Fake News: Trump Family DID NOT Flee to Moscow

Fact Check

  • by: Alan Duke
Fake News: Trump Family DID NOT Flee to Moscow

While people allegedly suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome" might really believe it happened, a story gaining traction on social media saying Donald Trump and family boarded a Russian jet to seek exile in Moscow is a work of satire and not factual reporting.

The story originated from an article published on July 27, 2018 titled "Trump Family Flees to Moscow" (archived here) which opened:

Trump reportedly was in a tremendous hurry to catch the plane and left behind only a one-sentence note, reading, "THERE WAS NO COLUSION [sic]."

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

Trump Family Flees to Moscow

Trump reportedly was in a tremendous hurry to catch the plane and left behind only a one-sentence note, reading, "THERE WAS NO COLUSION [sic]."

The story actually appeared in the satire column of The New Yorker ("The Borowitz Report" by Andy Borowitz) which was acquired in 2012 by the magazine. Although the section with the columns and all the articles in it are clearly marked as satire the stories frequently get confused for real news by people who only see the title and summary on social media and who assume it must be real because the link goes to the actual website of The New Yorker. To them it would look somewhat like this, with an easy to miss "Not the news" being the only indication it is not real:

In part to combat this the main page of The Borowitz Report comes with a clear heading that simply states:

Satire from the Borowitz Report

satirefromtheborowitzreport.jpg

To be safe, whenever you see a link that goes to any article on the "newyorker.com" website, always check if the rest of the link says "/humor/borowitz-report/" somewhere. If it does, don't believe a thing you read...

We wrote about newyorker.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Alan Duke

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

Read more about or contact Alan Duke

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