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Donald Trump is deceiving everyone with his latest tweet about Isis

The President-elect's feed is becoming a powerful echo chamber 

Heather Saul
Wednesday 30 November 2016 13:42 GMT
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Donald Trump
Donald Trump (Getty)

Donald Trump’s latest tweet is a blend of fact and fiction, presenting misinformation that must be clarified.

A day after suggesting anyone who burns the US flag should be imprisoned or have their citizenship revoked, the President-elect claimed the Somali immigrant who attacked 11 people at Ohio State University before being killed should never have been in the country, implying he was in the US illegally.

Fact check: Isis has taken credit for the killing. But Abdul Razak Ali Artan was a lawful permanent resident of the US and a student at Ohio University.

Mr Trump has more than 16 million Twitter followers and a loyal, engaged audience, a combination which has transformed his page into a powerful echo chamber. Concerns that his feed is being used to propagate unsubstantiated and/or untrue claims is growing.

After declaring himself the winner of the popular vote, which was actually won by Hillary Clinton by two million votes, he claimed “serious voter fraud” had taken place in states during the election without providing evidence to support this claim.

On Tuesday, The New York Times publicly accused Mr Trump of lying in a strongly worded editorial.

“This is a lie, part of Mr Trump’s pattern, stretching back many years, of disregard for indisputable facts.

“There is no evidence of illegal voting on even a small scale anywhere in the country, let alone a systematic conspiracy involving ‘millions'.”

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