“Breaking: Trump names Boebert secretary of education”

President-elect Donald Trump spent the week after his election win dominating headlines with news of his picks for administrative and Cabinet seats:

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., for U.S. attorney general..  Fox News host and U.S. Army veteran Pete Hegseth for defense secretary. Vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary.

But one name that hasn’t made headlines yet is Trump supporter U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. — that is, unless you count false headlines that masquerade as real news on social media.

“BREAKING: Trump names Boebert secretary of education,” read an alert at the top of an image that appeared on Nov. 13 on Instagram, before attributing a statement to Trump.

“I am thrilled to announce that the incredible Lauren Boebert will be taking the reins of the Former Department of Education,” it read. The post included a photograph of Trump giving a thumbs-up gesture while standing by Boebert.

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

Some of the post’s commenters questioned whether the news was real. “Ok i can’t believe this one. This is a joke now right?” one user said. But others wrote incredulous responses. “Just another step closer to Idiocracy,” wrote one.

The post is a screengrab of a Nov. 13 X post. The original post, which is much longer, reveals at the end that the statement is fake. “If you read this far, I’m sure you are like me and couldn’t tell if this was real at first or not,” it said, with a winking face emoji.

In 2022, Boebert shared the photo of her standing beside Trump on her Instagram page.

Although Trump has not yet announced his education secretary nominee, several news organizations have written that Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ name has been floated as a potential choice. A group of parents of Oklahoma public school students, teachers and ministers sued Walters and the Oklahoma Department of Education over a mandate that public schools incorporate the Bible in their curricula. The lawsuit argued that $3 million in state funds was designated for buying Bibles, with a Trump-endorsed Bible being one of the few that would meet the purchasing specifications.

Whomever Trump chooses as his education secretary will not be immediately appointed to the role. Per the Constitution, the Senate must approve most of Trump’s presidential Cabinet, including his education secretary.

We rate the claim that Trump announced Boebert will be the next education secretary False.