A post from the social media account of Donald Trump Jr. falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump had died on Wednesday morning after the account was apparently hacked.
At 8:25 a.m. ET, the younger Trump’s verified account on X, formerly known as Twitter, sent out a post claiming that the former president “has passed away” but that Trump Jr. would take over his campaign for the White House.
“I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away,” the post stated. “I will be running for president in 2024.”
Donald Trump Jr’s account has been hacked. pic.twitter.com/JBcyt7I1p5
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) September 20, 2023
The post was seen by at least 230,000 users before it was deleted.
One screen shot of the post showed another in which it appeared that the former president’s eldest son had vowed to go after the Securities and Exchange Commission with a reference to cryptocurrency trader Richard Heart. The SEC charged Heart in July with defrauding millions of investors, as CBS reported.
“Richard Heart is innocent, when I become president I am going to burn the SEC,” the post stated.
Don Trump Jr’s account has been hacked. pic.twitter.com/H61oOph2Nr
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) September 20, 2023
A number of other posts were then published, some of which contained racial slurs. Other posts were about topics ranging from Jeffrey Epstein to President Joe Biden.
Within moments, it was confirmed that the former president had not passed away.
Trump was active on his Truth Social after his son’s X account was apparently hacked and he sent out a number of early morning posts.
Two of the posts were critical of Biden while another was a repost of a 2024 Republican primary poll.
It is unclear who was responsible for the apparent hack.
