A claim online alleges that President Donald Trump told People Magazine during a 1998 interview that Republicans were the “dumbest” group of voters in the United States.
The rumour, which often manifests itself as a direct quote next to Trump’s picture, also states that Trump claimed Republicans would believe anything they saw on Fox News.
If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could like and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.” – Donald Trump, People Magazine, 1998.
This particular quote has been doing the rounds on the interwebs for a number of years, most noticeably and inevitably picking up steam when Trump won the 2016 presidential election. It is, however, entirely fake.
There is no record of Trump making that quote, either from his many People Magazine interviews or elsewhere. While Trump has made many numerous politically themed quotes before he officially entered politics, none of them even remotely match the quote above.
Not only did we check, but given the polarised nature of US politics during Trump’s tenure in the White House, it would be inevitable that such a quote would have been given exceptional coverage during the election and during Trump’s term. It hasn’t, because it’s fake.
It appears this is another case of merely attaching a fake quote next to a face, catapulting it online and expecting others to take it at face value, which apparently many have.
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