Fact Check: FAKE Screenshot Of Trump Threatening WMD Use Against Iran NOT Real Truth Social Post

Fact Check

  • by: Ed Payne
Fact Check: FAKE Screenshot Of Trump Threatening WMD Use Against Iran NOT Real Truth Social Post Not Trump Post

Does an actual Truth Social post by President Donald Trump threaten to use weapons of mass destruction against Iran? No, that's not true: Even though a viral image claims to show one, there is no such post on his Truth Social account. There are also no news reports of such a threat coming from the White House, which, if it was real, would constitute major breaking news reported widely across the globe by multiple outlets.

The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @CryptoCyberia account on X on March 22, 2026. It read:

Well, this is going poorly for all involved.

Accompanying the post was an alleged Truth Social screenshot showing:

The IRGC just stated that if we bomb Iran's power plants, they'll bomb delisalination plants in the Gulf States. DO NOT DO IT! IT WOULD BE A HUGE MISTAKE! Majority of the people in the Gulf States rely on these desalination plants for their daily drinking water. The level of death and suffering caused would be comparable to that of WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. If the terrorist regime of Iran did it, we may have to respond with such WEAPONS OF OUR OWN. I pray I NEVER have to do it, but if the lives of MILLIONS are at stake, I WILL NOT HESITATE! Thank you for you attention to this matter! - President DJT

This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:

Trump.png

(Image source: post by @CryptoCyberia on X.com.)

Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) and did not find any matching reports. Such a threat from Trump or the White House would have been widely reported.

A direct search of President Trump's Truth Social account for the phrase "The IRGC just stated that if we bomb Iran's power plants" returned no results (archived here).

Also, an search (archived here) of Trump's Truth Social account on Google, limited to links containing "https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump" via the "site:" operator, returned no results containing the same words as the fake post: "The IRGC just stated that if we bomb Iran's power plants."

The acount that posted the screenshot later admitted it was fake (archived here):

The fake post also included two typos or misspellings -- "delisalination" in the first sentence instead of "desalination," and "Thank you for you attention to this matter!" in the last sentence instead of "Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

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  Ed Payne

Ed Payne is a staff writer at Lead Stories. He is an Emmy Award-winning journalist as part of CNN’s coverage of 9/11. Ed worked at CNN for nearly 24 years with the CNN Radio Network and CNN Digital. Most recently, he was a Digital Senior Producer for Gray Television’s Digital Content Center, the company’s digital news hub for 100+ TV stations. Ed also worked as a writer and editor for WebMD. In addition to his journalistic endeavors, Ed is the author of two children’s book series: “The Daily Rounds of a Hound” and “Vail’s Tales.” 

Read more about or contact Ed Payne

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