Fake: 2009 Trump Tweet About Pandemic
The Claim
US President Donald Trump tweeted in November 2009 that "Obama’s handling of this whole pandemic has been terrible!" and that he "would never let thousands of Americans die from a pandemic while in office."
News posted on
Emerging story
Since April 2020, an image has become popular on social media depicting a tweet from 2009 from now-president Donald Trump. The tweet criticizes then-president Barack Obama’s handling of a supposed pandemic going on at the time and claims that Trump would be able to lead the nation through such a pandemic better.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation into this claim reveals it to be false. The tweet in question is not genuine, appears neither on Trump’s timeline nor in the Trump Twitter Archive, and does not appear to have a record on the internet before April 2020, thus implying its fabrication at that time. Furthermore, the tweet is above the character limit of Twitter in 2009, which was 140 characters.
