Fabricated Trump post mocking Australian PM dupes social media users
- Published on April 23, 2026 at 04:15
- 2 min read
- By Dene-Hern CHEN, AFP Australia
While Donald Trump had criticised Australia for not helping in the Iran war, screenshots of a Truth Social post deriding Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a "sad little man" duped social media users into thinking it was genuinely the US president's account. There is 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.
Warning: Offensive language in paragraph 3 of the story
"We have helped him so much, but he did not want to help us in Iran. A very sad little man!" reads a screenshot of a post attributed to Trump shared by an Australia-based Facebook user on April 18, 2026.
It also calls the Australian leader "retarded" and mocks him for flying to Asia to "secure 1 million barrels of oil, which is ONLY one day of supply for Australia".
"We could have helped you Anthony... but you made your choice by not helping us. WE WILL NOT FORGET!!!"
The same image was also shared by users across Facebook, Instagram and X, with some agreeing with Trump while others criticised the US president for his language.
Content warning
The posts started circulating the week that Trump criticised Australia for not helping out with the Iran war, which was triggered in late February after a joint US-Israeli attack on the Islamic republic (archived link).
He told reporters in Washington on April 16 that "they were not there when we asked them to be there".
"They were not there, having to do with Hormuz," he said.
The day after, when asked about the US president's claims, Albanese said there had been "no new requests" for help.
Australia is heavily reliant on imports for fuel and the government has urged the public to take measures to conserve petrol. The fake post appears to refer to Albanese's visit to Asia, during which he announced he had secured more than 500,000 barrels of diesel from Brunei and South Korea as the country looked to boost stocks hit by the war in the Middle East (archived here and here).
Some social media users appeared to believe Trump's missive on Truth Social to be genuine, with one saying, "My thoughts are so aligned with my favourite, Trump", while others defended Albanese.
"Albo may not be our favourite Labor PM, nor our greatest, but all Aussies should unite and defend him against any slagging from (Trump)," said a Sydney-based user sharing the screenshot.
But there is no record of the post on Trump's official Truth Social account, on the WayBack Machine, or Trump's Truth, an independent archive of all his posts (archived here and here).
A reverse image search on Google showed that the post came from an X user who AFP has previously fact-checked for circulating fabricated Truth Social posts.
The font used in the fabricated post is also distinctly different from Trump's Truth Social platform.
Content warning
AFP has previously debunked several fake Truth Social posts attributed to Trump.
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