Did Donald Trump issue a statement on his "Save America" letterhead that encouraged "all the Great MAGA Patriots" to boycott the midterm elections in November? No, that's not true: According to Trump's chief spokeswoman, that April 27, 2022, statement is fake. The fabricated statement appears to have originated from The Halfway Post, a Twitter account that describes itself as liberal comedy and satire.
The fabricated statement with the "Save America" letterhead was posted as a screenshot in a tweet (archived here) by @HalfwayPost on April 28, 2022. It was captioned, "Donald Trump has a wonderful new election strategy." The message in the screenshot reads:
- April 27, 2022 -
Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the
United States of AmericaIf the tough and freedom-loving candidates I've endorsed for Congress lose their primaries this summer, I invite all the Great MAGA Patriots to BOYCOTT the midterm elections in November. There's no point in GOP majorities if Mitch McConnell is calling all the shots. Apparently he's saying my candidates are crazy and unelectable, but he's the biggest RINO in history! So we don't want a Senate full of weak losers like Mike Pence, Mitt Romney, and their Menopausal Friends who won't say the election was RIGGED. So if we can't MAGA, stay home in November!
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Fri Apr 29 14:02:12 2022 UTC)
The Halfway Post Twitter account @HalfwayPost describes itself this way:
Dada journalism, satire & liberal comedy by @DashMacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them. My book: "SATIRE IN THE TRUMP YEARS"
Lead Stories reached out to Donald Trump's chief spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, to find out if this was a real or fake statement. She responded by email on April 29, 2022:
This is fake.
