Fact check: Fabricated screenshot of fundraising email from Donald Trump circulates online

Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: An image shows a fundraising email from Donald Trump with nuclear codes

After the FBI searched former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8, the Washington Post published an exclusive report that said the agents were looking for classified documents related to nuclear weapons, among other items.

Following this report, some social media users shared screenshots of an email Trump supposedly sent a day after the search with nuclear codes.

A Facebook post shared Aug. 13 shows a screenshot of a tweet with that purported fundraising email. It includes the subject line "MAR-A-LAGO: RAIDED," a red banner with Trump's face and text that says, "The nuke codes are 15-25-50-80," followed by a request to donate $15, $25, $50 or $80.

"NEW: Donald is fundraising by giving us 'nuclear codes,'" the tweet says.

Text above the tweet in the Facebook post reads, "Do Trump and Republicans believe it is appropriate to use jokes about stolen #nucleardocuments to fundraise?"

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

The post, along with several in the same vein, garnered a few dozen shares, and the original tweet amassed over 13,000 likes since it was published Aug. 11.

But the email shown here is digitally altered.

The original fundraising email sent after the Mar-a-Lago search, which USA TODAY obtained from Trump's spokesperson, contains different body text and does not include nuclear codes.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment.

Original email has no nuclear codes

The purported email is "totally fake," Liz Harrington, Trump's spokesperson, told USA TODAY in an email. The original Aug. 9 email sent with the same subject line and red banner contains different accompanying text and has no mention of nuclear codes.

New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher tweeted an image of the email with the caption "NEW: I believe this is Trump's first fundraising email off the FBI search."

The email reads "BREAKING: THE FBI RAIDED PRESIDENT TRUMP'S HOME: MAR-A-LAGO" and begins with the following: "These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, was raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents."

Trump adds that "nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the United States before," claiming that the Mar-a-Lago search was a violation of the "home of every patriotic American."

Fact check: Bruce Reinhart, who approved FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, was not appointed by Trump

Trump concludes the email by asking his supporters for donations.

Our rating: Altered

Based on our research, we rate ALTERED an image that purports to show a fundraising email from Trump with nuclear codes. The original email, which USA TODAY obtained from Trump's spokesperson, contains different body text. It does not include nuclear codes.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim Trump sent fundraising email with nuclear code

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Bird Caught Impersonating Police Van Confuses Officers

    British Police officers were left "confused" by a bird when it convincingly mimicked the sound of the sirens on their cars. Thames Valley Police said staff initially thought their vehicles had developed a fault after hearing the noise at a policing base in Bicester. A video filmed at the site in Oxfordshire and posted on social media shows the bird chirping in a tree, before then replicating the sound of a two-tone siren. Social media users speculated that the bird could be a starling, which are known for their ability to mimic man-made noises.

  • UPDATE 2-Mercedes-Benz says it will continue to invest in Chinese tie-ups

    Mercedes-Benz executives said on Thursday the company would continue to invest in tie-ups with Chinese partners including automaker BAIC Group , underscoring the importance of China to its global strategy. China is "the most dynamic new energy vehicle market", country chief Hubertus Troska said at a press conference on the opening day of the Beijing auto show. "You have to be here and you have to be part of that innovation cycle," Chief Executive Ola Kaellenius told Reuters on the sidelines of the show.

  • Here's why Spain's leader is mulling his future while denouncing a 'smear campaign' against his wife

    Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez left Spain in suspense after announcing he may step down because of what he called an “unprecedented” smear campaign against his wife. Sánchez, who has been in office since 2018, stunned the nation Wednesday by announcing that he was canceling all official events until next week, when he will unveil his future plans. The announcement came hours after a Madrid provincial judge agreed to study allegations of corruption brought by a right-wing group against Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez.

  • 'I've killed 300 squirrels in four years'

    Grey squirrels are spreading to the north of England and wiping out the native red squirrels.

  • Almost $200bn wiped of Meta's value as markets balk at Zuckerberg's AI spending plans

    First-quarter results were strong, but investors weren’t pleased with the Facebook and Instagram owner’s spending plans

  • York attack: Men in court accused of 'setting man on fire'

    The two men are remanded in custody to appear at York Crown Court next month.

