Former U.S. President Donald Trump did not call on his supporters to boycott November’s midterm elections after the FBI searched his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. The claim originated on a satire Twitter account, although some were duped into thinking that the claim was legitimate.
A tweet originally published by @HalfwayHouse on Aug. 14, 2022 that was screenshot and shared in August 2022 reads: “BREAKING: Donald Trump is telling all his supporters to boycott the midterm elections because of how the DOJ is treating him so unfairly.” (here)
One user who shared a screenshot of the post on Facebook said: “WHAT!!! If his supporters don’t vote then republicans will lose every race! Right?!” (here).
No such call was publicly made by the former president, however.
A search through Trump’s statements made after the Aug. 8 2022 searched published via his official website do not include calls to boycott the Nov. 2022 election (here), (here), (here), (here), (here), (here).
No such call was publicly made via Trump’s ‘Truth Social’ account (here).
A search through his spokesperson, Liz Harrington’s Twitter account did not reveal any related statement (twitter.com/realLizUSA).
A Twitter advanced search of Harrington’s profile did not reveal a call to boycott the midterms (archive.ph/fmAoc).
The claim also originated on a Twitter account that describes itself as a satirical profile. The description of the profile reads: “Dada journalism, halfway true satire, & liberal comedy by @DashMacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them. My book: "Satire In The Trump Years” (twitter.com/HalfwayPost).
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
Reuters previously addressed a fabricated tweet purporting to show a post published by the former president’s son, Donald Jr., calling on his supporters not to walk on the lawn at Mar-a-Lago. The fake tweet, created by another satire account, duped users online (here).
VERDICT
Satire. Former U.S. President Donald Trump did not call on his supporters to boycott the November midterm elections after the FBI searched his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, in August 2022. The claim originated on a satire Twitter account, although some were duped into thinking that the fabricated news was legitimate.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.
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