On the ballot at the November midterms are GOP candidates who not only buy into the former president’s baseless narrative of a stolen election but are using it in their own campaigns.
One recent claim circulating online suggested that Trump would issue a diktat to his supporters in order to end all the ongoing investigations against him—including those examining his propagation of election fraud claims.
The Claim
A tweet by The Halfway Post posted on October 6, 2022, stated: “BREAKING: Donald Trump just told the DOJ he’s going to make his supporters boycott all elections until they drop every investigation into his bank fraud, election fraud, espionage, and coup attempt.”
Screenshots of the tweet have also been shared on other platforms, including on the r/WhitePeopleTwitter subReddit, where it received more than 74,000 upvotes.
The Facts
There is some context behind this claim. In October 2021, Trump released a statement claiming Republicans wouldn’t vote in 2022 or 2024 unless “we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020.”
However, while the post on Twitter has some similarities to Trump’s previous remarks, it was intended as satire.
The Halfway Post, which posted the claim, describes itself in its Twitter bio as “Halfway true satire,” created by comedian Dash MacIntyre.
It frequently posts other satirical claims, many of which are purposefully absurdist, such as “BREAKING: Donald Trump says if he gets imprisoned, all of his supporters should get themselves incarcerated too in solidarity.”
However, in the case of the joke about boycotts, the lines between reality and parody perhaps sit rather more closely together.
The Halfway Post’s message was subsequently picked up on Reddit and received more than 76,000 engagements in less than 24 hours.
A caption next to the post stated “Donald Trump is asking supporters to boycott all elections. I 100% support this strategy.”
However, after being flagged by users, it was eventually labeled “Satire. But totally sounds like something he would say.”
The Halfway Post also made more or less the same joke about two months ago, and then another two months before that, as noted by Snopes.
In any case, it would make little sense for Trump to ask his supporters not to vote for him or candidates running with his support. The post’s real intention, instead, appears to be to draw attention to his list of recent legal woes.
Satirical posts are frequently mistaken for genuine news, particularly where the content isn’t sufficiently labeled or disseminated in such a way that it may not be interpreted as such.
Trump has often been the target of comedic or satirical content; recently one comedian posted a series of pretend Truth Social ads including one for a Covid vaccine radar.
Another satire account impersonated Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) claiming the outgoing Wyoming congresswoman called Trump a “cute Russian b**h.”
Donald Trump and the Department of Justice have been approached for comment.
The Ruling
Satire.
The claim is false. While Donald Trump has previously claimed that Republicans won’t vote in the midterms or the 2024 presidential elections unless his false claims about the 2020 White House race were “solved,” the post about election boycotts was written by a satirist.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
