There’s no evidence Trump said the president should be impeached if the Dow Jones drops 1,000 points

There’s no evidence that US President Donald Trump called in 2012 for the president to be “impeached immediately” if the Dow Jones stock market index drops 1,000 points in two days, despite an image supposedly showing this circulating on social media again.

The image—supposedly dated 6 November 2012—has resurfaced since we last fact checked it last month, when US tariffs on Canada and Mexico took effect and the Dow Jones dropped by 1,300 points in two days.

There’s no evidence Mr Trump ever posted this on his Twitter (now X) account, however.

This claim was fact checked by Snopes in 2018, during Mr Trump’s first term. It said there was no record of Mr Trump having posted such a tweet, and that the earliest instance itthey could find of the purported tweet was a screenshot posted in October 2018.

Mr Trump did post to his account at 12:01pm Pacific Standard Time on 6 November 2012—the same time and date mentioned in the viral post—but his post didn’t mention the Dow Jones.

The post in fact claimed President Obama was campaigning with Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen while Hurricane Sandy victims were “still decimated”. This post may have been altered to display the message now circulating. 

This appears to be an example of a “zombie claim”—one that crops up repeatedly over the course of weeks, months or years, even after being repeatedly fact checked.

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.