Fabricated Trump post harpooning Albanese fools Australian users

Published on September 9, 2025 at 11:13
3 min read
By Dene-Hern CHEN, AFP Australia

Following Donald Trump's phone call with Australia's prime minister in early September, a fabricated Truth Social post of the US leader deriding Anthony Albanese as "not very smart" spread widely online. There was no record of any such post on Trump's social media or its archives, while the image features a different font as one typically used on Truth Social.

"Last night I spoke with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony 'Airbus' Albanese. This conversation confirmed what I already knew to be true, he is not very SMART!" reads an image of a post attributed to Trump, which an Australia-based Facebook user shared September 5, 2025.

"He keeps asking to meet with me, maybe we can lock in a SHOWDOWN in the Oval Office soon. It will not go very well for him! Australians recently marched for their freedom & DEPORTATIONS... #MakeAustraliaGreatAgain," adds the post, which had more than 12,400 views and was shared some 100 times.

The same image was also shared by users across X and Instagram, as well as by users in New Zealand.

Screenshot of the false post taken on September 8, 2025, with the red X added by AFP

The posts started circulating after Albanese announced the call with Trump in a late night post on X on September 4 -- the fourth time the leaders have spoken since Trump's re-election in November (archived here and here).

Albanese -- who has yet to meet with Trump in person -- said the call was "warm and constructive".

The following day, an X user -- who the Australian Associated Press has previously debunked as having done satirical Australia-specific Trump posts -- put up the screenshot with the caption: "BREAKING: Trump roasting the phone call he had with @AlboMP last night!" (archived here and here).

Yet some users sharing the screenshot appeared to take it at face value, with one quipping that Trump "was not impressed by Anthony Albanese".

"Time is almost up for Albo," said an Instagram user, referencing a nickname for the Australian politician.

The bulk of those sharing the screenshot appear to be critical of Albanese and his centre-left Labor government, which has faced vociferous blowback in recent months over immigration issues and housing prices.

But there is no record of the post on the US leader's official Truth Social account, on the WayBack Machine, or Trump's Truth, an independent archive of all his posts (archived here and here).

The last time Trump wrote about Australia on Truth Social was in July when Canberra announced it would ease restrictions on beef imported from the United States (archived here and here).

The font used in the fabricated post is also distinctly different from Trump's Truth Social platform.

Screenshot comparison between the fabricated post (left) and a real post about Australia from Donald Trump's Truth Social account, with elements highlighted by AFP

AFP has previously debunked several fake Truth Social posts attributed to Trump.

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