Ex-Professor at Liberal College Pushes Fake Trump Quote, Probably Didn't Expect POTUS Himself To Step In
A purported foreign policy expert, author, columnist for Time magazine and New York University professor named Ian Bremmer recently fabricated and perpetuated — at least for a short time — a completely made-up quote from President Donald Trump about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and former Vice President Joe Biden, who’s running for president in 2020.
That false quote contained in a tweet — the veritable epitome of “fake news” — was seized on by countless Trump critics and shared on social media with reckless abandon on Sunday until it was eventually deleted.
The fake quote sparked so much controversy that on Monday, even Trump himself weighed in on the matter to slam the perpetrator.
The Washington Examiner‘s Jerry Dunleavy called out Bremmer with a string of tweets on Sunday where he noted how incredibly serious and impactful the supposed quote would be … if it was real.
Dunleavy soon noted that Bremmer had admitted the quote was manufactured, and though he initially attempted to defend it, eventually deleted the tweet that contained it.
“President Trump in Tokyo: ‘Kim Jong Un is smarter and would make a better President than Sleepy Joe Biden,'” Bremmer had said.
Faced with questions abut the accuracy of the quote, Bremmer suggested it was “plausible,” then claimed it was acceptable as a “comment on the state of media and the twitterverse today.”
UPDATE: @ianbremmer has now admitted that he fabricated this viral Trump quote. And yet it is being shared by journalists and congressmen as if it is real. pic.twitter.com/QgNd9DnN8g
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) May 26, 2019
Prior to Bremmer posting his now-deleted tweets, Kim issued critical insults against Biden, according to Fox News — insults that Trump had keyed in on and jokingly played up in a tweet. Those insults were the likely impetus for Bremmer’s manufactured quote.
Much more seriously, Trump tweeted Monday, “.@ianbremmer now admits that he MADE UP ‘a completely ludicrous quote,’ attributing it to me. This is what’s going on in the age of Fake News. People think they can say anything and get away with it. Really, the libel laws should be changed to hold Fake News Media accountable!”
.@ianbremmer now admits that he MADE UP “a completely ludicrous quote,” attributing it to me. This is what’s going on in the age of Fake News. People think they can say anything and get away with it. Really, the libel laws should be changed to hold Fake News Media accountable!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2019
Bremmer, for his part, apologized on Monday.
“My tweet yesterday about Trump preferring Kim Jong Un to Biden as President was meant in jest. The President correctly quoted me as saying it was a ‘completely ludicrous’ statement. I should have been clearer. My apologies,” he wrote.
My tweet yesterday about Trump preferring Kim Jong Un to Biden as President was meant in jest. The President correctly quoted me as saying it was a “completely ludicrous” statement. I should have been clearer. My apologies.
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) May 27, 2019
That apology may work with his liberal comrades, but it won’t necessarily fly with everyone else. In fact, it’s quite possible that Bremmer could face some repercussions for his blatant foray into manufacturing fake news.
Already, Campus Reform reported that New York University, one of the most liberal colleges in the nation, appears to have attempted to distance itself from Bremmer, whose Twitter profile still says he teaches at the school.
When Campus Reform first contacted NYU for comment on its story, the university confirmed that Bremmer was a professor there.
However, after Campus Reform’s article was published, an NYU spokesperson said Bremmer has not worked for the school since September 2018.
What Bremmer did was incredibly irresponsible — particularly for a supposed professor, much less a purported journalist with a “verified” Twitter account — that only served to pour gasoline on the anti-Trump inferno that is the political left’s corner of Twitter.
Whether he’s ever held fully accountable for his blatantly false disinformation remains to be seen, but there should be some consequences, lest this sort of thing occurs again.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
