No, Trump did not write this tweet accusing Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of poor leadership
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 17, 2020 at 18:44
- Updated on January 17, 2020 at 19:01
- 2 min read
- By Amanuel NEGUEDE, AFP Ethiopia
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The screenshot, which we've archived here, here, here and here, purports to show Trump criticizing the fact that Abiy Ahmed won a Nobel Peace Prize despite ongoing ethnic violence and political instability in Ethiopia.
The screenshot of Trump's purported tweet (see below) reads: "Under Abiy Ahmed leadership; Ethiopia's top General was assassinated, the country's top Engineer was found dead in broad daylight at a public square, hundreds of people were killed and millions displaced due to ethnic violence. Yet, he won the Noble [sic] peace prize. What a joke!"
This screenshot appeared online shortly after Trump gave a speech during a rally in Toledo, Ohio on January 9 in which he took credit for Abiy Ahmed's Nobel prize. He told the crowd: "I made a deal, I saved a country, and I just heard that the head of that country is now getting the Nobel Peace Prize for saving the country." (See video below.)
The Nobel committee honored Abiy -- Africa’s youngest leader at 43 -- for progress in the months after he took power in April 2018, including formally ending a stalemate with Eritrea and pushing to introduce democratic elections in a country long ruled by authoritarian governments.
A day after Trump’s remarks at the Toledo rally, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s official Twitter account tweeted that Trump was “confused”, and said that “Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts to bring peace to the Horn of Africa, not stalled negotiations about a new dam on the Nile”. (See screenshot below.)
After Trump’s complaints about missing out on the Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed responded on a televised speech saying, “If Trump wants to complain, he should go to Oslo, not Ethiopia”. (Video below.)
AFP ran an advanced search on Twitter and found no trace of the purported Trump tweet on the US president’s official account. We also searched keywords from the purported tweet in The Trump Archive, a tool that saves all tweets from Trump’s official account -- even ones that have been deleted.
As you can see from the screenshot above, Trump has only written one tweet about Ethiopia in the past -- and it was not the tweet from the screenshot.
AFP has previously debunked several fake Trump tweets relating to Ethiopia. You can read our fact-checks here, here and here.
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