Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Melania Trump Threatening to Scratch Out Barack Obama’s Eyes ‘If ISIS Lay A Finger On Barron’ Is Fake News

Wikimedia Commons


Reports that Melania Trump threatened to scratch out former President Barack Obama’s eyes “if ISIS lay a finger” on her son Barron are false. Rumors that the First Lady issued a hostile warning to Obama following an alleged threat against the 11-year-old first son stemmed from a notorious purveyor of fake news.


According to PolitiFact, the fake claim originated on YourNewsWire, a disreputable/clickbait website known for publishing conspiracy theories and fake news. The article claimed that Trump threatened Obama after ISIS reportedly called for the assassination of President Donald Trump’s youngest son. It purported:


First Lady Melania Trump has warned former president Barack Obama that if ISIS terrorists “lay a finger” on Barron Trump, she will “scratch his eyes out.”


Melania Trump’s warning comes days after ISIS terrorists used social media to call for the assassination of Barron Trump.


The rise of ISIS, funded and supported by Barack Obama, is viewed as another Obama-era failed project in in D.C., and Melania Trump has warned Obama that “if his chickens come home to roost in my house, if anything happens to my son, I will scratch his eyes out.“


“Supporting terrorists anywhere in the world can have serious and long term consequences,” Melania Trump said, “and if any of these psychopaths so much as lay a finger on Barron there will be hell to pay.”


The report, of course, is entirely fabricated. The First Lady did not threaten Obama and, while YourNewsWire contains no disclaimer on their website, RationalWiki provides a short description of the site’s falsehoods:


YourNewsWire (styled as YourNewsWire.com[1]) is an Los Angeles-based clickbait fake news website known for disseminating conspiracy theories and misleading information, contrary to its claimed motto (“News. Truth. Unfiltered”).


While the First Lady did not issue any warning to Obama in regards to her son, an “ISIS supporter” did reportedly issue a threat against Barron using the Telegram chat app. The alleged threat, which was reported on by outlets such as USA Today and AOL, was shared by the Washington Free Beacon—which claimed that the call for assassination came from a pro-ISIS channel.


The Middle East Media Research Institute said the initial message allegedly “called for the assassination of Barron Trump, and shared the address [of his school], and called for the backers of the terrorist organization to assassinate him.” According to AOL, in addition to Barron’s photo, a “hashtag using the words ‘handle the son of the mule of America"” was also used in the post. Snopes writes, however, that the MEMRI report “did not state that the threat came from a known-terrorist, or from a leader of ISIS, or through some form of official communication from the terrorist organization”—therefore, the contents of the message were largely exaggerated by some outlets.



Real or not, the message did not elicit any response from the Trump family, nor did it cause the First Lady to issue any threats against Obama.


Here are some examples of people sharing the fake story on social media:


Social Media Shares Fake Story about Melania Trump Threatening Barack Obama If ISIS Harms Her Son












Have you seen the fake story about Melania Trump threatening to scratch out Barack Obama’s eyes if ISIS hurts Barron Trump circulating social media? What are your thoughts on the message? Sound off in the comments section below!


Photo credit: Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian, Wikimedia Commons



Source: B2C
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