Fake tweets from Rob Reiner, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump all made the rounds this year.<\/b>
\nSocial media in 2025 was absolutely swamped with fakes. AI tools have made it easy for anyone to make fake photos and videos that can fool many people into thinking they\u2019re real. The tech has now advanced sufficiently that you shouldn\u2019t necessarily feel bad if you fall for one that pops up in your feed. OpenAI\u2019s Sora and Google\u2019s Nano Banana Pro are both getting very good.
But you don\u2019t need AI to trick unsuspecting masses of people on sites like Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and X. Sometimes, you can do the same with good, old-fashioned Photoshop techniques. And we saw plenty of that with fake tweets that went viral over the past year.
Did you see that tweet about the botched surgery on Elon Musk\u2019s penis? There were several tweets, actually, but they were all fake. Same with the tweets about President Trump claiming the World Series was rigged and another about far-right influencer Andrew Tate calling any man with a girlfriend \u201cgay.\u201d
Below we\u2019ve got some of the viral tweets (or Truths, as they\u2019re called on Truth Social) that caught our attention over the past 12 months. And none of them are real.1) Rob Reiner never tweeted \u2018fuck all of you MAGA assholes\u2019
Comedy legend Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were murdered last weekend in their Los Angeles home, prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes to the director\u2019s incredible body of work. But fans of President Donald Trump took the opportunity to spread a tweet that appeared to come from Reiner calling Trump supporters \u201cassholes.\u201d The tweet is fake.
\u201cUntil Trump goes to prison I will no longer be posting on Twitter. I\u2019ve had it with the insults and put downs. Fuck all of you MAGA assholes,\u201d the fake tweet reads.
The image, purporting to show a screenshot from 2023, spread far and wide on social media and was often used by Trump fans to attack anyone who was mourning the beloved director. Reiner, a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, deleted his X account sometime around the 2024 presidential election, but the AFP notes that he addressed the fake tweet in January 2023 after it had gone viral for the first time.
\u201cThis is not my account,\u201d Reiner tweeted Jan. 23, 2023, in a post that was archived.
The fake post looks like it was probably modified from an authentic Reiner tweet that read: \u201cUntil Trump is Indicted for leading a Deadly Insurrection to Overthrow the United States Government, our Democracy will not be restored.\u201d
President Trump attacked Reiner in an unhinged screed the day after the director was found dead, calling him \u201ctortured and struggling, but once very talented.\u201d The president even made the killing about himself, claiming with no evidence that Reiner was murdered \u201cdue to the anger he caused others\u201d by being anti-Trump.
Trump fans clearly took that as a signal to besmirch Reiner\u2019s memory, and the fake tweet spread widely as a justification to attack the director. Reiner\u2019s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested and charged with murder.2) Joe Rogan fell for a fake tweet about the No Kings protests
Joe Rogan is America\u2019s most popular podcaster, averaging about 20 million listeners per week. But Rogan consistently falls for fake images and videos online, even after they\u2019ve been widely debunked. The latest example? Rogan fell for another fake tweet on Wednesday that was supposedly from President Donald Trump.
In an episode from October, Rogan had guests Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin, both conservative British political commentators, and the three men talked about the No Kings protests that happened Oct. 18. The demonstrations saw millions of people take to the streets in opposition to Trump, and Rogan tried to belittle the efforts, insisting that people were being paid to be there and those who weren\u2019t being paid were just \u201cgeriatrics.\u201d
Rogan also claimed that if the protests were being allowed to happen at all, that must be evidence that Trump couldn\u2019t possibly be a king. And that\u2019s when he promoted the fake tweet he saw\u2014a post made to look like it was from the president on Truth Social.
\u201cNo, he didn\u2019t send the troops to stop the protests,\u201d said Rogan. \u201cIn fact, he congratulated them on doing a great job, and he said I\u2019m still your president. Tweet\u2019s fucking hilarious. It\u2019s very funny.\u201d One of Rogan\u2019s guests chimed in to say, \u201cyeah, I saw that,\u201d with a laugh.
Rogan told his producer to pull up the tweet, though it seemed clear he was having trouble tracking it down. \u201cTry Truth Social,\u201d Rogan told his producer, who was just off-screen. \u201cYou can probably find an image of it since it was posted everywhere.\u201d
The fake tweet Rogan seemed to be talking about reads, \u201cA HUGE THANK YOU to all the \u2018No Kings\u2019 protesters yesterday! I was very concerned a king was trying to take my place, but thanks to your tireless efforts, I am STILL YOUR PRESIDENT! Great job all!!!\u201d But there\u2019s nothing about it that\u2019s real.
