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stated on October 2, 2020 in a screenshot:

Says Donald Trump’s reelection campaign emailed supporters to “donate to help him recover from” COVID-19.

Pants on Fire!
By Amy Sherman
October 2, 2020
By Daniel Funke
October 2, 2020

Trump did not ask supporters for $421 million to help him recover from COVID-19

If your time is short

• The image in the tweet is fake.

See the sources for this fact-check

After President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19, a fake fundraising email from his re-election campaign started to circulate on social media.

A screenshot of the bogus email, which a reader sent us on Twitter, leads with the news of the positive results for the president and first lady Melania Trump. Then, it pivots to a fundraising plea.

“President Trump would like to ask a favor. Will you please DONATE to help him recover from this disease?” says the email, which was shared by Rev. James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP. “It is only fair since he has sacrificed millions of dollars as your President.”

Fake Trump COVID fundraising plea
Figure 1: A screenshot of a fake fundraising email from President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign circulated on Twitter after news of his positive COVID-19 diagnosis. (Screenshot from Twitter)

(Screenshot from Twitter)

After we reached out for a comment, Woodall replied to the tweeted screenshot with a correction. 

“This is not a legitimate email coming from the Trump campaign. Want to clarify this instead of simply deleting it,” he said.

The Trump campaign confirmed to us that the email isn’t real. So did the Republican National Committee.

“That is a fake,” RNC spokeswoman Mandi Merritt told PolitiFact in an email.

One clue that the donor plea is not authentic is its request for $421 million. That’s the value of loans and debts that Trump must pay back, according to a New York Times investigation of the president’s tax returns.

The email pitch was fake. We rate it Pants on Fire!

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more.

Our Sources

Email from Mandi Merritt, spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, Oct. 2, 2020

Email from the Trump campaign, Oct. 2, 2020

The New York Times, "LONG-CONCEALED RECORDS SHOW TRUMP’S CHRONIC LOSSES AND YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE," Sept. 27, 2020

The New York Times, "Trump Tests Positive for the Coronavirus," Oct. 2, 2020

Tweet from Rev. James Woodall, Oct. 2, 2020

Tweet from Rev. James Woodall, Oct. 2, 2020

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