Donald Trump Jr Confirms Hacker Falsely Announced Death of His Father
Donald Trump Jr. finally addressed the inflammatory statements shared on one of his social media accounts that falsely announced the death of his father, former president Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Sept. 20, a series of strange statements were posted to the 45-year-old's X (formerly known as Twitter) account, including one which read: "I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024."
The false announcement was made public for about 30 minutes before it was eventually deleted, and a spokesperson for both Trump, 77, and his son denied the claims.
The Hill confirmed with Trump Jr.'s team that he was hacked and a rep for the 45th president of the United States told reporters the suggestion that The Apprentice star had died was "obviously not true."
The hacker didn't just spin out a death hoax, they also shared some other derogatory statements aimed at causing controversy.
Screenshot via Google/X
As other outlets have reported, two of the messages were very threatening, with one against North Korea, "This just in: North Korea is about to get smoked" and another attacking the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its investigation into Hex founder Richard Heart–who the organization charged with misappropriating funds and conducting unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities. "Richard Heart is innocent, when I become president I am going to burn the SEC. @RichardHeartWin."
A third alluded to a relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, "Some interesting messages with Jeffrey Epstein." A separate post dragged influencer-turned-wrestler Logan Paul into it, "I also f–ked your girl btw @LoganPaul."
Since restoring his account on the Elon Musk-owned platform, Trump Jr. has deleted the unofficial messages shared on his page.
A rep for X has not publicly addressed the hack.
This is the third celebrity-related death hoax to be spread due to a hack within the last 30 days. On Aug. 10, influencer Lil Tay revealed she was actually alive after a hacker used her Instagram account to falsely announce the death of her and her brother. Weeks later, ex-Bachelorette contestant Josh Seiter also confirmed he's "alive and well" following a similar hack.
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