On 19 December 2016, the National Report web site published an article reporting that President-elect Donald Trump would make a stop on his "victory tour" over the Christmas 2016 weekend at famed Red Square, a plaza next to the Kremlin in Moscow, the capital of Russia:
Trump will hold a rally in Moscow at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The event will be held at sprawling Red Square, the scene of many Russian Celebrations throughout history.
The Trump campaign says the visit is a way to say thank you to the assistance that the president-elect received during the hard fought and often contentious 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump has been traveling the United States, thanking supporters for his 8 November 2016 election victory, but that tour does not include Russia. This item originated with the National Report, one of many fake news web sites. A sampling of current headlines on the site's home page include an attempt at Onion-style satire ("Area Mall Offering 10% Discount to Non-Active Shooters") and a play on Trump's prolific Twitter use ("Trump to Limit All Intelligence Briefings to 140-Characters").
Trump's spokesman, Jason Miller, told reporters that the President-elect will spend the Christmas holiday and much of the week leading up to it with his family at Mar-a-Lago, his opulent residence in Florida:
Looking ahead to tomorrow [17 December 2016], at 2 p.m., the president-elect will be arriving at the signature airport in Mobile, Alabama, which will open to the press. For further details, please contact Stephanie Grisham.
Following this, at 3 p.m., the president-elect will hold the final Thank You, America rally for the week in Mobile, Alabama at Ladd Peebles Stadium. After this, the president-elect will head to Mar-a- Lago in Palm Beach, where he will have numerous meetings and also spend the Christmas holiday with his family.
This fake news item plays on recent media stories about the intelligence community's reporting the Russian government had meddled in the November 2016 U.S. presidential election with the aim of helping Trump win. Trump has said he doesn't believe these claims are true, calling them "ridiculous," and certainly has not publicly thanked Russia for their purported interference on his behalf.