Fake Donald Trump Tweet On 'Dow Joans' Shared Thousands Of Times

As stock markets crashed, out of the debris emerged a fake tweet from President Donald Trump, dated February 2015, that reverberated through the Twitter universe over 16,000 times Monday. The purported tweet, which read if the stock markets ever fell more than 1,000 points, the then president should be loaded into a cannonball prior to being shot into the sun, was a hoax, but that didn't stop the users from retweeting it.

The architect behind the photoshopped tweet, Shaun Usher, posted a screenshot of what seemingly appeared to be real and from President Donald Trump’s personal account. But as the retweets gained momentum, he quickly confessed the tweet was indeed fake; however, the revelation came too late since within minutes it was retweeted more than thousand times.

The blind acceptance of the tweet was mostly due to its timing, as it came after the biggest percentage drop in the Dow Jones Industrial average since 2011. Another reason for the tweet’s acceptance was the president’s reiterated remarks that the stock market gains during his presidency were indicative of his administration’s success.

The Stock Market plunge put the White house in a difficult spot as all the gains made after Trump’s proposed tax cuts vanished after the Dow Industrial Index announced its point decline by 1,175 points Monday.

Usher clarified the veracity of the tweet, saying it was fake and remarked the 16,000 retweets were extremely impressive.

However, the tweet garnered tremendous attention from not just average Joes but also a celebrity. “Modern Family” and “Superior Donuts” casting director Jeff Greenberg retweeted Shaun’s post on Millennial Politics, which wondered when the liftoff was.

Usher appeared baffled that people would believe the fake tweet.

He posted on Twitter the Washington Post contacted him via email asking about the tweet. Following that, the news of the fake tweet was everywhere.

When asked why he didn’t take down the tweet after seeing the response and attention it had garnered from the country, Shaun said, “Literally within minutes of me posting it, it had legs. It was everywhere within about 10mins. I had lost control of it in an instant. Deleting mine--its place of birth--felt wrong & maybe more dangerous? Anyway, this is all ridiculous. Just waiting for Don Jr to wade in.”

Sure enough, it was too late to delete the tweet, as the damage had already been done. Here are some of the reactions following the tweet.