REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
- President Donald Trump tweeted a link to a story falsely claiming that his sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, had issued a “rare and bold statement” in support of him.
- The story was based on tweets from a parody account, @TheBettyTrump, which was suspended later on Friday.
- Twitter sleuths were quick to find red flags on the parody page, including a lack of tweets going back beyond yesterday and a bizarre photo of Natty Daddy beer as the “perfect Trump drink on a rough day.”
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On Friday morning, President Donald Trump quote tweeted an actual fake news article about one of his sisters standing up for him.
The fake story, initially titled “Trump’s Sister Issues Rare and Bold Statement on 2020 Election and Proves How Much She Believes in Her Brother,” was based on a parody account impersonating his second oldest sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau.
Following scores of responses pointing to the account being an impersonator, the title of the article was changed to identify her as “Trump’s Alleged Sister.”
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2020
The account in question, @TheBettyTrump, later changed its bio to identify as a parody account before it was suspended by Twitter.
—Jake Lahut (@JakeLahut) November 20, 2020
Prior to the account’s suspension, Twitter sleuths found several red flags.
The account's posts only went as far back as yesterday, and included a tweet with a photo of the Natty Daddy beer identified as "The perfect Trump drink on a rough day."
—Jack Nicas (@jacknicas) November 20, 2020
The social media episode marked another instance of President Trump spreading dubious accounts on his official Twitter page.
Elizabeth Trump Grau has largely stayed out of the spotlight during Trump's presidency, and it's unclear if she uses any social media networks.
As of 4 pm Friday, the tweet remained on Trump's page despite the parody account it linked to getting suspended.