Q: Did President Donald Trump tweet that he will deport American Indians to India?
A: No. This claim comes from a satirical website.
FULL QUESTION
Is it true that Trump tweeted that he will deport Native Indians back to India?
FULL ANSWER
President Donald Trump did not tweet that he wants to deport Native Americans to India. The Postillon, a satirical website, posted an article on Feb. 13 that claimed Trump wants to deport “3 million American Indians back to where they came from — India.” The satirical article included two fake Trump tweets threatening deportation.
The Postillon says in its FAQ page, “Everything you can read here is satire and therefore all made-up. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”
A scan of the website’s other articles provides more examples of satire. Another headline: “Trump offers condolences to Japan for Godzilla attack.”
Fake news websites often spread the same bogus stories, and that was the case with the Postillon’s satirical article on Native Americans. It was posted April 29 on powerdaily.us, and users of Facebook flagged that posting as possibly fake. Our readers also have asked us about the bogus tweets that appeared on these websites.
The satirical story claims that Trump, as part of his plan to “improve national security and combat illegal immigration,” intended to sign an executive order that would deport Native Americans to India. The article includes a fake quotation from a bogus interview with Fox News in which the president described Native Americans as “lawless warriors with a history of attacking and killing US citizens.” This is all made up.
Screenshots purporting to show two of Trump’s tweets — both dated Feb. 13 — are perhaps the most convincing part of the article, but they are not real. It’s very easy to create a fake tweet using various internet tools, as we illustrate with this fake tweet.
A search of the president’s personal Twitter account @realDonaldTrump for the word “indians” turned up three tweets — none of them matching those in the satirical story.
Trump has deleted tweets in the past, but the Washington Post created an archive of all his tweets from his first 100 days in office, including the deleted ones. We found no tweets in this archive matching the ones in the satirical article, either.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label viral fake news stories flagged by readers on the social media network.
Sources
“Trump wants to deport American Indians to India.” The Postillon. 13 Feb 2017.
“Trump wants to deport American Indians to India.” Powerdaily.us. 29 April 2017.
The Postillon. “FAQ.” Accessed 4 May 2017.
“Trump offers condolences to Japan for Godzilla attack.” The Postillon. 21 Feb 2017.
Rindler, Danielle. “100 Days of @realDonaldTrump.” Washington Post. 1 May 2017.