Donald Trump’s 1998 quote about the Republican party from People magazine is a fake

CHANCES are you have seen the picture of a young Donald Trump coupled with a quote from an interview he did with People in 1998.

Yeah, this quote isn’t true.

CHANCES are you have seen the meme circulating the internet, which features a picture of a young Donald Trump coupled with a quote from an interview he did with People in 1998.

“If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific,” the quote reads.

FAKE Donald Trump meme.

Shocking, isn’t it? Pity the quote isn’t real.

Political fact-checking sites have been quick to debunk the meme, which first started making the rounds in October this year.

Despite featuring regularly in the magazine’s pages, there is no evidence of that quote or anything similar in People’s comprehensive online content archive, reported Snopes.

In fact, the majority of the coverage at the time was celebrity-driven and centred on his marriages and divorces from Ivana Trump and Marla Maples.

This meme isn’t the only fake Trump-related content making the rounds online, with a tweet apparently from journalist Simon Rowntree posted about Trump supporters.

“I am at a Trump rally in Manhattan, and thousands are chanting “We hate Muslims, we hate Blacks, we want our great country back”. Disgusting,” the tweet read.

This tweet was made up and the account has since been suspended.

The Twitter account was the sole source for the claim, with no other first-hand accounts found online.

Twitter has since suspended the account, although that didn’t stop the fraudulent tweet from gaining exposure.

As comedian Dave Hughes pointed out on Twitter, Fairfax Media published the account in The Age earlier this week.

Disturbed by this in @theage today. Googled, 5 seconds later discovered it's a complete lie. How can that go to print without being checked? pic.twitter.com/wakLoHdvsy

— Dave Hughes (@DHughesy) November 9, 2016

Continue the conversation on Twitter @mattydunn11.