Trump promoted a suspicious Twitter account. It got deleted. Internet sleuths are on the case.
On Saturday, President Trump was in his natural habitat — the dregs of his own Twitter mentions — when he happened upon a tweet from an account called @ProTrump45. The president retweeted it, which looked like this:
@ProTrump45's name was displayed as "Nicole Mincey," and the account's avatar showed a young black woman. As has become standard routine whenever the president promotes random Twitter users (some of whom have turned out to be less than exemplary people), internet sleuths got busy.
The account apparently existed to promote ProTrump45.com, which sells Trump-branded clothes and bills itself as "the perfect store built by a trump supporter for trump supporters" who "are not bigots thats how fake news painted us [sic throughout]."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Nicole Mincey, however, doesn't exist — well, not exactly. Though The Washington Post reported the account "bears a lot of signs of a Russia-backed disinformation campaign," per investigations from BuzzFeed News and The Daily Beast, the name is a variation of the real name of real woman in New Jersey. She is indeed a young, African-American Trump supporter, but she is not the woman in the avatar. That image came from a stock photo site called PlaceIt, and it was edited to make the model's skin lighter.
The woman in New Jersey told reporters from BuzzFeed and The Daily Beast the account was managed by a group of Trump supporters from around the country to promote their online store. She claimed she no longer wants the group to base the account on her name and biography, but the other members refused to drop the Mincey character.
Since Trump's retweet, the account and a host of other fake, stock photo-fronted accounts with which it interacted to advertise the store have been suspended by Twitter. Trump has not directly commented on the situation.
-
Why are election experts taking Trump’s midterm threats seriously?IN THE SPOTLIGHT As the president muses about polling place deployments and a centralized electoral system aimed at one-party control, lawmakers are taking this administration at its word
-
‘Restaurateurs have become millionaires’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Earth is rapidly approaching a ‘hothouse’ trajectory of warmingThe explainer It may become impossible to fix
-
NIH director Bhattacharya tapped as acting CDC headSpeed Read Jay Bhattacharya, a critic of the CDC’s Covid-19 response, will now lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
-
Witkoff and Kushner tackle Ukraine, Iran in GenevaSpeed Read Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held negotiations aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran and an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine
-
Pentagon spokesperson forced out as DHS’s resignsSpeed Read Senior military adviser Col. David Butler was fired by Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin is resigning
-
Judge orders Washington slavery exhibit restoredSpeed Read The Trump administration took down displays about slavery at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia
-
Hyatt chair joins growing list of Epstein files losersSpeed Read Thomas Pritzker stepped down as executive chair of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation over his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
-
Judge blocks Hegseth from punishing Kelly over videoSpeed Read Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for the senator to be demoted over a video in which he reminds military officials they should refuse illegal orders
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
