Did Donald Trump write on X that he was "regrowing" his ear after it was pierced by a bullet? No, that's not true: The creator of the fake Trump post admitted it was meant to be satirical. The X post does not appear on the former president's X account.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on July 20, 2024. It opened:
Give me a fucking break, man!!!
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Jul 22 17:57:56 UTC)
The post could not be found on Trump's Truth Social account, where he is most active, on or around the date on the purported X post. It also was not on his X account, where he has not posted since August 24, 2023.
An X user claimed (archived here) to having created the fake post (archived here), which was confirmed by a reverse image search, as no older posts using that same image could be located.
This is the post where a user claimed to having created the X post:
(Image: X screenshot taken on Mon Jul 22 18:52:43 UTC)
Below the original post, its creator admitted it was satirical in a self reply (archived here). It read:
POE's law is real. And this is a perfect demonstration of this, especially when it comes to Trump.
This is what the self reply looked like at the time of writing:
(Image: X screenshot taken on Mon Jul 22 19:45:36 UTC)
Poe's law is internet slang. dictionary.com (archived here) defines it as:
Poe's Law is a popular adage that says satirical expressions of extremism online are hard to distinguish from genuine ones without indicating intent.
Trump's right ear was struck during a shooting by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks during a presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
It's not possible for humans to regrow lost limbs. Only some animal species have the ability to do that, such as lizards, starfish and salamanders.
The X post could have been fabricated by using a fake Tweet generator such as tweetgen.com or tweethunter.io.
More fact checks by Lead Stories about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump can be found here.
