Fact Check

Did Michelle Obama Get Ditched by Secret Service?

Reports that Michelle Obama's Secret Service detail abruptly quit and left her on the street in Hawaii are fake news.

Published Jan. 14, 2017

 (Flickr)
Image Via Flickr
Claim:
Michelle Obama's Secret Service detail abruptly quit during her Hawaii vacation and left her on the street.

The disreputable web site Last Line of Defense published an article in December 2016 claiming that First Lady Michelle Obama's Secret Service detail had abruptly quit and left her alone on the street in Hawaii:

Michelle Obama’s nasty attitude has finally cost her bigly. The fierce First Lady, well-known for treating her Secret Service detail like animals, was screaming at them while walking down a street in Maui when they decided they had been her victim for the last time and walked away, leaving her alone and visibly frightened.

Michelle was forced to walk back to the hotel the First Family was spending your money to stay at all by herself while crowds of people gathered to throw lettuce at her and shout “Trump Trump Trump!!!” By the time she made it back she was in tears.

While The Last Line of Defense's article received some attention when it was first published, the story recirculated more widely on social media in January 2017 after it was picked up and republished by web sites such as USPostMan.com.

However, there was no truth to the above-quoted story.

Last Line of Defense has a history of publishing fake news stories. The web site also carries a disclaimer stating that its content should not be trusted:

The Resistance may include information from sources that may or may not be reliable and facts that don’t necessarily exist. All articles should be considered satirical and any and all quotes attributed to actual people complete and total baloney. Pictures that represent actual people should be considered altered and not in any way real.

When this story was published on USPostMan.com, it was accompanied by a similar disclaimer:

Note: We at uspostman cannot make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.