Fact Check

Trump Wants Executive Order Abolishing Impeachment?

A satirical web site used the claim to poke fun at Trump's executive orders.

Published May 31, 2017

 (Wikimedia Commons)
Image Via Wikimedia Commons
Claim:
Leaked conversations revealed that President Trump planned on signing an executive order to abolish impeachment.

U.S. President Donald Trump's executive orders have generated controversy -- in particular his attempted travel ban, which has been partly suspended by the courts. But would he go so far as to try to stop his own impeachment through an executive order? That's what the entertainment web site News Werthy appeared to report on 29 May 2017:

White House staffers leaked details of a conversation between President Trump and his legal team early Monday morning. Apparently outraged by mountains of bad press and talks of impeachment, the President is trying to find a way to use the powers of Executive Order to put a stop to it altogether.

[...]

Trump stated, “I want to draft an Executive Order which will just take away their ability to impeach me. So, I need you to help me word this the right way.” With the entire room flabbergasted, he went on to explain, “That way they will have no choice but to just get this stupid idea out of their heads, right?”

Unsurprisingly, this is not a genuine news report. News Werthy is a satirical web site that does not publish factual news stories.

Unlike most fake news web sites, News Werthy does not appear to be deliberately attempting to fool its readers. This story, for instance, concluded with the following paragraph:

If you liked this story, follow us on Facebook to see more! If you still think this is not shameless satire — please check out our about page, and then face-palm vigorously until you feel better about yourself.

The About page further emphasizes that News Werthy's content is satire:

NewsWerthy is your authority for super-serious, objective journalism. Look, if you’ve made it this far, and you still don’t realize that this is a tongue-in-cheek satire website, then I would like to say “Welcome to the Internet.”

Our motto here at NewsWerthy is “Take. Life. Srsly.” This is what we call Irony. (Just to beat you over the head with the punchline) We really just want you to take life less seriously.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.