US President Donald Trump speaks during the 2018 White House business session with state governors in the State dining Room of the White House on February 26, 2018 in Washington, DC. / AFP / MANDEL NGAN
President Donald Trump never proposed sending the U.S. population of about 3 million American Indians "back" to India, as a satirical news site claimed in a piece with fabricated tweets attributed to the president.
The Postillon's story says Trump seeks to improve national security and was to sign an executive order to deport the country's Native Americans. The story claimed Trump consulted with members of his administration and learned Native Americans don't have "relevant immigration documents". It attributes quotes Trump never said to Fox News, and fabricates two tweets from Feb. 13, 2017, about the issue that were never sent from the president's account.
The piece is illustrated with a photo of Trump speaking last year to troops while visiting U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. The president did call at that event for more stringent screening to keep out those who "want to destroy us and destroy our country." He said nothing about American Indians, the earliest settlers in North America. Native Americans were granted U.S. citizenship in 1924.
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This is part of The Associated Press' ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.
