Trump's use of the word "stollen" — the name of a traditional German fruitcake — was a simple typo, and he clearly intended to write "stolen."
Fact Check
In June 2022, the word "stollen" — a traditional German fruitcake — briefly trended on Twitter, as social media users enthusiastically shared what appeared to be screenshots of an official statement by former U.S. President Donald Trump in which he described the 2020 presidential election as "rigged and stollen."
Those screenshots were authentic. On June 19, Trump really did publish a post that included the typo "stollen" instead of the word "stolen." Our rating is "Correct Attribution."
The statement was posted to Twitter by various users, including Trump critics such as Keith Olbermann.
In it, Trump appeared to go on a rant about the public hearings being conducted, at that time, by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by the then-president's followers. Trump wrote:
The highly partisan Unselects are trying to create a FAKE narrative, for whatever reason but only with evil intention, that “He (me) knew he lost the Election.” This is completely false. I felt the Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN [sic], have from the very beginning, & have only gotten stronger in that belief with time & large amounts of additional evidence and proof. In my mind I have, & HAVE HAD, NO QUESTION, and MANY people would be willing to so attest, but the Unselects don’t want to hear them……
Since Trump was suspended from Facebook and Twitter in 2021, internet users have at times struggled to figure out whether a statement attributed to him was, in fact, authentic. Consequently, the "fake Trump statement" has become its own genre of misinformation, which Snopes has addressed on numerous previous occasions.
However, in this instance the viral screenshots were authentic, and the "stollen" typo was real. Trump posted the statement to his TruthSocial account on June 19. It was also re-posted to his official website, later the same day, adding further proof of its authenticity