The producer never did seem to find the post, probably because he didn\u2019t want to tell Rogan it was fake. It wasn\u2019t even a recent fake tweet. It first started circulating around the first No Kings Day on June 14. The screenshot went viral back in June on platforms like X and Instagram. As the Daily Beast notes, the president\u2019s son, Donald Trump Jr., shared the fake tweet but acknowledged it was fake. Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo shared the fake post in June as well, though she didn\u2019t know it wasn\u2019t real.
Rogan droned on and on about the protests during his show and claimed they were identical to what happened with Kamala Harris\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign. The podcast host insisted that the Harris campaign \u201cfilled up stadiums\u201d with people who were paid to be there, a claim with no basis in fact. Rogan said that it \u201cbecame a job\u201d for the people at Harris rallies and that \u201cshould not be legal\u201d because it\u2019s \u201cdeception.\u201d
Incredibly, Trump\u2019s actual commentary on the No Kings protests is somehow more aggressive than the fake version Rogan highlighted on Wednesday. In reality, Trump shared an AI video on Truth Social showing himself flying a fighter jet and dumping literal shit on protesters.
Rogan is not a particularly bright man. But, again, he has an enormous audience in the millions. And he\u2019s always falling for fake shit, whether it\u2019s AI videos of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz or tweets about \u201cJewish tunnels,\u201d sourced to fake accounts with characters like Dick Stroker.3) Charlie Kirk never tweeted about scratching his anus
There was a tweet that went viral back in July, before Charlie Kirk\u2019s killing in September, that appeared to show the MAGA influencer criticizing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for eating with his hands.
\u201cI have so many thoughts on this that it literally keeps me up at night, Zohran Mamdani eating rice with his HANDS during an interview,\u201d the tweet read. \u201cI very sincerely doubt he has to scratch his anus any less than the rest of us which makes that whole display unbelievably disgusting.\u201d
The image appeared on sites like Reddit, X, and Bluesky, and it seemed plausible enough. Right-winger users on X hurled racist comments at Mamdani about it. Even elected Republicans got in on the act, with Rep. Brandon Gill, a Republican from Texas, writing, \u201cCivilized people in America don\u2019t eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World.\u201d
The tweet that looked like it was from Kirk was believable, though it seemed like it was accidentally admitting that Kirk really dug in to scratch his anus. But this one was fake.
Kirk\u2019s real commentary on the issue mostly centered around the idea that Mamdani didn\u2019t actually want to eat rice with his hands. The late commentator suggested it was actually all for show: \u201cIt\u2019s a calculated stunt, just like him constantly changing his accent. Honestly, that\u2019s a lot worse and more disturbing than if he just authentically ate that way. One is backwards. The other shows his contempt for our culture.\u201d
Another tweet in the same style also spread, appearing to show Kirk doubling down on the idea that he frequently is digging into his asshole: \u201cTo all the people making fun of me for scratching my itchy asshole\u2026 keep coping! This is something that happens to everybody and that\u2019s why it\u2019s disgusting to eat with your hands like Zohran Mamdani.\u201d
The image was made to look like it had been deleted, even though X doesn\u2019t show that notice for recently deleted tweet anymore. That tweet was also fake.
Mamdani has since won his election and will be sworn in as the mayor of New York next month.4) Elon Musk didn\u2019t tweet about his \u2018botched penis\u2019
Back in April, all anyone could talk about was President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs. The president had dubbed April 2 \u201cLiberation Day,\u201d and he announced a wide swath of tariffs on every country across the globe.
The next day, a tweet that appeared to have been sent by Elon Musk started spreading on social media. The tweet read, \u201cI want a 90% tariff on Canada because Grimes told everyone about my botched penis.\u201d Grimes is the mother of two of Musk\u2019s many children, and she was born in Canada.
However, the tweet is fake.
The tweet appears to have been created by an account on X called @marionumber4, which also has the name 679 Enthusiast. The pseudonymous account has a long history of creating fake \u201cdeleted\u201d tweets of right-wing figures like Musk, Candace Owens, and Grimes. And this one is no different.
