On Sept. 20, 2023, Donald Trump Jr.'s X account shared a series of bizarre posts — including the false claim that his father, former U.S. President Donald Trump, had died and Donald Trump Jr. was launching a 2024 presidential campaign. The tweets included a racial slur and expletives (reader discretion advised) and referenced U.S. President Joe Biden, YouTube star Logan Paul, and the late financier/convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. After racking up thousands of views over roughly 30 minutes, the posts were removed from the platform.
Andrew Surabian, a representative for Trump Jr., tweeted the account was hacked. Furthermore, The Hill said it confirmed with a representative (it's unclear if that source was also Surabian) that the account had been compromised.
Here is a sample of the since-deleted tweets, available via screenshots obtained by Snopes, as well as links to some of them documented in an internet archive database. The post about the former president's fake death received more than 1.4 million views, for example. Again, reader discretion advised.
(X user @DonaldJTrumpJr)
While several reputable news outlets, including NBC and Forbes, reported on the apparent hacking, X users suggested the account had been compromised in replies to the posts.
Before the tweets were removed, BBC Verify journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh tweeted the following:
Donald Trump Jr's Twitter account appears to have been hacked. pic.twitter.com/hbLfx1Q6jL
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) September 20, 2023
While retweeting the post about the former president's fake death and Trump Jr.'s 2024 plans, Surabian said: "This is obviously not true. Don's account has been hacked."
Andrew Surabian (X user @Surabees)
We have no reason to doubt the legitimacy of claims that the account was hacked. We'll update this post if we learn more about why, or under what circumstances, the tweets were published.