Fake Post, Which Looked to Be Trump’s on Truth Social, Spreads Widely

A fake post designed to look like President Trump’s social media feed spread widely over the weekend, adding confusion to debate about his recent online activity. Posts on X circulating the forgery reached at least 3.7 million views by Saturday. The message appeared to explain why Mr.

Trump had deleted a racist video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. In the forged message, Mr. Trump asserted the video was offensive to animals. Many users recognized the post as fake, but some—including right‑wing accounts that praised the president for not apologizing—treated it as genuine.

The X user who first published the forgery did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The spread of the fake post was aided by uncertainty over how the original racist clip was posted and why it was removed. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially called it a joke drawn from a longer video portraying Democrats as jungle animals; Mr.

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