Fake Trump Christmas card fools the internet

‘Plenty of blue tick accounts are currently spreading a fake ‘Donald Trump Christmas card’, which is so obviously made up’

A fake Christmas card from former President Donald Trump has fooled social media users, with some sharing it on Twitter and Facebook as if it’s real.

The Christmas card was not posted on Mr Trump’s official website, and it wasn’t tweeted by his spokesperson Liz Harrington, who told Reuters the card “is fake and did not come from us”.

The fake card is signed off with the words “President Donald J Trump”, while Mr Trump’s real statements usually say “Donald J Trump, 45th President of the United States of America”.

The edited Christmas card uses a black and white background with Mr Trump standing dressed in a tuxedo in front of a nativity scene and Santa’s sleigh.

“Merry Christmas from the Winter White House December 2021,” the card reads and includes the faces of Ivanka, Melania, Eric, Tiffany, and Donald Trump Jr superimposed on Christmas decorations.

The image of Mr Trump used in the fake holiday card appears to be from a state visit to the UK, when the Trumps met the British Royal Family at Buckingham Palace on 3 June 2019.

The official Trump Christmas card features a solo Mr Trump in a suit and red tie.

Mr Trump’s tuxedo also appears to have been edited in the fake Christmas card to make the image appear phallic. Many social media users noted that Mr Trump’s youngest son Barron was excluded from the altered card.

“Plenty of blue tick accounts are currently spreading a fake ‘Donald Trump Christmas card’, which is so obviously made up. The real one is available to purchase on the former president’s website,” BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh tweeted.

While it remains unclear where the fake card originated, it appears to have been posted in a forum for the Iowa Hawkeyes college football team at 7.29am on Monday.

“We all want it to be real. Post it on Facebook and see how many Boomers share. It’s real to them, dammit!” one user on the forum wrote concerning the image.

Occupy Democrats executive editor Grant Stern tweeted out the image as if it was real, but later took it down. He wrote that the “image was trending on Twitter earlier today. It is a parody or not, and I’m contrite for insinuating with too much authority too soon that it is real or false. It is funny, clearly”.

“Relying on Twitter trends to screen things was a mistake,” he added. “But it was an innocent one. I thought there was some basic screening there.”