Melania divorce hoax: Former Democrat caught spreading fake news
The media were electrified by the news of a divorce lawsuit filed by Melania Trump. The source of this news was supposed to be an article from "Newsweek." As it turned out, the material never existed, and the reports are false. It is known who is responsible for them.
2:28 PM EDT, September 5, 2024
The information circulating in the media about Melania Trump filing for divorce in Palm Beach court turned out to be untrue. The source of the false reports was a nonexistent "Newsweek" article. A former Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress is responsible for spreading the false story.
Contrary to what was suggested in public information, Melania Trump did not initiate a divorce. Melania Trump's activity in her husband's ongoing presidential campaign is primarily limited to behind-the-scenes efforts, although it is worth noting that she attended the Republican Convention on July 18 of this year.
It was there that we could see her holding her husband's hand. Probably, this limited visibility of Melania in Donald Trump's campaign could have been the foundation for spreading the fictional narrative of the Trumps' alleged divorce.
"Politifact" and the management of the civil court in Palm Beach refuted this information, emphasizing that no traces of a divorce application filed by the former First Lady were found in the court records. Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Donald Trump's campaign, also denied reports of Melania Trump taking legal action. Leavitt described these revelations as entirely false.
The origin of the false information was traced by "Newsweek," which pointed to a post from September 1 authored by Rebekah Jones, a former employee of the Florida Department of Health and a former Democratic candidate for Congress. Jones created the basis for a fictional story based on the false post with the "Newsweek" logo.
Made-up rumor about the Trumps' divorce
Jones admitted that she made up the entire story, and the whole social media setup was aimed at testing how well they handle spreading disinformation. Jones admitted this on the X platform and later explained it in detail in a video posted on TikTok. She talked about her experiment regarding the fictional rumor about the presidential candidate.
Former and current reports of instability in the Trump marriage have been appearing in American media for a long time. We observed a particular intensification in the final phase of Donald Trump's first presidency. In 2020, a former White House employee suggested that Melania Trump was counting every minute between her and the end of her husband's presidency, to then file for divorce. The couple has been married since 2005 and has a son together, Barron.
