Did trump you know like go on a show 30 years ago or some shit and say republicans are stupid and evil.
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Executive summary
A widely shared quote that Donald Trump said in a 1998 People magazine interview — that Republicans are "the dumbest group of voters" who "believe anything on Fox News" — is fabricated: multiple fact-checkers and People itself find no record of any such interview or quotation [1][2][3]. The meme has circulated since about 2015 and repurposes an older image (from Oprah in 1988), but there is no primary-source evidence that Trump ever uttered that line in 1998 [4][3].
1. The specific claim and how it’s framed
The verbatim claim circulating online says Trump told People magazine in 1998 he would run as a Republican because “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,” a line presented as a direct quote from a People interview and paired with a younger Trump photo [1][2].
2. What primary-source checks and mainstream fact-checkers found
People magazine’s archive and multiple independent fact-checkers — PolitiFact, AP, Snopes, Full Fact and others — report no evidence that People ever ran such an interview or that Trump ever said that line; People specifically told reporters they could find no interview in 1998 containing that or anything like it [1][5][4][2][3].
3. Where the meme likely came from and the misattributed image
Investigations trace the common image used in the meme to a 1988 Oprah Winfrey interview of Trump, a decade before the alleged 1998 People exchange, and analysts note the quoted text began circulating online around 2015 rather than appearing in any contemporaneous print interview from the 1990s [3][2][4].
4. Why the false quote spread and the surrounding context
The fabrication fit a partisan narrative and spread on social platforms during later political cycles; fact-checkers and news outlets note the line resurfaced repeatedly ahead of elections and that social posts often present the text as a vintage “gotcha” scoop despite there being no archival source — a dynamic that benefits both political critics seeking an eye-catching indictment and social-media users seeking viral content [6][4][7].
5. Nuance and related truthful behavior by Trump that fuels belief in the lie
While the specific 1998 People quote is false, Trump has used derogatory language about political opponents and individuals in other contexts, and recent interviews contain him calling other public figures or administrations “stupid” or similar epithets; for example, a 2025 Politico transcript records him using phrases like “a very stupid president” about a political rival and castigating reporters or officials in blunt terms [8], and contemporary reporting documents episodes where he told a reporter “Are you a stupid person?” in response to a question [9]. Those documented examples of abrasive language help explain why the fabricated 1998 quote felt plausible to many readers.
6. Verdict and what can and cannot be proved from available reporting
The claim that Trump said in 1998 that Republicans are “the dumbest group of voters” and believed anything on Fox News is false according to archival searches and multiple fact-checks; there is no evidence in People’s archives or contemporaneous reporting to support the quote, and the meme’s image and text appear to be a retrofitted fabrication that first circulated online in the 2010s [1][2][4][3]. Reporting does show Trump has used insults in other interviews and moments, but those separate instances do not validate the specific 1998 attribution [8][9]. If further contemporaneous primary-source material emerges, that would warrant reevaluation; based on existing, cited reporting, the 1998 People quote did not happen.