That same creator made several fake \u201cbotched penis\u201d tweets about Elon Musk in 2025, including one made to look like it came from Ashley St. Clair but had been deleted. St. Clair has a child whom she says was fathered by Musk.
The fake tweet that appears to have been from St. Clair reads \u201cthe fucked up botched penis is real.\u201d
By putting the words \u201cthis post was deleted\u201d at the bottom of the fake tweet, it signals to the reader that any attempt to find the tweet on the person\u2019s timeline is going to be a futile effort. And that appears to be part of the appeal for hoaxsters who create these kinds of fake viral tweets, as we saw with the Charlie Kirk tweet. But accounts like @marionumber4 have been doing this for so long, it\u2019s easy to check with the usual photoshopping suspects whenever one of these is circulating online. The person behind that account has previously confirmed to Gizmodo that they make these fake tweets.
As the fake tweet gets shared outside of the original creator\u2019s circles, it circulates with people wondering if it\u2019s real. And X users now have the ability to ask Grok about the veracity of various tweets like a real-time AI fact-checker. That\u2019s what people did in the replies to various tweets about the supposed botched penis surgery. One user asked Grok, \u201cIs this real,\u201d and they got an interesting reply.
\u201cAshley St. Clair likely broke an NDA by posting about Elon Musk\u2019s \u2018botched penis,\u2019 given their relationship and typical NDA use,\u201d Grok responded. \u201cShe may face financial fallout, as seen in custody and support disputes, but the claim of a specific penalty for penis comparisons is likely exaggerated, not standard in NDAs.\u201d
The reference to an NDA appears to have been a joke by the X account UAE Exotic Falconry and Finance. But Grok\u2019s fixation on some kind of non-disclosure agreement looks like a product of the leading question rather than something that actually exists. Neither Musk nor St. Clair appears to have discussed an NDA about their relationship, and it\u2019s not publicly known if one actually exists.
That ambiguity speaks to one of the major flaws in technology with generative AI. If you feed it enough garbage, you\u2019re just going to get garbage back. And X is nothing if not a flaming garbage dump in 2025. Musk bought the platform in late 2022 and did everything he could to scare off normal people with his far-right ideology. Fringe figures who had previously been banned on Twitter, like white supremacist Nick Fuentes and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, were welcomed back with open arms. And that\u2019s made X a mess of misinformation and extremist activity.5) The fake Epstein tweet that went viral before the identical real ones
There were some rather unbelievable developments in the news about Jeffrey Epstein in 2025. We finally saw some surveillance camera footage from the jail where Epstein died, even if it all seemed extremely irregular. And a small group of elected politicians came together to force a vote on getting government files about Epstein released. Those are due out Dec. 16, though it remains to be seen how many redactions the Department of Justice might make.
President Donald Trump has been at the center of the controversy, considering the fact that he was president when Epstein died in a federal jail, and many people don\u2019t believe Epstein actually killed himself. Trump was reportedly best friends with Epstein for at least 15 years, and the Wall Street Journal even obtained a letter that Trump wrote to Epstein for his birthday, which included a drawing of a naked female figure.
Trump has been incredibly defensive about the release of the Epstein files. But that defensiveness has made the topic a frequent subject for people joking on the internet. Like in the case of this tweet, which was widespread on Instagram, X, and Facebook over the summer. But it\u2019s not real.
The funny thing about this fake tweet is that it\u2019s extremely close to things Trump would actually write on social media about the case. This fake tweet went viral on July 12, and less than a week later, he wrote on Truth Social: \u201cTheir new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this \u2018bullshit,\u2019 hook, line, and sinker.’\u201d
Trump has repeatedly called the Epstein story a hoax, and he was reportedly pressuring elected politicians not to vote for releasing the Epstein files, even calling them directly. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump\u2019s most loyal supporters, even had a falling out with the president over the issue, and she\u2019s retiring early because he turned his back on her.
Sometimes fake tweets go viral before they capture a sentiment that already exists. Trump never tweeted \u201cSTOP TALKING ABOUT EPSTEIN!!!!\u201d but he may as well have.6) Andrew Tate didn\u2019t say a man with a girlfriend was \u201cgay\u201d
Andrew Tate, the far-right manosphere influencer, regularly tweets the most bizarre bullshit around. But if you saw a tweet that having a girlfriend in 2025 made you gay, that one was fake.
