An image shared on Facebook more than 12,000 times claims actor Clint Eastwood authored a long statement in favor of President Donald Trump that starts by saying, “I love when people call Trump Stupid.”

“Had to share from Clint Eastwood,” reads the beginning of the post.

Verdict: False

New Hampshire State Rep. Fred Doucette actually wrote an extremely similar statement as a letter to a local newspaper last year. The statement may have gotten linked to Eastwood after the Massachusetts Republican Party shared Doucette’s letter with a meme featuring Eastwood’s likeness.

Fact Check:

A viral Facebook post credits Eastwood, an actor-director known for films such as “American Sniper” and “Gran Torino,” with authoring a long statement supporting Trump. It has been shared more than 12,000 times.

“I love when people call Trump Stupid,” reads the beginning of Eastwood’s alleged statement. “You mean the multi-billionaire who kicked every Democrats (sic) butt, buried 16 career Republican politicians, and continues to make fools out of once reputable news organizations.”

However, there’s no evidence Eastwood ever actually said or wrote the long statement attributed to him in the Facebook post. No credible sources link it to him online, and Eastwood doesn’t appear to have any social media accounts, per a tweet from his daughter Morgan.

STOP POSING AS MY DAD EVERYONE KNOWS HE WOULD NOT KNOW HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA https://t.co/TPX0dF5Dil

— Morgan Eastwood (@MorganEastwood) November 9,

“Stop posing as my dad,” she tweeted in 2016. “He would not know how to use social media.” (RELATED: ‘Why I Stick My Neck Out For Trump’ – Did Clint Eastwood Author This Pro-Trump Statement?)

Through a quick internet search, the Daily Caller discovered that a nearly word-for-word statement actually comes from Doucette, a Republican New Hampshire state representative and Trump’s campaign chair for the state. He wrote it as a September 2019 letter to the Eagle-Tribune, a newspaper that circulates in parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

It’s possible that social media users linked it to Eastwood after the Massachusetts Republican Party shared Doucette’s letter on its Facebook page with a meme that quotes Eastwood as saying, “If Congress really gave a rat’s ass about the American people, they would resign.”

The Caller didn’t find any record of Eastwood making the statement about Congress either.