  • The windmill sails at Paris' iconic Moulin Rouge have collapsed. No injuries are reported

    The iconic windmill sails of the Moulin Rouge, a vibrant emblem of Paris’s bohemian lifestyle, collapsed Thursday after a show. Jean-Victor Clerico, the director of Moulin Rouge, told French media that a “technical problem” led to the windmill’s sails and part of the cabaret’s illuminated sign crashing to the ground. Despite the setback, Clerico said that the show at Moulin Rouge will go on, emphasizing the cabaret’s resilience and commitment to continuing its legacy.

  • Spanish government to step in and oversee beleaguered soccer federation

    MADRID (AP) — Spain’s sports authority says it will step in to oversee the Spanish Football Federation after a corruption probe targeted the current and former federation presidents. Spain’s Higher Sports Council said on Thursday it was taking the extraordinary measure for the coming months “in response to the crisis the institution is facing and in Spain's national interests.” The government has expressed concern for the reputational damage to the federation while Spain is set to co-host the 20

  • Inflation Took Off During First Quarter

    The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, grew at an annualized rate of 3.4% in the first quarter, nearly double the 1.8% pace logged during the fourth quarter. Core PCE inflation, which excludes the more volatile costs of food and energy, climbed 3.7% in the first three months of the year, up from the fourth quarter’s 2% pace, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday. Thursday’s quarterly inflation data suggest, assuming no revisions to monthly data, that the core PCE deflator for March, to be released Friday, will come in above 0.4% rather than the current consensus forecast for a month-over-month increase of 0.3%, writes James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.

  • Moulin Rouge windmill sails collapse overnight

    The sails of the red windmill atop the world-famous cabaret club plunged in the early hours of Thursday.

  • Harvey Weinstein: New York court overturns 2020 rape conviction

    Court rules judge who oversaw landmark trial was mistaken in allowing women whose accusations were not part of case to testify

  • FOREX-Dollar firmer on higher U.S. inflation; yen sinks vs euro, US currency

    The U.S. dollar gained on Thursday after a hotter-than-expected inflation reading for the first quarter, affirming expectations that the start of the Federal Reserve's easing cycle could be pushed later in the year. The yen, meanwhile, hit a fresh 34-year low versus the dollar and a 16-year low against the euro on Thursday as investors expect a Bank of Japan policy meeting that ends on Friday to not be hawkish enough to support the Japanese currency. The focus, however, has been on the U.S. gross domestic product data and the report's inflation component.

  • SNP's power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens collapses

    It follows the government's decision to scrap climate targets and its response to a gender services review.

  • UPDATE 1-Bottler Arca Continental's first-quarter profit ticks up, dragged down by peso

    Mexican bottler Arca Continental on Thursday posted a first-quarter core profit that ticked up 1.2%, above forecasts but dragged down by the appreciation of the Mexican peso. Arca, which sells bottled water, soft drinks and snacks across the Americas, reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 9.66 billion pesos ($584.54 million), compared with 9.06 billion pesos forecast by analysts polled by LSEG. This brought its net profit up just 0.8% to 3.76 billion pesos from revenues that inched up 0.1% to 50.74 billion pesos compared with the year-ago period.

  • Cameron denies suggesting Brexit to blame for no asylum returns deal with France

    The Foreign Secretary defended the controversial plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda as ‘the right one’.

  • London horses: 'Too early to know' if Cavalry horses will return to duty

    Two horses, Vida and Quaker, were operated on after they were left in a "serious condition".

  • 'There’s no space:' Residents concerned over lack of cemetery space in Boynton Beach

    A concern from a resident has led to a WPTV investigation showing a lack of space at local public cemeteries in Boynton Beach. The city of Boynton Beach, grappling with a shortage of cemetery space, is looking at proposals to expand existing land.

  • Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned

    New York court states disgraced Hollywood film mogul did not receive a fair trial.

  • Ed Davey calls for freeze of fares on campaign in Shropshire

    Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey and his candidate Helen Morgan campaign in the North Shropshire constituency after Owen Paterson resignation prompted a by-election. The Lib Dem leader calls Mrs Morgan a "brilliant" MP and says that "even life long Conservative voters" want to back her. He also calls for fare prices to be frozen saying "the railways are in a total mess" and "something needs to be done".

  • Tory MP for Oshawa joins ranks of federal politicians who won't run in next election

    OTTAWA — Conservative member of Parliament Colin Carrie, who represents Oshawa, Ont., says he will not run in the next election. Carrie was first elected in 2004 and re-elected six times. He says it's been an honour to serve as an MP but it's time to clear a path for someone new to represent the community. In February, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a private member's bill that Carrie introduced. It would ensure that more information about the temporary absences, releases or parole of