US President Donald Trump on Friday morning attempted to bash Twitter and Democratic nominee Joe Biden by tweeting a story from a conservative satirical website that he appeared to accept as real.
Trump shared a spoof story on The Babylon Bee titled âTwitter Shuts Down Entire Network To Slow Spread Of Negative Biden News.â The Babylon Bee describes itself as âthe worldâs best satire site, totally inerrant in all its truth claimsâ and uses the tagline: âFake News You Can Trust.â
The spoof story contained such lines as:
After seeing account after account tweet out one particularly bad story, CEO Jack Dorsey realized he had to take action. Dorsey smashed a glass box in his office reading âBreak In Case Of Bad Publicity For Democrats.â Inside the case was a sledgehammer for smashing Twitterâs servers.
And:
Dorsey ran downstairs and started smashing as many computers as he could, but he did need to ask for some help, as the hammer was pretty heavy.
Trump tweeted the article with this straight-faced comment:
âWow, this has never been done in history,â the president wrote. âThis includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T.â
Other satirical stories on The Babylon Bee recently include âMark Zuckerberg Pops Out Of Manâs Shower To Warn Him The Story Heâs Reading Is Fake Newsâ and âTrump Spends Afternoon Shouting From White House Balcony During Twitter Outage.â
Trump has previously acknowledged he doesnât really scrutinize what he retweets or shares with his 87 million Twitter followers.
âYou see something that looks good and you donât investigate it, and you donât look at whatâs on the helmet exactly, which is in miniature, and you donât blow it up,â the president told Barstool Sportsâ founder Dave Portnoy in July.
Trump was chided during his town hall on NBC Thursday for retweeting conspiracy theories and misinformation. âYouâre the president; youâre not someoneâs crazy uncle,â said host Savannah Guthrie.
Following Trumpâs fake news gaffe, Twitter users were more than happy to point out The Babylon Beeâs satirical nature:
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