Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Did Donald Trump Say Republicans Were Stupid

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No Donald Trump Did Not Call Republican Voters Dumb In The 1990s

Donald Trump: I didnt say that. (He did.)

Donald Trump has made plenty of questionable claims over the years, but calling Republican voters dumb isnt one of them.

Still, one political meme continues to spread across social media sites and claims he said just that.

The story goes that in a 1998 interview with People Magazine, Donald Trump said he was considering a run for president and would do so as a Republican because “Theyre the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and theyd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”

The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.


The meme features a repurposed image of a younger Trump, with the quote billed as a statement he delivered in an interview with the magazine.

So did Donald Trump actually say that or anything like it?

No, the quote is bogus.

The fabricated quote appeared on social media sites in when Trumps campaign started to gain steam. The meme has continually resurfaced over the years, though it has repeatedlybeendebunked.

We searched Peoples archives, which date back to the 1970s, and found no Trump interviews in 1998 or any other time that feature that quote or anything resembling it.


Most of the magazines articles at the time that involved Trump discussed his celebrity and high-profile divorce from Marla Maples.

Featured Fact-check

People also issued a statement rebuking the quotes authenticity.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

Trump ‘knows Republicans Are Stupid’ Jared Kushner Allegedly Said To Former Editor

Greg Price U.S.Jared KushnerDonald TrumpRepublicans

One of the strategies Donald Trump employed as he began putting his name on the U.S. political map years ago was championing “birtherism,” the long-held conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was born outside of the U.S. and hence should never have been elected. He often chastised Obama and demanded the president produce his birth certificate, revving up an anti-Obama base that eventually helped put Trump in the White House.


Evidently, Trump may have been using the so-called birthers only as a means to an end.

His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is also a senior adviser to the president, allegedly told a former editor of the newspaper he once owned that the billionaire real-estate mogul didn’t believe his own “birtherism” claims, and only made them to charge up Republicans because they are “stupid,” GQ reported.

During a discussion on how to cover Trump, the former New York Observer editor, Elizabeth Spiers, claimed she told Kushner that she had serious problems with Trump’s repeated claims that Obama was not born in the U.S., to which Kushner allegedly told her: “He doesn’t really believe it, Elizabeth. He just knows Republicans are stupid and they’ll buy it.”

Spiers told her Kushner anecdote in response to a question from a conservative blogger on Facebook, and then screenshotted the response and put it up on Twitter.

Fact Check: Did Trump Say In 98 Republicans Are Dumb

Did Donald Trump tell People magazine in 1998 that if he ever ran for president, hed do it as a Republican because theyre the dumbest group of voters in the country and that he could lie and theyd still eat it up?A:;No, thats a bogus meme.


FULL ANSWER

The meme purports to be a quote from Trump in;People;magazine in 1998 saying, If I were to run, Id run as a Republican. Theyre the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe;anything on Fox News. I could lie and theyd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.

We were alerted to the meme by a reader, A. Douglas Thomas of Freeport, N.Y., among others, who saw it in his Facebook feed, along with a message from someone who said, I just fact-checked this. Google Donald Trump, People magazine and 1998. This is an actual quote by Trump.

Well save you the effort. It is;not;an actual quote by Trump.

We scoured the;Peoplemagazine archives and found nothing like this quote in 1998 or any other year.


And a public relations representative with;People;told us that the magazine couldnt find anything like that quote in its archives, either.;Peoples Julie Farin said in an email: Peoplelooked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in Oct.;We combed through every Trump story in our archive.;We couldnt find anything remotely like this quote and no interview at all in 1998.

There were several stories in the late 1990s about Trumps flirtation with a presidential run.

Read Also: How Many Democrats And Republicans Are In The House

What Is The Audit

The audit is a review of more than two million ballots cast in Maricopa County – which includes Phoenix – ordered by the Republican majority that controls Arizona’s state Senate.

Joe Biden carried Maricopa County by more than 45,000 votes on the way to winning Arizona by 10,457 votes. He was the first Democrat to take the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.


Republican audit backers theorise that if they can find substantive evidence of fraud then it means Trump really won Arizona. If Trump really won Arizona, maybe he really won other states he narrowly lost. And if he really won enough other states, then he really won the election.

All this requires extreme logical contortions, but it’s what they’re rolling with.

It’s also worth noting that the Republican-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which ran the county’s election process and reviewed its results, stands behind their original tally and has had no interest in participating in the process.

This Meme About How Donald Trump Called Republicans The Dumbest Group Of Voters In The Country Is Fake

Fact Check: Did Trump say in

The fake quote has been floating around the internet since about the time Trump announced his presidential bid in 2015. It has been widely shared on Twitter and Facebook by people eager to expose the businessman-turned-politician as a hypocrite for leading a party he once, allegedly, mocked.

If I were to run, Id run as a Republican, the fake quote reads. Theyre the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and theyd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.


