended for violating the Twitter Rules on platform manipulation and spam.”
Just earlier than the account was deleted, @TheBettyTrump posted one other message: “President Trump looks tired … he’s working so hard.”
Davey Alba contributed reporting.
