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Fabricated Trump post blames Chiefs' Super Bowl loss on 'DEI nonsense' | Fact check

Joedy McCreary   Paste BN
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The claim: Image shows Trump post blaming Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss on ‘DEI nonsense’

A Feb. 9 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a social media post from President Donald Trump that blames the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on programs for diversity, equity and inclusion and a federal humanitarian agency.

“The Chiefs’ Super Bowl performance was a DISASTER – totally EMBARRASSING! Maybe too focused on DEI nonsense instead of WINNING?” text of the purported Trump post reads in part. “Meanwhile, the Eagles get all the help – USAID money flowing in like water.”

The Instagram post received more than 3,000 likes in a day. The original X post was reposted hundreds of times, and versions also circulated widely on Threads, on Facebook and elsewhere on Instagram.

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Our rating: Manipulated media

Trump didn’t post that. The image is a fabrication. There is no record of the post on Trump’s Truth Social account. 

No record of post on Trump’s account

Trump began his second presidential term with a flurry of executive orders, one of which rolled back DEI programs in all agencies in the executive branch. He also began winding down the U.S. Aid for International Development, a humanitarian agency that dates to 1961.

But Trump – who on Feb. 9 became first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl – did not share the social media post attributed to him that blames those initiatives for the Chiefs’ loss. The X user who first posted it stated in a post shared moments later that it was a fabrication.

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While Trump did share two posts mocking music superstar Taylor Swift – who is in a high-profile relationship with Chiefs star Travis Kelce – his Truth Social account shows no record of the post in question. Had it been real, it would have been widely covered by legitimate media outlets. But no such coverage exists.

The image of the purported post contains multiple clues it is not real. First, the font does not match the one used in authentic posts on the platform. Additionally, a timestamp indicating the supposed post was shared 19 minutes before it was captured appears in many versions of the image shared to social media – a key tell that it is a fabrication that originated from a single source.

Paste BN previously debunked false claims that Trump posted about urging retaliation against Israel if he is assassinated and saying weeks before Election Day that “you better elect me” because “everything is horrible.”

Paste BN reached out to several social media users who shared the image but did not immediately receive any responses.

Lead Stories also debunked the claim.

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