Also Check: Who Were The Republicans Who Stormed The Scif

On His Past And Current Wives

In a November 1999 New York Times OpEd, in which Maureen Dowd tagged along with Donald Trump as he considered jumping into the 2000 presidential race, the real estate mogul is quoted as saying:

I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that Im more honest and my women are more beautiful.

The Memo: What Now For Anti

Cheney and others of her ilk are not giving up. The question is what kind of impact they can have in their rhetorical guerrilla war against the former president and the GOP leaders whom they brand as his enablers.

For now, many are dispirited by Cheneys fall and what it says about the party writ large.


The outlook is grim, said Olivia Troye, who broke with Trumpism after having served as a staffer to then-Vice President Mike PenceMichael Richard PenceHillicon Valley Apple delays features to detect sexual exploitation‘QAnon Shaman’ pleads guilty to Capitol riot chargeBill Clinton fundraises for Terry McAuliffe in upstate New York MORE. Troye is now the director of the Republican Accountability Project.;

Referring to pro-Trump elected officials, Troye added: What we are seeing is, there is nothing they wont do to remain in power, even if it brings danger to this country.

Cheney is not going to slink away. In an interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBCs Today broadcast on Thursday morning, she promised to fight vigorously to retain her congressional seat and held the door open for a 2024 presidential campaign.

Cheney also reiterated her criticisms of Trump and his supporters within the GOP, saying the former president has established a cult of personality over the party.

People realize this is getting ridiculous, Comstock said. How much do you want to really associate yourself with fools like


The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Read Also: Can Republicans Win The House In 2020

Trump Knows Republicans Are Stupid Jared Kushner Allegedly Said To Former Editor

Greg Price U.S.Jared KushnerDonald TrumpRepublicans

One of the strategies Donald Trump employed as he began putting his name on the U.S. political map years ago was championing birtherism, the long-held conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was born outside of the U.S. and hence should never have been elected. He often chastised Obama and demanded the president produce his birth certificate, revving up an anti-Obama base that eventually helped put Trump in the White House.

Evidently, Trump may have been using the so-called birthers only as a means to an end.

His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is also a senior adviser to the president, allegedly told a former editor of the newspaper he once owned that the billionaire real-estate mogul didnt believe his own birtherism claims, and only made them to charge up Republicans because they are stupid,GQ reported.

During a discussion on how to cover Trump, the former New York Observereditor, Elizabeth Spiers, claimed she told Kushner that she had serious problems with Trumps repeated claims that Obama was not born in the U.S., to which Kushner allegedly told her: He doesnt really believe it, Elizabeth. He just knows Republicans are stupid and theyll buy it.

Spiers told her Kushner anecdote in response to a question from a conservative blogger on Facebook, and then screenshotted the response and put it up on Twitter.

Donald Trump: I Love The Poorly Educated

Oprah asks a 42-year-old Trump if he’d run for president

Donald Trump easily won the Nevada Republican caucuses on Tuesday, finishing more than 20 points ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and cementing his status as the frontrunner for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

In his victory speech, the billionaire real estate mogul thanked his family, his friends and his wide swath of supporters.

We won the evangelicals, Trump said. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.

That last line was, as you might expect, the sound bite of the night. Indeed, I love the poorly educated was trending on Twitter early Wednesday morning, with users expressing a mix of bewilderment, consternation and other big words such supporters might not understand.

I love the poorly educated is the 2016 Election in a nutshell.

Christine Rousselle

I love the poorly educatedDonald J. Trump

If only they werent too poorly educated to know theyre the poorly educated RT I love the poorly educatedDonald J. Trump

All Ill say is the moment in the speech I heard Trump say, I love the poorly educated, I knew I was hearing history.

Nick Rizzo

I love the poorly educated! – TrumpHe loves us! – Trump supporters

Quinn Sutherland

Donald Trump in his Nevada victory speech: I love the poorly educated. Way to go America

Rob Tornoe

We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated. The Republican front runner for POTUS.

Stress? Me?! Nah.

Recommended Reading: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

Here Are The Top 10 Stupidest Things Trump Did As President

Weâre tentatively starting to emerge from the four year-long national nightmare of Donald Trumpâs presidency, but the reckoning of what the nation endured will take years to really understand. Trump was terrible in so many ways that itâs hard to catalog them all: His sociopathic lack of regard for others. His towering narcissism. His utter ease with lying. His cruelty and sadism. The glee he took in cheating and stomping on anything good and decent. His misogyny and racism. His love of encouraging violence, only equaled by his personal cowardice.

But of all the repulsive character traits in a man so wholly lacking in any redeemable qualities, perhaps the most perplexing to his opponents was Trumpâs incredible stupidity. On one hand, it was maddening that a man so painfully dumb, a man who clearly could barely read even on those rare occasions when he deigned to wear glasses still had the low cunning necessary to take over the Republican Party and then the White House.

