Eric Trump tweets false claim that video shows man burning 80 ballots marked as votes for his father

The video, since marked as fake, features a man setting fire to a bag full of papers resembling ballots

(Getty Images)

A viral video claiming to show US election ballots being burned, which has previously been debunked as fake, was nonetheless shared on Wednesday night by the president’s son Eric Trump.  

The video surfaced on Tuesday, showing a man with a plastic bag full of papers resembling ballots, which he then set aflame. The face of the person is never shown. 

Speaking in the video, the man claims the bag contains 80 ballots "all for President Trump". And while the video doesn’t specify a location, the names of other candidates that appear on the papers suggest it was taken in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The City of Virginia Beach issued a statement on Tuesday saying the ballots are “samples”, lacking the crucial barcode markings that appear on all genuine election ballots.

In its statement, the city said:  "A concerned citizen shared a video with us that ostensibly shows someone burning ballots. They are NOT official ballots, they are sample ballots."

The city, in its statement, said that fire investigators were looking into the incident.

However, Eric Trump shared the same video as a retweet from an account and wrote “Burning 80 Trump Ballots”.  The account Mr Trump retweeted has now been suspended, which means the video can no longer be seen on Mr Trump's feed.  

However, the president’s son has still refused to take down his post, despite receiving a quick a response himself from the Virginia city authorities reiterating that “those were sample ballots”.  

His tweet came as Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the 13 electoral votes of the state after sustaining a double-digit lead. 

This is not the first time that Eric Trump, also an adviser to the president, shared fake news on his Twitter handle. Earlier in October, Mr Trump shared a picture of Ice Cube and 50 Cent rappers wearing hats that supported the Republican nominee in his re-election campaign.  

Mr Trump tweeted the pictures saying, “Two great, courageous Americans.” The Associated Press, however, in its fact check found that the circulated picture was manipulated to add “Trump 2020” to the hats.

That post by Eric Trump, which received more than 20,000 likes, has since been deleted.