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| - Amid the Trump administration's flurry of executive orders in the first month of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term came a rumor of the existence of a memo ordering that the word "felon" no longer be used on the White House grounds.
The rumor spread fast across the internet on Feb. 14, 2025, with users on platforms like Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and Facebook (archived) weighing in. One user said, "The fact that I cannot tell if this is satire or not…"
The alleged memo read:
In light of recent events, until further notice I am directing all staff, operations personnel, cabinet members and White House visitors to stop using the word "Felon" while inside the White House or on White House grounds, whether in conversation or in writing. Failure to comply with this directive will result in immediate expulsion and/or disciplinary action.
(@roguesnradvisor / X)
Official White House communications showed no public record of any such memo or rule and a search for "felon" on the White House website yielded no results.
Further, no reputable news outlets reported on such a memo. Snopes reached out to the White House for comment and will update this article if we hear back.
The fake memo appeared to reference the fact that a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a 2024 criminal trial.
The rumor appeared to have originated with a post on X (archived) from an account called "Rogue WH Snr Advisor." There is no clear indication on the account that the post was intended to be satirical in nature, but other posts from the same account purporting to be authentic screenshots are demonstrably fake.
For example, the account promoted a post (archived) featuring an alleged screenshot from Trump's Truth Social account in which he declared, "The Department of Education, as we will all soon find out, is one of the terrible organizations on Earth, with millions wasted over many years developing a hybrid of the fork and spoon in our cafeterias (which no one likes)."
However, no such post exists on the president's Truth Social account.
Snopes has fact-checked a variety of news and policies coming from the Trump White House, including the false accusations that USAID funded a "transgender comic book" in Peru, breaking down the cost of Trump's Super Bowl trip for taxpayers and a Department of Justice memo targeting undocumented immigrants with the death penalty for capital crimes.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.
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