Donald Trump Jr.’s X account was recently hacked — and one particularly newsworthy post stayed up for half an hour.
The account shared a series of bizarre messages on Wednesday, September 20, including, “I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024.”
The false announcement was live on X (formerly known as Twitter) for 30 minutes before it was deleted and Trump Jr.’s account was restored. A spokesperson for Trump, 77, confirmed around 8:30 a.m. ET that Donald Jr.’s account had been “hacked” and reports of the former president’s death were “obviously not true.”
Other messages shared by the hacker included, “This just in: North Korea is about to get smoked,” “Some interesting messages with Jeffrey Epstein” and “I also f–ked your girl btw @LoganPaul.”
Donald Jr. didn’t address the hacked tweets after their deletion, instead sharing a link from Newsmax about President Joe Biden.
Donald shares Donald Jr., 45, Ivanka, 41, and Eric, 39, with late ex-wife Ivana Trump. He also shares daughter Tiffany, 29, with second wife Marla Maples and son Barron, 17, with current wife Melania Trump.
The elder Donald returned to X just weeks ago, shortly after his arrest in Georgia on charges related to his alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He shared a photo of his mugshot captioned with the words “ELECTION INTERFERENCE” and “NEVER SURRENDER.” He also included a link to his 2024 campaign website.
Donald was previously banned from Twitter after the events of January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden, 80, as the winner of the 2020 election. Elon Musk restored Donald’s account in November 2022 after taking over the company, but the former president did not actually post anything until August.
Donald is currently the target of four separate indictments. In March, he was indicted in New York on 34 felony charges related to alleged hush money payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels. He was indicted again in June in Florida on charges related to allegations that he mishandled classified documents that were discovered at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach.
In August, U.S. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith indicted Donald on four charges in Washington, D.C. The D.C. case concerns actions Donald took before the events of January 6, 2021. Smith’s charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
Trump, who is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has pleaded not guilty to all charges in all four cases.
