An image shared on Facebook claims President Donald Trump tweeted, “If the Dow Joans [sic] 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!”

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that Trump ever tweeted the statement. The person who shared the tweet originally has admitted that it was created in jest.

Fact Check:

The viral post features two screen grabs: one of the alleged February 2015 tweet and one of a CNN story titled, “Dow falls 1,191 points — the most in history.” That article recounts how, on Feb. 27, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,100 points amid concerns over the novel coronavirus outbreak and a crash in oil prices, tipping it into correction territory.

However, Trump never actually wrote the screen grabbed tweet included in the Facebook post. A search of Trump’s verified Twitter accounts — @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS — turned up no matches. (RELATED: Did Trump Tweet, ‘Handicapped And Minority Children Are Too Disruptive In The Classroom’?)

Shaun Usher, an author and blogger, first shared the fabricated tweet in February 2018 as a joke and later made clear it was not meant to be taken seriously, according to The Associated Press. His original tweets appear to have been deleted but, on Feb. 25, he retweeted a screen grab of it with the comment, “Tell you what. My inboxes are getting an absolute hammering at the moment. Wave upon wave of spittle. Don’t create fake tweets!”

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