Did U.S. President Donald Trump ask people to forward the "Congressional Reform Act of 2017," also described as "the TRUMP Rules," to "a minimum of 20 people" in early 2025? No, that's not true: His social media posts did not mention the purported proposal in 2025. The text of the so-called "Congressional Reform Act" has been circulating on the internet for more than 15 years, and its contents have been debunked multiple times. The earliest version of the text predates the first Trump presidency and doesn't even mention him.
The claim reappeared in a post on Facebook where it was published on March 4, 2025. It opened: "President Trump is asking everyone to forward this to a minimum of 20 people, and to ask each of those to do likewise." It continued:
In three days, most people in the United States will have the message. This is an idea that should be passed around, regardless of political party.
The TRUMP Rules: Congressional Reform Act of 20171. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office. And, no more perks go with them.2. Congress (past, present, & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.3. Congress must purchase their own retirement plan, just as ALL Americans do.4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people (i.e. NO MORE INSIDER TRADING!!!).7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congress made all these contracts by and for themselves.Serving in Congress is an honor and privledge NOT a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators should serve their term(s), then go home and go back to work ... not get all kinds of freebies.NO WONDER THEY'RE FIGHTING EVERYTHING HE TRIES! Pass it on!!!! Let's help TRUMP drain the swamp!! Just hold your finger down then hit forward and send it to everyone you know. Let's help trump get the country straightened out.I completely agree w the above. Term limits and treat them like a regular citizen
Pass it on if you agree.
You will need to copy and paste it.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Mar 4 21:50:37 2025 UTC)
No reports
A search of a regularly updated archive of Trump's posts on social media (archived here) did not find any entries discussing the purported document:
(Source: Trumpstruth.org screenshot taken on Tue Mar 4 22:14:17 2025 UTC)
A search across legislative proposals in Congress of 2017 bills (archived here) did not show any matching items:
(Source: Congress screenshot taken on Tue Mar 4 22:33:08 2025 UTC)
The claim reappeared on social media hours before the Trump's March 4, 2025, address to Congress (archived here). By then, it was more than 15 years old.
According to a Snopes article published in December 2009 (archived here) the first variation of the claim about the so-called "Congressional Reform Act" did not mention Trump at all -- it was distributed allegedly on behalf of businessman Warren Buffett (archived here).
A search on Google News for the keywords seen here (archived here) led to various fact checks published over the years by FactCheck, PolitiFact and USA Today, among others.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims mentioning Donald Trump can be found here.
Stories about the U.S. are here.
