No, Donald Trump Never Called Republicans 'The Dumbest Group Of Voters' in 1998
To the delight of anyone who still uses “Gyeorrrrge Buuuuuushh” as a punchline in 2015, an image macro containing an embarrassing quote attributed to Donald Trump has been passed around on Twitter and Facebook.
The visual maintains that, in 1998, Trump—who is the current frontrunner among Republican presidential hopefuls because everything is bad—told People magazine:
If I were to run [for president], I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.
There’s just one problem: Whoever created the image opted to render the quote in white text, which makes the words kind of hard to read when placed on top of the Donald’s white shirt and I’m just trying to love myself OK.
Also, the quote’s fake.
According to Snopes, Trump never gave any such quote to People. The myth-busting site did find the transcript of a Larry King interview from Oct., 1999, where the inspiration behind The First Wives Club’s most iconic line of dialogue—“Don’t get mad; get everything”—lays out a purportedly center-right political ideology. But, as for Republicans being “the dumbest group of voters”? Nothing.
This isn’t the only fake Trump quote to go sorta kinda “viral” over the past few days. A screen shot of a tweet allegedly sent by @realDonaldTrump that says “I’m sorry [Hillary] Clinton, but my ancestors didn’t make their way to this great country to have immigrants come in and take their jobs!!!” was also passed around earlier this week. That quote is also a forgery, Talking Points Memo reports.
It’s weird that people would go out of their way to make up fake Donald Trump quotes because the guy says dumb, horrible, sometimes racist shit all the time. For example:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems [to] us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
“[John McCain] was a war hero because he was captured… I like people who weren’t captured.”
And I feel like this one doesn’t get enough play?
“No more massive injections. Tiny children are not horses—one vaccine at a time, over time.”
Though, to be fair, tiny children are NOT horses.