Former President Donald Trump seems to be curating his own version of “fake news” for his social media followers. He does this by selectively sharing news articles that have been meticulously edited to eliminate any passages that may portray him unfavorably.
Throughout this year, Trump has been actively sharing numerous screenshots on his Truth Social account. These screenshots are altered versions of articles that have been manipulated to present a more favorable image of him. This behavior is not surprising given Trump’s consistent criticism of the press as “the enemy of the people” and his constant claims of being a victim of unfair reporting.
On Tuesday, Trump shared an edited version of an article titled “No, Cohen’s Guilty Plea Does Not Prove Trump Committed Campaign-Finance Crimes” from the conservative outlet National Review.
According to the article, Trump is currently facing trial for felony charges of falsifying business records. The article argued that Trump should not be implicated by Michael Cohen’s previous guilty plea, which involved hush-money payments given to Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 campaign. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The version of the article shared by Trump on Tuesday excluded a line stating that a second Trump administration was “inconceivable” and omitted several passages that suggested the former president had initially hired Cohen as his “fixer” due to his “genuine expertise” in “extortion.”
The claim that Trump was drawn to his former lawyer’s “loathsomeness” has been removed, along with a statement about the former president being “perfectly content to have Cohen as his sidekick, confidant, and attack dog for over a decade.”
The article also mentioned that the alleged affairs between Trump and Stephanie Clifford (known as Stormy Daniels) and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, were not included. These alleged affairs, which Trump has denied, were speculated to have had the potential to damage his presidential campaign following the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape in 2016.
According to MeidasTouch, a liberal anti-Trump group, the modifications made to the article were initially brought to light. They highlighted that this edited article from the National Review marked the sixth instance of a Trump-edited article being shared on his Truth Social account this month, and the twenty-fifth overall.
In early February, the former president started a trend of sharing manipulated articles on Truth Social, deceiving his supporters with fake news. Among these articles were two edited pieces from Newsweek that were shared on his account.
In a recent display of his media strategy, Trump showcased screenshots of an article that had been altered to exclude mentions of his loss in the popular vote during the 2016 presidential election. Additionally, the article had eliminated a statement from an expert who dismissed Trump’s aspirations of winning the popular vote in 2024 as nothing more than a pipe dream. Notably, the revised version of the article also omitted a line about Newsweek’s attempt to obtain comments from Trump’s representatives.
In the second article, when Trump shared the version, he removed references to a polling company accurately predicting President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Additionally, mentions of Trump’s low approval rating during that year and Biden’s record-breaking popular vote win were also omitted.
The article no longer includes Special Counsel Robert Hur’s statement that there were no criminal charges warranted against Biden regarding his handling of classified documents.
In February, Trump further shared a modified version of a Newsweek article. This time, he removed a reference to being contacted for comment and the poll results that revealed only 50 percent of Texas voters trusted him to secure the southern border.
Earlier this month, Trump caused controversy when he shared edited screenshots of a Newsweek article on immigration. These screenshots conveniently omitted a poll result that revealed only about half of all voters support a border wall, among other edits.
