FACT CHECK: Did Donald Trump Tweet, ‘Anyone Who Ordered A Ticket To My Rally And Didn’t Attend Should Be Arrested’?
An image shared on Facebook claims President Donald Trump tweeted, “Anyone who ordered a ticket to my rally and didn’t attend should be arrested and face very powerful charges. #treason.”
“Actual tweet from the actual president,” the post reiterates.
Verdict: False
There is no record of Trump ever tweeting the statement.
Fact Check:
Multiple Facebook users shared the tweet, purportedly from Trump, after the president’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20 had a lower turnout than expected. The Tulsa Fire Department told Forbes that only about 6,200 people attended, but the Trump campaign disputes that figure, saying about 12,000 people attended.
“Anyone who ordered a ticket to my rally and didn’t attend should be arrested and face very powerful charges. #treason,” reads the alleged tweet. (RELATED: Does This Photo Show Melania Trump With Porn Actor Ron Jeremy?)
However, there is no record of Trump ever sending such a tweet. A search of Trump’s verified Twitter accounts – @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS – and ProPublica’s archive of his deleted tweets didn’t turn up any matches. The Internet Archive also does not show this tweet in captures of the president’s timeline following the rally.
The only remotely similar comment that Trump has tweeted in relation to the Tulsa rally came on June 19.
Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis,” Trump tweeted. “It will be a much different scene!”
This isn’t the first time the president has been the target of a fake tweet. Earlier in June, social media users shared posts that falsely claimed Trump tweeted that former President Barack Obama left the White House bunker in “bad shape.” Fabricated Trump tweets are often created using websites such as FakeTrumpTweet.com and FakeTweetGenerator.com.