President Donald Trump late Tuesday morning retweeted a false claim that “Europe is burning” and “We want Trump” is “being chanted through the streets of Paris.”
Europe is not burning and “We want Trump” is not being chanted through the streets of Paris.
There is no legitimate news agency in the U.S. reporting the claims. Nor did a Google France news search in French or English turn up a single reliable article that reports what Charlie Kirk, a close friend of Donald Trump Jr., claimed via Twitter Monday night.
The source of the false claim appears to be Rush Limbaugh, whose relevance has plummeted over the years, ever since he called Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” in 2012.
“You know what’s been overheard in some of the cheering over there?” Limbaugh said on Monday. “I kid you not. I know friends who are there. There are some people wearing the yellow vests chanting, ‘We want Trump’ among the rioters in Paris. ‘We want Trump.’ Europe. It’s supposed to be, oh, my God. Europe is utopia. Europe is the way. Europe is showing us how to live. Bohunk to that.”
Fueling the false claim is this video, which wrongly claims it is taking place in France. It’s London. Actual date of the event is unknown.
Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr and a CC license