Back to Africa Check

US president Trump didn’t tweet ‘my DNA isn’t DNA, it’s USA’

“I am feeling much better,” begins a screenshot of what seems to be a tweet by US president Donald Trump, posted on Instagram in Nigeria, on 8 October 2020.

“The doctors said they've never seen a body kill the coronavirus like mine. They said my body was made to kill virus's. They tested my DNA and they said it wasn't DNA, it was USA. They said if Joe Biden had the virus he would have died several times by now. They said there is no way anyone with a body like mine could lose an election. I’m gonna win HUGE.”

Trump tested positive for Covid-19 in early October, and recovered fairly quickly.

The user posted the screenshot with the comment: “I love this man. @realdonaldtrump.” It’s been viewed nearly 250,000 times.

The screenshot shows Trump’s name, his Twitter profile photo and his handle @realDonaldTrump. The US president is known for his sometimes outrageous tweets, and for occasionally misspelling words. But it’s unlikely that he would misspell “viruses” as “virus’s”.

Did he tweet this?



Twitter joke


An advanced search for the tweet on Trump’s Twitter account returned no results. The words have been tweeted, but as a joke – a joke sometimes directed at Trump himself.

Jokes and satire used as real information become disinformation.

The screenshot has been doctored to make it appear that Trump tweeted it. He did not. – Africa Check




 

Republish our content for free

We believe that everyone needs the facts.

You can republish the text of this article free of charge, both online and in print. However, we ask that you pay attention to these simple guidelines. In a nutshell:

1. Do not include images, as in most cases we do not own the copyright.

2. Please do not edit the article.

3. Make sure you credit "Africa Check" in the byline and don't forget to mention that the article was originally published on africacheck.org.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.