On the other hand, it was the one aspect of Trumpâs personality that kept hope alive. Surely a man so stupid, his opponents believed, will one day blunder so badly he canât be saved, even by his most powerful sycophants. That has proved to be the case as Trump fumbles his way through a failed coup, unable and unwilling to see that stealing the election from Joe Biden is a lost cause.

He then pointed at his head, and said, âIâm, like, a person who has a good you-know-what.â

The Dumbest Stuff Donald Trump Has Ever Said

Paul J Richards/AFP/Getty

Americas favorite faux-political shock jock came back with a vengeance two weeks ago when, during a press conference to announce his candidacy for the presidency, he characterized all Mexican immigrants as drug-peddling rapists.

The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody elses problems, he said. When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre not sending you. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

The comments ended up getting both him and his television programs booted from NBC. After a public pressure campaign that racked up more than 200,000 petition signatures, the network decried his words as derogatory. Trump, as to be expected, railed against NBC. Instead of apologizing for his words, he later asserted that his stance on immigration is correct.

Its not the first time Trump has insulted Americas southern neighbor. This past February, when Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu took home an Oscar for his film Birdman, Trump offered dubious congratulations. Well it was a great night for Mexico, as usual in this country It was a great night for Mexico. This guy kept getting up and up and up. I said, you know, whats he doing? Hes walking away with all the gold.

On African-Americans:

Greg Price U.S.Jared KushnerDonald TrumpRepublicans

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On Negotiations With Asians

On August 26, 2015, during a campaign event in Iowa, Donald Trump did an impression of Asian negotiators for the crowd, using broken English. Many in the crowd found it funny. Many others did not.

When these people walk into the room, Trump began. They dont say, Oh hello, hows the weather? Its so beautiful outside. How are the Yankees doing? Theyre doing wonderful, thats great. They say, We want deal!’

Did Trump Say In 98 Republicans Are Dumb

Republican Rep. Tells Trump to

Did he really say it? Social Media is abuzz with a quote attributed to US President Donald Trump saying he would run as a Republican because they are all dumb.

Did Donald Trump tell People magazine in 1998 that if he ever ran for president, hed do it as a Republican because theyre the dumbest group of voters in the country and that he could lie and theyd still eat it up?

CNN says that viral meme your friends keep sharing of Donald Trump calling Republicans the dumbest group of voters in the country is not true. It is not a thing. Stop sharing it.

While Donald Trump has said some questionable things, he never said anything even resembling this quote:

If I were to run, Id run as a Republican. They are the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they would still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.

It is easy to believe because Trump has said things in the past without thinking. His mouth is always ahead of his brain

Read Also: Are Republicans Or Democrats More Educated

Kanye West: I’m Running For President In 2020

Bush has responded to the attacks by presenting himself as a true conservative who has the ability to survive a long-haul presidential race.

In the video Bush’s campaign released on Tuesday, Trump is also shown in a 2007 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in which he mentions Hillary Clinton as someone “who would do a good job” negotiating a deal with Iran. Later in the video, Trump is shown in the same interview saying that he identifies more as a Democrat.

The video also shows Trump having warm words for the Clintons. He has donated generous sums to the family’s charitable foundation over the years, in addition to Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaigns.

A chyron on the screen notes that Trump was a registered Democratic voter in 2001, though Trump has also defended his donations to Democratic candidates in the past, remarking that in New York, “everyone’s Democratic.”

In a 2011 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump mused: âSo, what am I going to do, contribute to Republicans? Am I going to contribute to, I mean, one thing Iâm not stupid. Am I going to contribute to a Republican for my whole life when they get, they run against some Democrat. And the most they can get is one percent of the vote.”

Bush’s Twitter account shared the ad, tweeting, “Why are you a â¦The answer is, youâre not.”

Within a minute, Trump fired back with three tweets lambasting what he called a “weak hit by a candidate with a failing campaign.”

Fact Check: Trump Did Not Call Republicans The Dumbest Group Of Voters

5 Min Read

An old quote falsely attributed to Donald Trump has recently resurfaced online. The viral meme alleges Trump told People magazine in 1998 that Republicans are the dumbest group of voters in the country. This is false.

While the quote has been debunked several times since it apparently surfaced in 2015, users have recently been resharing it on social media. Examples can be seen here , here , here , here

The meme reads: If I were to run, Id run as a Republican. Theyre the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and theyd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific. – Donald Trump, People Magazine, 1998

Snopes first wrote about the false quote here in October 2015 . Since then, the quote has been debunked multiple times .

People magazine has confirmed in the past that its archive has no register of this alleged exchange.

People looked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in Oct. . We combed through every Trump story in our archive. We couldnt find anything remotely like this quoteand no interview at all in 1998., a magazine spokesperson told Factcheck.org that year .

In December 1987, People published a profile on Donald Trump titled Too Darn Rich. The article quoted him saying he was too busy to run for president .

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