Q: Is President Trump giving $612 to all working Americans and their families?
A: No. That claim originated from a satirical website.
FULL QUESTION
Is it true that Trump is giving every man, woman and child that is working $612.00?
FULL ANSWER
The White House Communication and Propaganda Office does not exist. And it did not announce a program called “Tax Relief for Deserving Americans” that will give “$612 each for every legal American from a working family” and “give nothing to those who choose not to work, people in prison or illegal aliens.”
That tall tale, which appeared online in mid-February, was concocted by the Resistance, a self-described satirical website that we’ve written about before. The story was flagged as potentially bogus by several Facebook users who discovered it on other online sites.
As the satirical story goes, President Donald Trump was inspired by President George W. Bush to authorize the $612 “stimulus bonus” for every American in a working family “while deciding how to distract the American people from the nonsense being ‘reported’ by the fake news media about world events and interior politics.” “People on welfare in good standing with work programs or job training will receive an extra $25 in bonus food stamps instead,” the fake story said.
But neither bonus is real, and there are no checks in the mail.
A disclaimer on the Resistance’s “about us” page says that its “articles should be considered satirical and any and all quotes attributed to actual people complete and total baloney.” That means that Trump didn’t say, as the Resistance article claimed, that he’d pay for the stimulus program by taxing Mexico or adding tariffs on Canadian Whiskey or asking China for help.
We’re certain that Trump would’ve had plenty to say had he approved stimulus checks for working families. In that case, the Resistance wouldn’t have had to make up anything.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label viral fake news stories flagged by readers on the social media network.
Sources
Stryker. “Breaking: Trump Just Gave Every Working, Legal Man Woman and Child in THE USA $612 Each!” Thelastlineofdefense.org. 14 Feb 2017.
The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense. “About Us.” Accessed 1 Mar 2017.