Fake news has reached a whole new level, with fake copies of The Washington Post popping up all over Washington, D.C. this morning. The print editions look shockingly similar to the real Washington Post. The most interesting part? They are filled with stories about President Donald Trump leaving office.
The front page of the paper has a (fake) story that many are hoping will actually come true. With the headline “Unpresidented,” the lead story alleges that Trump resigned from office by writing a note on a napkin while in the Oval Office. What brought this about? This (fake) story declares that “women-led protests” (hi, Women’s March) across the country finally broke him.
He left, supposedly, to head to Yalta.
The Post’s PR department released a statement on Twitter:
Who is behind this brilliantly executed satire? Nobody knows. Many are speculating that Code Pink, a liberal, women-initiated activist group, is behind it, as a video on Facebook shows Medea Benjamin, the group’s founder, passing out copies at an office building at Capitol Hill.
In the above video Benjamin tells people, “The crisis is over, Trump has left the White House.”
In addition to maybe making these fake Washington Posts, Code Pink leads protests around D.C., often during Congressional proceedings and hearings.
Some people on social media are speculating that these fake papers cropped up now to get people invigorated for this weekend’s scheduled Women’s Marches, though no definitive reason has been announced.
The date for the paper is May 1, 2019. Have these mysterious creators predicted the future? We’ll know for sure in a couple of months.