Did President Donald Trump send a tweet implying hurricane Dorian shifted course because of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and that millions would have died if Andrew Gillum had been Governor? No, that's not true: the tweet was put out by a parody account but got widely screenshotted and shared on social media as if it were real.
The story originated from a tweet published by @realdonalbtrump (with "b" instead of "d") on August 31, 2019 (archived here) which read:
"Hurricane Dorian has shifted northward and now may hit the Carolinas. Florida may dodge a bullet. That's what happens when you have a governor like Ron DeSantis. If low IQ Andrew Gillum had won millions would've died. Believe me. #HurricaneDorian #hurricane #carolinas"
This is what the tweet looked like:
Hurricane Dorian has shifted northward and now may hit the Carolinas. Florida may dodge a bullet. That's what happens when you have a governor like Ron DeSantis. If low IQ Andrew Gillum had won millions would've died. Believe me. #HurricaneDorian #hurricane #carolinas
-- Donald J Trump. parody (@realdonalbtrump) August 31, 2019
However the parody account has a bio that reads:
NOT the real Donald Trump, just PARODY. If you like any of my tweets please follow. If you thought it was really him for a second what does that say about him?
In reality the last tweet Trump sent mentioning Gillum was this one, just after the latter conceded the election for Florida Governor:
Congratulations to Andrew Gillum on having run a really tough and competitive race for Governor of the Great State of Florida. He will be a strong Democrat warrior long into the future - a force to reckon with!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2018
When you see a screenshot of a tweet being circulated, always check if it is real first. Go to search.twitter.com and type in (part of) the text of the tweet, perhaps in combination with "from:username" (for example: "from:realdonaldtrump"). And make sure the tweet that is returned in the search result comes from the real account of the person (look for the blue checkmark, check the bio for "parody" or "satire").