The fake tweet was picked up by outlets like Pink News and Australia\u2019s Star Observer, but there\u2019s no evidence it was real. Gizmodo checked Tate\u2019s X feed shortly after the tweet started to go viral on social media, and it wasn\u2019t there.
Oddly enough, the sentiment of this fake tweet is actually something Tate has posted many times. Back in July, Tate tweeted, \u201cI don\u2019t want a relationship, I don\u2019t wanna talk girl shit, I don\u2019t wanna put up with her moods, I\u2019m not gay.\u201d
Much like viral fakes featuring Trump, the real thing is often just as absurd.7) Ian Miles Cheong didn\u2019t tweet \u2018get out of my country\u2019 to Mamdani
Ian Miles Cheong is one of those Elon Musk fans that you\u2019ll come across frequently if you spend time on X. Cheong, who\u2019s originally from Malaysia but lives in Dubai, has built a name for himself whining about wokeness and pushing a right-wing worldview long before Twitter became X.
But Cheong\u2019s prominence and generally annoying presence have made him the target of photoshoppers. And even though Cheong has previously interjected into U.S. political debate like he actually lives in the country, one tweet in particular got a lot of pick-up this year.
\u201cI refuse to be governed by a Ugandan named Zohran Kwame Mamdani. Get out of my country,\u201d the fake tweet reads.
The post, as you\u2019ll notice, features the \u201cthis post has been deleted\u201d text at the bottom. But it\u2019s another one created by pranksters, made to look like it was deleted.
Cheong often writes about U.S. politics. But he\u2019s never claimed to actually be an American.8) Trump didn\u2019t tweet about the World Series being rigged
Back in October, a tweet that appeared to come from President Donald Trump said he\u2019d refuse to invite whoever wins the World Series to the White House. The post said it was because he believed the game was rigged, either by the mafia or the Democrats. But the tweet isn\u2019t real.
The post was made to look like it was coming from President Trump\u2019s official Truth Social account, the platform he owns and the first place where he posts all his most unhinged messages.
\u201cNO MATTER WHO WINS I WILL REFUSE TO INVITE EITHER BASEBALL TEAM TO MY BALL ROOM AS THEY ARE BOTH RUN BY HIGHLY INEPT OFFICIALS FROM CALIFORNIA AND ONTARIO CANADA,\u201d the fake tweet reads.
\u201cI DON\u2019T HOST LOSERS. WE ARE ACTIVELY INVESTIGATING MLB. THIS WORLD SERIES IS RIGGED, PROBABLY BY THE DEMS & THE MAFIA,\u201d the fake tweet continues.
The screenshot spread far and wide, showing up on Threads, X, Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook. But Trump never wrote this one.
The reaction to the viral post was about what you\u2019d expect, especially among fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. Many Canadians made fun of the fake Trump tweet, since they didn\u2019t think a Canadian team would even be invited to the White House in the first place.
There were many red flags in the fake post from Trump, but the reference to the ballroom might be one of the most glaring. The president demolished the East Wing of the White House, and he\u2019s building a ballroom with \u201cdonations\u201d from private companies and individuals who have given him millions. But even on the most ambitious timeline, the ballroom won\u2019t be completed by the time a White House visit by the 2025 World Series champions might take place.
Trump hasn\u2019t announced a completion date for his ridiculous monstrosity, but the administration has said it will be done before his second term is up in Jan. 2029.9) Trump didn\u2019t call the Toronto Blue Jays un-American
Another fake post that was popping up here and there on social media specifically called out the Blue Jays.
\u201cWE WILL BE INVESTIGATING THE UN AMERICAN BLUE JAYS WHO ARE ATTEMPTING TO STEAL OUR BELOVED WORLD SERIES,\u201d the fake tweet reads. \u201cTHEY WILL DEFINITELY NOT BE INVITED TO THE WHITE HOUSE.\u201d
At the end of the day, all of these fake tweets go viral because it\u2019s impossible to tell which screeds from President Trump are authentic. Trump has always been off his rocker, but he\u2019s gotten increasingly weird during his second term, posting some of the oddest things that a president has ever expressed in public.
