Biden post mocking Trump for owing Carroll $83 million is fabricated | Fact check
The claim: Biden mocked Trump for $83 million jury verdict
A Jan. 27 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears at a glance to be a social media post from President Joe Biden mocking former President Donald Trump after a jury ordered the former commander-in-chief to pay millions in damages to a woman he defamed.
“Folks, discipline your children when they are young. You could save them $83 million dollars (sic) one day,” reads the text of the screenshotted post on X, formerly Twitter.
Several commenters treated the post as authentic.
“Dark Brandon for the win!” one wrote, referring to a meme about Biden.
“Bidens Social Media Team is Killing it!! (sic),” wrote another.
The post was liked more than 1,000 times in two days. The original X post accumulated thousands of additional shares.
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Our rating: Satire
No such post appears on the president’s official X feed. The post originated from a parody account that posts fabricated images.
Post about sum awarded to E. Jean Carroll came from satirical account
A federal jury ruled Jan. 26 that Trump must pay longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll $83 million for defamation. The case revolves around disparaging public statements Trump made in 2019 about Carroll and her rape allegations.
But Biden did not use the official presidential X account to mock his likely opponent in the November presidential election. The purported post shown in the image is not real and does not appear on Biden's account. Biden has remained silent on Trump's legal issues, according to CNN.
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The fabricated image originated from the satirical X account @FaithRubPol, which shared the image in a Jan. 27 post on X.
The account's bio states that “most of the images we share are parodies.” The word “parody” appears in the lower right corner of the image near the number of views supposedly accumulated by the post.
The post bears two other signs that indicate it is not real. In the fabricated image, Biden's title of president is misspelled. The timestamp in the image also includes the word “RUB” – a reference to the name of the satirical account – in place of the “p.m.” abbreviation.
The trials involving Trump and Carroll have been sources of misinformation on social media. Paste BN has debunked false assertions that Trump was required to register as a sex offender and that a delay in the defamation trial was proof of election interference.
Paste BN reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response. The X user who originally posted the image could not be reached.
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