Teddy Roosevelt relative joins mockery of Trump ‘elite strike force’ lawyer for misquoting his ancestor

The former president’s great-grandson mocked Jenna Ellis’s ‘ifea’ defence for misquote

Teddy Roosevelt’s great grandson has mocked Jenna Ellis on Twitter, where the Trump campaign lawyer tried to defend her own misquoting of his famous ancestor this week.

Theodore Roosevelt V, an investment banker and managing director at Barclays, was responding to the Trump campaign lawyer’s claim that she misattributed words to the 26th US president because she “liked the ifea”, and not because the attribution was true.

Ms Ellis, whose defence of Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud have so far failed to overturn the election result despite the team being billed as “an elite strike force”, was widely derided for posting the fake Teddy Roosevelt remarks on Tuesday.

Her post on Twitter showed a picture of the Republican president, often hailed as one of America’s greatest, with a quote superimposed on it: “To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.”

Roosevelt, however, was never recorded saying those words, which conservatives have also attributed to world leaders including Winston Churchill, according to Reuters analysis.

Ms Ellis then acknowledged the error, and tried to defend her use of the misattributed quote, which caused further ridicule among Twitter users.

“For people asking, this quotation has been attributed to Roosevelt, but there isn’t a specific record of him saying this in a speech,” said the Trump campaign lawyer. “I posted it because the ifea itself is true, whether or not he said it! :)!”

Twitter users, including Mr Rooseveelt, went on to attribute their own false statements, and write below that they “posted it because the ifea itself is true”, in mockery of Ms Ellis.

Mr Roosevelt himself used the opportunity to tease the Trump team for failing to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory in the election, both in the electoral college and the popular vote.

He tweeted: "Congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their resounding victory" - @JennaEllisEsq

"I couldn't find a "specific record" of this quote but I like the ifea of it."