Donald Trump post saying he marched with MLK is fake
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 17, 2024 at 21:17
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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“Unlike Martin Luther King, Crooked Joe Biden and Deranged Jack Smith are persecuting me just because I put America first. I marched with King and he didn’t mind that I was white. I have a hole (sic) lot of black friends," says what appears to be a screenshot of a Trump post on his social media platform.
The image spread across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, as the United States on January 15, 2024 celebrated a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
Some users appeared to believe the post was authentic despite the misspelling.
"And they're actually contemplating giving him the nuclear launch codes again? I'm so ashamed of my country right now," says one January 15 post on X, referencing Trump's bid to retake the White House in the 2024 US election.
Polling indicates the former president is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination despite several criminal investigations against him, including two led by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
But the supposed Trump post about King is fake -- no such message appears on his Truth Social feed.
The Republican presidential candidate posted throughout the national holiday to attack his opponents in the Iowa caucuses, which he later won. He did not mention King.
The purported statement also does not appear in archived versions of Trump's profile, and a keyword search for the text surfaced no results.
The fake post appears to have been created by adding the fabricated message over a screengrab of a real Truth Social post. Faded text in the background of the image circulating online matches something Trump said on Christmas Day.
"Merry Christmas to all, including Crooked Joe Biden’s ONLY HOPE, Deranged Jack Smith, the out of control Lunatic who just hired outside attorneys, fresh from the SWAMP (unprecedented!), to help him with his poorly executed WITCH HUNT against 'TRUMP' and 'MAGA,'" Trump said in the December 25, 2023 post (archived here).
No evidence of statement
Trump referenced King on several occasions during his time in office, according to a Factba.se database of his remarks. In 2017, for example -- days before his inauguration -- he met with King's eldest son to commemorate the holiday.
But AFP found no evidence Trump has claimed to have "marched" alongside the civil rights leader.
The former president, now 77, would have been 21 years old when King was assassinated in 1968. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania later that year.
Clarence Jones, a former adviser and speechwriter for King, told MSNBC on January 14, 2024 that the reverend would likely have described Trump as a "moral fraud."
AFP contacted Trump's campaign for comment, but no response was forthcoming.
AFP has previously debunked other fabricated Trump Truth Social posts here, here, here, here and here.
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