No, Donald Trump Doesn’t Plan to Deport Barron Trump
Plus: Kremlin Adds French Ski Resort to Zelensky’s Fantastical Purchases; The Real Reason Rachel Maddow Looked Distraught
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Today:
Family ties: Liberals falsely claim that Barron Trump would be deported under Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship
Shop ’til he drops: Russians concoct a new Zelensky purchase, this time a ski resort in the French Alps
Ads for Goldman Sachs, Victoria’s Secret, and Hot Topic fund the false claim that the FBI and FEMA killed hurricane victims
MSNBC’s Maddow was upset on the air, but not because Musk mused about buying the network
And More …
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron and Sofia Rubinson.
1. Liberals Push Fake Claim Barron Trump Would Be Deported Under Trump Immigration Plan
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Liberals are falsely claiming that President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship would strip his son Barron Trump of his citizenship, because Barron’s mother, Melania Trump, was not a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth.
Context: Under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted over the years by the U.S. Supreme Court, children born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents are entitled to U.S. citizenship.
In a video posted to Trump’s campaign site on May 30, 2023, Trump pledged to sign an executive order on his first day in office directing federal agencies not to grant citizenship to “the future children of illegal aliens.” Under the proposed executive order, a child born in the U.S. would get automatic citizenship only if at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, according to Trump’s campaign website. Barron Trump’s father is, of course, a U.S. citizen.
Donald Trump’s third wife, Melania Trump, came to the U.S. from Slovenia in 1996. Her son Barron was born in March 2006, before Melania Trump became a U.S. citizen, in July 2006.
A closer look: The claim that Barron Trump would no longer be a citizen under Trump’s plan first surfaced with little notice in May 2023, but gained traction in mid-November following the 2024 presidential election.
Liberal X user @mjfree, who previously falsely claimed that Trump’s July 2024 assassination attempt was staged and that Trump’s administration would mandate “period passports,” said on Nov. 16, “Under Trump’s repeal of birthright citizenship— Baron [sic] must be deported.” The post received 2.4 million views and 35,000 likes in five days.
In a Nov. 15 TikTok post, liberal user @nancy.kirkpatrick7 stated: “So. Baron [sic] Trump was born March 20 2006[.] Melania became an American citizen July 28 2006 So…….she was not a citizen when he was born. So…….Baron was not born to an american mother.. Doesn’t that go against his [Donald Trump’s] immigration laws?” The post received 1.1 million views and 101,100 likes in six days.
Actually: Trump’s executive order would not affect Barron Trump’s citizenship status.
First, the policy would not be retroactive and so would apply only to those born after the executive order was issued, according to Trump’s campaign website.
Second, even if the executive order were retroactive, it still would not cause Barron Trump to lose his citizenship status. When Barron Trump was born, his New York-born father was a U.S. citizen, and his mother, who received her green card in 2001, was a lawful permanent resident.
Barron Trump aside, Trump has said that the “correct interpretation” of the 14th Amendment does not grant citizenship to the children of noncitizens. However, many legal scholars say that a presidential order ending birthright citizenship would be immediately challenged in the courts as unconstitutional.
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2. Isn’t That Rich: Russians Claim Zelensky Bought a French Ski Resort, Adding to Their Deceits About his Real Estate
By Eva Maitland
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to be the victim of false Russian claims about his supposed Western-financed real estate portfolio, as Russian propagandists now claim he purchased a $92 million luxury ski resort in the French Alps.
What happened: Pro-Kremlin sources — who have previously made up the false claims that Zelensky used U.S. aid to buy a Tuscan winery, an English estate, a German villa as well as a Bugatti, yachts, and shopping splurges for his wife — are now falsely claiming that Zelensky purchased Hôtel Le Palace Des Neiges, a luxury resort in the French Alps, for $92 million through his film company Film Heritage Inc.
The latest claim closely resembles the handiwork of former deputy Florida sheriff turned Kremlin propagandist John Mark Dougan, who ran a network of 171 pro-Kremlin websites masquerading as local news outlets that are no longer active. NewsGuard has identified 11 false claims about Zelensky purchases apparently linked to Dougan that collectively have generated over 70 million views.
In total, these false claims have accused Zelensky of spending $571.1 million in Western military aid on lavish purchases.
A closer look: The new claim appears to have originated with a Nov. 28 article on LesEchosDeLaFrance.fr, a phony site purporting to be a local news outlet in France.
That article cited HotelPalaceDesNeiges.com — a fabricated website that closely resembles the authentic website for the hotel — with a logo for the Zelensky-founded Film Heritage company displayed on its homepage.
Actually: A spokesperson for the hotel told NewsGuard that the claim is false.
