Did President Donald Trump revoke the "White House Pass" of Nancy Pelosi? No, that's not true. The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to educate gullible Trump supporters and Republicans about the need to actually click and read links before sharing or liking them in order to avoid being embarrassed by fans of the site later. All the events described in the article are not real.
The story originated from an article published By BustaTroll.org on May 23, 2019 titled "Trump Revokes Pelosi's White House Pass: 'She's Not Going to Treat My Staff Like That'" (archived here) which opened:
President Trump has responded swiftly and fiercely to Nancy Pelosi's outright disrespect towards Kellyanne Conway. According to the Security Office, the Speaker's White House visitor privileges have been revoked.
The action came on direct orders from the President, who told reporters that Pelosi was a "disrespectful mess, and possibly drunk." The Office of Information and Propaganda released this statement:
"Speaker Pelosi went too far when she told Kellyanne that she was just the help. Kellyanne Conway is far more than just 'the help.' She is responsible for the President's daily schedule, his personal calendar, his health regimen, including his feeding and burpings, and his emotionasl well-being. She reads hijm books when he's down and affirmations by Stuart Smalley when he needs inspiration. She's also the only one willing to shampoo the upholstery in the Oval.
President Trump has made it clear: Kellyanne Conway is a part of his team, and if anyone is going to berate her and call her the help, it will be him."
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Trump Revokes Pelosi's White House Pass: 'She's Not Going to Treat My Staff Like That'
Pelosi has gone too far.
The story was posted under the category "Satirical Powers of an Orange President" and the name "Art Tubbols" used in the article is an anagram for "Busta Troll", the nickname of the owner of the site.
The site is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run byself-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine and his partner in crime John Prager along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this he has recently rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry extremely visible disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up. That happened in this case too, with a site that is likely run from Macedonia (we found several Facebook profiles associated with that country spamming links to this story in pro-Trump Facebook groups):
Trump Revokes Pelosi's White House Pass: 'She's Not Going to Treat My Staff Like That' - Fight For America
President Trump has responded swiftly and fiercely to Nancy Pelosi's outright disrespect towards Kellyanne Conway. According to the Security Office, the Speaker's White House visitor privileges have been revoked. The action came on direct orders from the President, who told reporters that Pelosi was a "disrespectful mess, and possibly drunk."
Blair and his operation were profiled by the Washington Post on November 17, 2018 by Eli Saslow:
'Nothing on this page is real': How lies become truth in online America
November 17 The only light in the house came from the glow of three computer monitors, and Christopher Blair, 46, sat down at a keyboard and started to type. His wife had left for work and his children were on their way to school, but waiting online was his other community, an unreality where nothing was exactly as it seemed.
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.
We wrote about bustatroll.org before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Giuliani Did NOT File Impeachment Papers For Pelosi on Behalf of the White House
- Fake News: Pelosi Did NOT Issue Order to Place Barr Under 'Congressional Detention'
- Fake News: Nancy Pelosi NOT Too Drunk to Sign Her Name at 8 AM
- Fake News: Nancy Pelosi NOT Escorted Out of White House, Did NOT Show Up 'Too Drunk to Speak'
- Fake News: Denzel Washington Did NOT Leave Democrat Party, Did NOT Say: 'I've Had it With the Lies'
