schema:text
| - On Jan. 26, 2025, a screenshot (archived), purportedly showing an alarming X post from Eric Trump, son of U.S. President Donald Trump, spread widely. The post was allegedly shared and deleted within 20 minutes.
According to the screenshot, the younger Trump wrote on X:
Any and all who dare to defy the American Golden Age, heed this warning: You WILL lose. Tow the line, or we WILL run you down! The gloves are off, and we're not playing around this time. For now, it's tariffs, but trust me: We can, and will, do SO MUCH WORSE.
An X post (archived) sharing the screenshot of Trump's purported post stated, "Look what @EricTrump deleted. Looks like he is threatening countries and citizens."
(X user @MzSgtPepper)
However, we found no evidence that Eric Trump made such a post on X. There were no links to the deleted post, nor any mainstream news coverage of the moment. Furthermore, the screenshot appeared edited. As such, we rate this claim as fake.
We reached out to Eric Trump via the Trump Organization to learn more. A spokesperson for the organization responded, "Eric Trump never made that statement. This is a completely false story, and to suggest otherwise is complete and total slander."
We first looked for news coverage of Trump's post. Our Google News search found no evidence that Trump had made such a post, other than this article on Sportskeeda, a sports and entertainment site that just reproduced the screenshot.
Additionally, all the posts sharing the screenshot appeared suspicious because they provided no actual link to the deleted post. Had there been a link available, we would have been able to find whether the post had been archived before deletion.
We also looked closely at the details in the screenshot. We found it had been edited and did not show a real tweet. The number under the apparent X post stated, for example, "252k Views" using a lowercase "k." However, real X posts use a uppercase letter "K" to indicate the thousands of views. See below a real X post from Trump's account stating "811.4K Views":
(X user @EricTrump)
Trump did share the above post quoting his father's inauguration speech heralding a "golden age of America." However, there is no evidence that he threatened those who "dare to defy" this "golden age."
The post spread amidst the president's threats to dramatically increase tariffs on imported goods. In late January 2025, after President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on goods from the country of Colombia, that country's President Gustavo Petro agreed to accept U.S. military planes deporting refugees into the country, after initially refusing entry to those flights.
|