On Monday, Twitter user Shaun Usher posted what he said was the latest edition of “there’s a Trump tweet for everything” — this time to offer seemingly presient commentary on yesterday’s historic Dow Jones plunge.
“If the Dow Joans ever falls more than 1000 ‘points’ in a Single Day the sitting president should be ‘loaded’ into a very big cannon and Shot into the sun at TREMENDOUS SPEED! No excuses!” the tweet read, with a timestamp of February 25, 2015.
Complete with misspellings, random capitalizations and a rich amount of irony, the tweet that seems to come from the official @RealDonaldTrump account swiftly went mega-viral and earned more than 20,000 retweets.
The only problem — it was fake news.
https://twitter.com/ShaunUsher/status/960628825318219776?utm_source=CNN+Media%3A+Reliable+Sources&utm_campaign=5f48e7bf06-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_06_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e95cdc16a9-5f48e7bf06-85679693
“Sweet mother of god. Not for one second did I think people would believe that to be genuine,” Usher later tweeted sheepishly in the post’s comment section.
“Many people asking why I haven’t taken it down. Literally within minutes of me posting it, it had legs. It was everywhere within about 10mins. I had lost control of it in an instant. Deleting mine–its place of birth–felt wrong & maybe more dangerous?”
Sweet mother of god. Not for one second did I think people would believe that to be genuine.
— Shaun Usher (@ShaunUsher) February 5, 2018
Many people asking why I haven’t taken it down. Literally within minutes of me posting it, it had legs. It was everywhere within about 10mins. I had lost control of it in an instant. Deleting mine–its place of birth–felt wrong & maybe more dangerous?
— Shaun Usher (@ShaunUsher) February 5, 2018
Since you can undo retweets, it’s hard to say for sure just how many celebrities and media types fell for hoax.
Known offenders identified by CNN’s Brian Stelter, include, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens and CNBC reporter John Harwood.
Also swept up, senior Hillary Clinton adviser Philippe Reines.