Hôtel Le Palace Des Neiges is owned by Société des Bains de Mer (SBM Group), a hospitality company based in Monaco. Sylvie Cristin, head of media relations at SBM Group, told NewsGuard, “Palace des Neiges was acquired by Monte-Carlo SBM in October 2023,” and said that the claim that the hotel was sold to Zelensky “is fake news.”
Domain registration records show that LesEchosDeLaFrance.fr, the website where the claim originated, was registered on Nov. 25, 2024, three days before the site published the bogus article.
HotelPalaceDesNeiges.com is an imposter site, Cristin told NewsGuard. The fake hotel website was anonymously registered on Nov. 22, 2024, to Kalkofnsvegur 2, an address belonging to Withheld for Privacy. That company is regularly used to register sites by disseminators of disinformation, including Dougan, the former Florida deputy sheriff who now works in Moscow as a Russia propagandist.
Dive deeper: Read more about how the Kremlin has made up outlandish claims about Zelensky as a corrupt big spender and real estate mogul in this Reality Check commentary by NewsGuard co-CEO Gordon Crovitz.
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
3. Brand Victims of the Week: Ads for Goldman Sachs, Victoria’s Secret, Hot Topic, and Others Fund False Claim that FEMA Is Killing Hurricane Victims.
In this Reality Check feature, NewsGuard identifies global brands that support the spread of misinformation by unintentionally funneling programmatic advertising dollars to sites that repeatedly peddle false claims. Unless advertisers use inclusion or exclusion lists to place their programmatic ads, these ads will appear on websites regardless of their trustworthiness.
This week: A NewsGuard analyst based in the U.S. was shown programmatic ads for Goldman Sachs, Victoria’s Secret, Hot Topic, 1-800 Flowers, and Norton on an article published by RRNewDaily.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 7.5/100). RRNewDaily.com is a conspiracy theory website that has repeatedly advanced false claims about U.S. politics. The Dec. 2, 2024, article contained numerous baseless claims, including that the FBI and FEMA were “charged with gunning down Hurricane Helene victims” and that FEMA has been “killing Hurricane Helene victims in Kamala’s land grab of victim properties.” (See NewsGuard’s related Misinformation Fingerprint here.)
Representatives for Goldman Sachs, Hot Topic, 1-800 Flowers, and Norton did not immediately respond to NewsGuard’s emailed requests for comment. A representative for Victoria’s Secret declined to comment on the record.
(Disclosure: NewsGuard is among the companies that license data that would help advertisers only advertise on reliable, brand suitable news sites.)
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4. Maddow Meltdown? MSNBC Clip Manipulated to Show Host Crying Over Elon Musk as Potential Buyer of the Network
What happened: Conservative commentators are sharing a digitally altered segment of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow talking in 2018 about migrant children being separated from their parents, falsely claiming that it shows her tearfully reacting to recent reports that Elon Musk may purchase the liberal news network.
Context: The altered Maddow segment surfaced after MSNBC owner Comcast announced plans to spin off MSNBC and its other cable networks into a separate entity. In response, billionaire and X owner Elon Musk shared multiple X posts with tens of millions of views hinting that he may want to acquire MSNBC.
A closer look: Conservatives then circulated a news clip of “The Rachel Maddow Show” (Television Trust Score: 7/10) purporting to show Maddow having an emotional on-air reaction to the possibility of Musk taking over the network.
The video shows Maddow holding back tears while looking down and struggling to speak, as a graphic at the bottom states, “BREAKING NEWS ELON MUSK POSTS DANGEROUS MEME.” In the video, Maddow displays a sexually explicit meme posted by Musk, which shows an apparent monk praying next to a woman posing suggestively. The words “Elon Musk trying not to buy” were superimposed on the monk, while MSNBC’s logo was superimposed over the woman.
You can watch the video here.
Sebastian Gorka, who Trump has named as his top advisor on counter-terrorism, posted the manipulated video on X on Nov. 24 with the caption, “Team MAGA broke her.” The post garnered 759,000 views and 5,300 likes in two days.
A Nov. 24 X post by pro-Trump user @LangmanVince included the altered video alongside the text: “Rachel Maddow has a complete meltdown over a funny meme Elon Musk posted on X. Trump and Elon have completely broken the radical left in America.” The post received 189,000 views and 600 likes in two days.
Actually: The six-year-old video was manipulated with new graphics to suggest that Maddow was reacting to Musk’s post about MSNBC.
The original broadcast of “The Rachel Maddow Show” aired on June 19, 2018, and the bottom graphic stated, “BREAKING NEWS AP: YOUNGEST SEPARATED KIDS SENT TO TEXAS ‘TENDER AGE’ SHELTERS.” Maddow was reacting to reporting from The Associated Press (Trust Score: 95/100) about migrant children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border during the first Trump administration.
An MSNBC spokesperson told Reuters (Trust Score: 100/100), “I can confirm that the video that is circulating has been manufactured and is fake.”
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