Trump didn’t call Republicans ‘the dumbest’ voters

A widely debunked claim that President Donald Trump described Republicans as “the dumbest group of voters in the country” is circulating on Facebook again.

The image features a picture of Mr Trump when he was younger above text which reads: “If I were to run, 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.”

Though in this post it isn’t, the claim is sometimes accompanied by an extra line of text sourcing this to “People Magazine, 1998.”

But People magazine has confirmed to other fact checkers that it has no record of ever having published “anything remotely like this quote”.

The picture shared alongside the quote is a still image taken from a video of Mr Trump being interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1988.

When asked if he would run for President, he tells Ms Winfrey: “Probably not, but I do get tired of seeing the country ripped off […] I just don’t think I really have the inclination to do it, I love what I’m doing, I really like it […] I just probably wouldn’t do it, Oprah. I probably wouldn’t. But I do get tired of seeing what’s happening with this country, and if it got so bad, I would never want to rule it out totally because I really am tired of seeing what’s happening with this country, how we’re really making other people live like kings and we’re not.”

The quote, which we’ve written about before, is an example of a “zombie claim”—one that crops up repeatedly over the course of weeks, months or years, even after being repeatedly debunked.

False or misleading claims online have the potential to harm individuals, groups and democratic processes and institutions. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.