A fake tweet by an account claiming to be Donald Trump Jr. led to widespread confusion on Thursday night, November 12. The account, which used the handle @rlDonaldTrumpJr, tweeted, “My father is going to release information tonight regarding widespread fraud and systemic voting irregularities that will not only put prominent politicians in jail but will also give @realDonaldTrump another 4 years in the WH. This was a landslide.”
The post was liked over 18,000 times, despite the fact that it did not come from Trump Jr.’s official Twitter account. Many tweeted in response to the post, asking the fake account where and when Trump Jr.’s father would give this alleged information. The account was later suspended with a message reading, “Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules.”
Here’s what you need to know:
No, That Was Not a Real Tweet by Donald Trump Jr.
Though many seemed to believe it came from a verified source, the tweet above did not come from Trump Jr.’s official account. It’s an imposter account that was created in November 2020, has around 600 followers and has Trump Jr.’s photo as its avatar.
By comparison, the real Trump Jr. account has 6.2 million followers and was created in May 2009.
Trump Jr.’s verified Twitter account has frequently tweeted unsubstantiated claims about election fraud and tampering on behalf of his father’s election. Earlier Thursday, the real Trump Jr. retweeted a conspiracy theory on his official account that read, “Pipeburstgate is a far left wing conspiracy theory claiming that during a pivotal moment in the Georgia election, a pipe burst, causing a pause in vote counting. No evidence of a burst pipe has ever been shown to support their baseless conspiracy theory.”
This tweet is in reference to a report of a pipe that burst in a polling center at Atlanta, Georgia, causing a four-hour delay in ballot counting.
Twitter Suspended the Fake Donald Trump Jr. Account Hours After it Posted the Tweet
A fake Donald Trump Jr. account claiming voter fraud has gotten thousands of retweets in less than an hour.
The @rlDonaldTrumpJr account on Twitter is no longer available. Twitter suspended the account within hours of the fake tweet being posted. However, before the account was deleted, well over 8,000 people had retweeted the tweet, with thousands of others liking and commenting on the tweet.
Trump Jr. has not acknowledged the incident.
According to CNN, the Trump siblings have had diverging responses to how the president should behave following Biden’s win of the presidential election. The news network reports:
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are telling their father to aggressively fight to the end, echoing baseless claims that the election has been rigged and the outcome should change. Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, meanwhile, are weighing a different political calculus. Ivanka Trump and Kushner would prefer the President concede the race as soon as next week after the Georgia recount has concluded on November 20, whereas Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. would prefer to drag it out until the bitter end.
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