While his Muslim ban sinking under the weight of popular backlash, President Trump tried to boost support for his Executive Order by promoting a fake news story on his Facebook page.
Daniel Dale of The Toronto Star captured a screengrab of Trump promoting a fake news story about Kuwait following in his Muslim ban footsteps:
Obscure websites published a fake story that Kuwait was copying Trump’s ban. The president Facebooked it, got 67,000 shares. pic.twitter.com/IYzEiKdjR3
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 4, 2017
Here is the post which is still up on his Facebook page:
We know the story is fake news because the Kuwait government issued a statement categorically denying the story:
This sort of thing should never happen in any White House. It speaks volumes that the kindest explanation for the President Of The United States promoting fake news is incompetence.
Trump has never shown himself to have much use for facts, and he has promoted a fact-free culture within first his campaign, and now his administration. Given their track record, it is not difficult to envision the Trump team promoting a fake news story and not caring about whether or not it was true because the story itself helped to sell their Muslim ban as popular around the world.
Trump social media promoted a fake news story as real, which is a big reason why the American people should never take what the current White House says at face value.