Fact check: Trump did not tweet to declare martial law

A screenshot of a tweet from an account allegedly spread by President Donald Trump on social media announced on December 18 that he had appealed the martial law.

Reuters fact check. REUTERS

The alleged tweet, with the time stamp 18 December 2020 06:24, reads: “In terms of the Resurrection Act, I have declared martial law. It was an attempted coup. Arrest (sic) is carried out across the country. Biden handed over his passport. More to come! ”

While some social media users admit that the tweet was false, others commented that they believe it is genuine. A report says: “It has started, Draining The Swamp HAS BEGUN !!!!” (here).

Other users claim that Twitter “removed” Trump’s tweet, which means a cover-up. A Facebook message, originally in Spanish here, reads: ‘Martial law in the US tweet that was removed almost immediately by the platform. They do not want you to know ”.

No such tweet appears on Trump’s Twitter page ( twitter.com/realDonaldTrump ). Politwoops, a ProPublica project that archives archives of tweets from politicians, also shows no record of this alleged tweet, suggesting it is being fabricated (here).

The allegation follows a story the New York Times reported for the first time on December 19 here that President Trump “asked” about the possibility of “introducing martial law to” repeat “the election during a meeting of the Oval Office, an idea previously referred to by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn during an interview with the conservative cable news channel Newsmax on December 17 ( here )

Other news reports have reported it here.

On November 20, Trump dismissed the reports on Twitter, calling them “fake news.” here .

VERDICT

Untrue. This tweet was produced. President Donald Trump did not tweet about the call for martial law.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.

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