As just one example, Trump posted an AI video of himself last month talking about \u201cmedbeds,\u201d a bizarre conspiracy theory that claims there are real beds being hidden from the public that can heal all diseases. The video even includes a fake Trump touting these miracle cures and insisting they were going to be available soon to \u201crestore every citizen to full health.\u201d
In a world where the president is posting about medbeds\u2014to say nothing of the Department of Homeland Security posting Nazi propaganda\u2014it can be extremely difficult to tell what\u2019s real. And that\u2019s not going to change as long as the Trump regime remains in power. In fact, it\u2019s likely to get much, much worse.10) Trump didn\u2019t announce 15-year car loans
An announcement from the White House went viral this year, claiming that President Donald Trump is working on making 15-year car loans available to all Americans. The announcement is fake. But it\u2019s a joke based on something very real.
\u201cAs he continues to work hard to make the American Dream accessible to everyone, President Trump today has asked the Departments of Transportation and Commerce to make vehicle ownership for all a reality by introducing 15 year car loans! Secretaries Duffy and Lutnick are already working on it!
Delivering for America!\u201d the viral screenshot reads.
While the announcement has been circulating widely on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok, it\u2019s not real.
Where did this announcement actually come from? It appears to have originated with a satire account on X called TheRealThelmaJohnson. The tweet included a joke, along with the photoshopped announcement, that reads: \u201cIf you want to pay 100 grand for a 2009 Chevy Equinox this is the way\u2026\u201d
If you want to pay 100 grand for a 2009 Chevy Equinox this is the way\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/ZfQBKgJs8e
TheRealThelmaJohnson (@TheRealThelmaJ1) November 9, 2025
And that joke gets close to what\u2019s funny about a 15-year car loan. The longer the car loan, the more the borrower is ultimately paying for the car, thanks to interest payments. The original tweet from \u201cThelma Johnson\u201d only has about 150,000 views, a very humble number for something that\u2019s gone \u201cviral.\u201d That\u2019s because it has been widely shared on other platforms (including X, though without attribution to the original creator) and people think it\u2019s real.
The reason many people think it\u2019s real is that President Trump actually proposed something just as ridiculous as a 15-year car loan recently. On Nov. 8, Trump posted a graphic to Truth Social comparing himself to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who helped popularize the 30-year mortgage during the 1930s. The graphic shows a photo of Trump with the words \u201c50-year mortgage\u201d underneath without further explanation.
Politico reports that the graphic actually came from a man named Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte reportedly visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago with a 3\u00d75 posterboard in hand. Roughly 10 minutes later, the graphic was posted to Trump\u2019s Truth Social account, according to Politico. That apparently angered Trump\u2019s aides, with Politico characterizing it as \u201cbad politics and bad policy.\u201d
The idea of the 30-year mortgage was that it allowed people to live in and \u201cown\u201d their homes, even if it took a significant portion of someone\u2019s life to pay it off. At the end of the mortgage, the person would at least have ownership of a property, even if they paid much more than it was worth in the end. The idea of the 50-year mortgage takes this to the extreme, especially with the median age of first-time home buyers in the U.S. currently at 40. And the only people who would be taking out 50-year mortgages would be the people in the most precarious financial positions, which means they\u2019d be most likely to default. Even if a borrower made good on their loan agreement, the prospect of them ever actually owning the property would be slim.
Trump was asked by Laura Ingraham on Fox News about the proposal, and he didn\u2019t back down from the idea. \u201cAll it means is you pay less per month,\u201d Trump said. \u201cPay it over a longer period of time. It\u2019s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit.\u201d
And all of this ridiculousness brings us to the idea of the 15-year car loan. It\u2019s a joke, but plenty of high-profile X accounts seemed to think it was real, including Unusual Whales and Polymarket. When one account racked up 1 million views and faced skepticism from other users, she linked to a tweet from AF Post that she suggested was some proof the White House was considering it.
In reality, AF Post (America First Post) isn\u2019t a real, credible news outlet. It\u2019s affiliated with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and it posts fake garbage all the time. But AF Post has a blue checkmark, which anyone can buy for $8 from Elon Musk, and some people are under the illusion that it still carries some weight of \u201cverification.\u201d
The \u201cThelma Johnson\u201d account often shares fake White House announcements, so the next time you see something like that, which sounds too good to be true, maybe check that specific account to see if they were the first one to post it. That\u2019s what we do here at Gizmodo whenever we see a ridiculous tweet that reads \u201cthis post has been deleted.\u201d There\u2019s one particular prankster who likes to do that one, and we always check their account when something similar goes viral.<\/p>\n