Did Donald Trump say that if he was ever going to run for president he would switch to the republican party because they are easier to manipulate
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Executive summary
Multiple independent fact-checkers and primary-source holders have examined the attribution and found no evidence that Donald Trump ever said, “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up,” and the meme attributing that language to a 1998 People magazine interview is false [1] [2] [3] [4]. The claim originated online around 2015 and has been repeatedly debunked while continuing to resurface as a political meme [1] [2] [5].
1. The provenance problem: People magazine and archive checks
When the quote first circulated, People magazine — the outlet cited in the meme — told fact-checkers it had no record of publishing such a remark in 1998 or any similar interview, and reporters who searched People’s archives found nothing resembling the alleged language, a central basis for debunking the attribution [2] [1] [4].
2. Independent fact-checkers concur: this is a bogus meme
Major fact-checking organizations and news outlets — including FactCheck.org, Reuters, the Associated Press, Full Fact and local news fact-checks — independently assessed the claim and concluded it was fabricated, documenting that the meme first appeared online in 2015 and has repeatedly been rated false in subsequent waves of circulation [1] [2] [3] [4].
3. Why the false quote persisted: “zombie claims” and social media dynamics
Analysts describe this as a “zombie claim” — a false attribution that keeps reappearing even after being debunked — helped along by the meme format (image + bold text) and selective sharing on social platforms, which amplifies political messaging regardless of accuracy [4] [5].
4. Context that fuels plausibility: Trump’s variable party registration and provocative remarks
The meme’s plausibility to some audiences rests on other verifiable facts: Trump has publicly discussed party affiliation shifts and flirted with presidential runs for years, and he has made other headline-grabbing, provocative comments that make an outsized-sounding quote seem credible; that background explains why the fabricated quote spread so easily even though the specific wording lacks provenance [1] [6].
5. Visual sleight-of-hand: image usage and false citation
The image commonly paired with the quote is a still from a 1988 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where Trump discussed the idea of running for president, but that appearance does not contain the alleged language; the mismatch between image and false caption is a typical tactic used to lend a counterfeit quote apparent authenticity [3] [5].
6. Counterarguments and limitations in the record
No authoritative source has produced original primary documentation of Trump saying these exact words, and People’s own statement that it has no record is an important negative finding cited by multiple fact-checkers [2] [1] [3]. It remains impossible, from available public archives and reporting, to prove a negative absolutely — that he never uttered some similar thought in some private or unarchived setting — but the burden of evidence for the specific quoted wording and 1998 People attribution is unmet by the provenance offered by those who circulate the meme [2] [4].
7. The political function of the false quote: agendas and effects
The meme functions as a political cudgel: it caricatures Trump as openly contemptuous of Republican voters and Fox viewers, a portrayal that serves opponents’ narratives; conversely, supporters often dismiss debunkings as partisan, illustrating how such false attributions can harden polarization even while being demonstrably untrue [5] [4].
Bottom line
There is no credible evidence that Donald Trump made the quoted statement in People magazine in 1998 (or elsewhere in the documented record), and multiple fact-checks have labeled the meme false and traced its circulation back to about 2015; the claim should be treated as a fabricated attribution rather than a documented Trump quote [1] [2] [3] [4].