Photo: Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty
After a resurgence in online interest in an ridiculous conspiracy theory that First LadyMelania Trumpuses a body double, President Donald Trump blamed “deranged” media outlets for their role.
“They [the media] are only getting more deranged with time!” the president wrote. (Fox & Friends, a favorite morning program for him, discussed the topic on Wednesday morning, per the Associated Press, apparently prompting his tweet.)
The belief — ridiculous on its face — was soon officially deemed so.
“Once again, we find ourselves consumed with a ridiculous non-story when we could be talking about the work the first lady is doing on behalf of children, including the opioid crisis that is gripping our nation,” Mrs. Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham,told CNN in 2017.
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#FakeMelania resurfaced online earlier this month after the president visited Alabama inthe wake of a deadly tornado there.
Many social media users focused on a single photo of the Trumps in mourning in fron of white crosses in Alabama.
The panel onThe Viewdiscussed the conspiracy theory on Monday.
Afterward, Mrs. Trump’s spokeswomantweetedthat she and the president “traveled to Alabama to pay their respects & comfort victims of the tornado devastation. In typical fashion, @theview chooses to laugh in the face of tragedy. Shameful.”
The president has his own history of peddling outrageous theories, including enhancing his national political profile with frequent allegations that PresidentBarack Obamawas not born in the United States. Since turning to politics, Trump has made other debunked or wild claims such as that he only lost the popular vote against Hillary Clinton because non-citizens voted for her.
source: people.com
