Quick Take
There’s no evidence for a meme that quotes President Donald Trump’s late mother as once making a disparaging remark about her son and predicting he would not do well in politics.
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A meme posted repeatedly on Facebook in recent days attributes a supposed quote about President Donald Trump to his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, but there’s no evidence she ever said it.
“Yes, he’s an idiot with zero common sense, and no social skills, but he IS my son,” the dubious statement reads. “I just hope he never goes into politics. He’d be a disaster.”
The meme offers no citation for the quote, and we couldn’t find anything to lend it credibility: We searched online and through news archives and found no such statement from Mary Trump, who died in August 2000.
Trump’s mother criticizing her son and forecasting his potential entrance into politics — not to mention calling such a move a “disaster” — would have no doubt made the quotation newsworthy, if she had said it, at the time and again later. Before Mary Trump died, Donald Trump already had become a wealthy developer and casino owner who gained celebrity status and publicly considered running for president in the late 1990s, before deciding not to run. The supposed quote also would have likely resurfaced during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“A mothers choice words,” wrote one user whose post of the meme earned about 1,000 shares. Another user remarked in a comment: “She knew full well what she gave birth to.”
We’ve written about many bogus quotes relating to politics that have gained virality on social media.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here.
Sources
Kruse, Michael. “The Mystery of Mary Trump.” Politico. December 2017.
“Mary MacLeod Trump Philanthropist, 88.” New York Times. 9 Aug 2000.