FACT CHECK: Did Donald Trump Tweet That ‘Hollywood Nobodies’ Tried To Trick Rudy Giuliani?
An image shared on Facebook claims President Donald Trump tweeted, “Washed up Hollywood nobodies tried to trick America’s great Mayor Rudy but FAILED!”
Verdict: False
There is no record of Trump tweeting or deleting the remark. The tweet appears to be fabricated.
Fact Check:
The image appears to show a screen grab of a tweet about Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani that Trump allegedly deleted. The full tweet reads: “Washed up Hollywood nobodies tried to trick America’s great Mayor Rudy but FAILED! He was with a woman (young) and tucked in his shirt, which I have done many times. Don’t listen to the Fake News! It was a TUCK!”
Check Your Fact searched Trump’s verified Twitter accounts — @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS — but found no matches. ProPublica’s archive of his deleted tweets also doesn’t show anything resembling the tweet. Had Trump sent such a tweet, it would have likely garnered media attention. The tweet appears to be fabricated. (RELATED: Did Trump Tweet, ‘The Fly That Landed On Vice President Pence’s Head Will Be Deported’?)
The tweet seems to reference a scene featuring Giuliani in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” a mockumentary starring Sacha Baron Cohen and “centering on the real-life adventures of a fictional Kazakh television journalist named Borat,” per IMDb. In the scene, Giuliani follows an actress impersonating a reporter into a hotel room rigged with hidden cameras, reclines on the bed and reaches towards his pants, according to The New York Times. Cohen, disguised as Borat, runs in and says: “She’s 15. She’s too old for you.”
Giuliani denied in a series of tweets that any indiscretion occurred, saying, “The Borat video is a complete fabrication. I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment. At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar.”