On March 11, 2024, an X (formerly Twitter) post claimed that in 1998, real estate mogul Donald Trump, who would later run for the presidency as a Republican Party candidate, told People magazine in 1998 that Republicans are "the dumbest group of voters in the country."
(@EileenMarieSar1/X)
Snopes previously wrote about the quote in 2015 and 2020. The quote began spreading again on X, Facebook, TikTok and other platforms in January 2024, around the same time reputable news publications like Axios reported Trump had "cemented" his status as the Republican presidential front-runner.
However, we found no evidence that Trump said Republicans are "the dumbest group of voters" to People magazine in 1998, or any other year. While some have claimed he said it in other media venues, such as "The Howard Stern Show," we have found no evidence to substantiate that he said it there or anywhere else.
"If I were to run, I'd run as a Republican," the purported 1998 Trump quote begins. "They're the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they'd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific."
People confirmed to FactCheck.org that the magazine had no record of having published any such interview or exchange with Trump:
People looked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in Oct. [2015]. We combed through every Trump story in our archive. We couldn't find anything remotely like this quote -- and no interview at all in 1998.
While there is evidence Trump was interested in politics during the late '90s, People magazine covered Trump mostly for his relationships with his first and second wives, Ivana Trump and Marla Maples.
Snopes has fact-checked other rumors about the former U.S. president, including whether he said fellow contender for the 2024 Republican nomination Nikki Haley was "in charge of security" during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.