Did Donald Trump become president of the United States because Republicans are dumb?
On Instagram, Amy Schumer shared a meme featuring a quote believed to be taken from an interview with PEOPLE Magazine in 1998. In the quote, Trump claims that he could become president of the United States because “Republicans are the dumbest group of voters in the country.” The question is – did this interview with PEOPLE Magazine really happen? Did Donald Trump predict that he would become president of the United States because “Republicans are the dumbest?” Keep reading to find out.
Amy Schumer includes a fairly long caption with her meme and quote claiming Donald Trump predicted he could become president because Republicans are dumb. She starts out by addressing the fact that, during an interview in London, she claimed she would leave the United States if Donald Trump became president. Amy claims to have made the comment “in jest.” She goes on to say anyone who is telling her to pack her bags is just as “disgusting” as those who voted for him in the first place. At the end of her caption, she did mention that the quote in the meme was fake. But, she claims “it doesn’t matter.” Does she think Donald Trump became president because Republicans are dumb?
About a year ago, Reno Gazette-Journal did a little digging and fact checking to determine whether or not there was any truth to the quote displayed in this meme. Did Donald Trump predict he would become president because Republicans are dumb ?
On Thursday, Donald Trump will meet Pres. Obama and then, a few months later, proceed to dismantle his achievements: https://t.co/WHrKtjG4S9 pic.twitter.com/X1P3eC75e8
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 10, 2016
The meme suggests that it was during an interview with PEOPLE Magazine in 1998 that Donald Trump said the following statement:
“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. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”
For anyone who takes the time to go looking into the archives of PEOPLE Magazine , you will not find anything even close to this quote in any 1998 edition (or any other year for that matter).
A public relations representative with PEOPLE even confirmed to Reno Gazette-Journal that they were not able to find the quote – or anything close to the quote – in their archives either.
“ People looked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in October. We combed through every Trump story in our archive. We couldn’t find anything remotely like this quote –and no interview at all in 1998.”
Trump was cited frequently in the pages of PEOPLE during 1998. However, most of the references to Trump had nothing to do with becoming president or Republicans being dumb. In fact, most of the references were just stories about his pending divorce with Marla Maples. During the late 1990s, several stories started to surface about Trump flirting with the idea of running for president. However, none of these stories mentioned Trump wanting to do so because he thought Republicans were dumb. In fact, Donald Trump claimed he was going to run for president for a number of years including 1998, 2000, 2004, and 2012. Considering how many times Trump claimed he was going to run for president and never did, most just dismissed the idea that he would ever run.
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There was also an op-ed in Wall Street Journal on September 30, 1999, which talked about Donald Trump considering running for president. He never mentioned anything about Republicans or them being dumb. In fact, he claimed to be considering running as an independent .
Reporter’s notebook: The Donald Trump victory we didn’t see coming https://t.co/JtW9wPqBTU pic.twitter.com/NeO6cUEm0Z
— CNN (@CNN) November 10, 2016
Snopes also looked into the meme and pointed out the fact that the reference to Fox News doesn’t make much sense as Fox News was not a very well-known outlet during the year 1998.
As you can see, chances are pretty good Donald Trump never said he would become president of the United States because Republicans are dumb. The question is — why do you think he became president of the United States? Do you think Republicans are dumb? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
[Featured Images By Alex Wong/Getty Images]