Fake News: Jim Bakker Did NOT Say 'Trump Was Merely Sharing The Gospel With That Porn Star'

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk

You may have read a story online that said televangelist Jim Bakker claimed "Trump Was Merely Sharing The Gospel With That Porn Star" after rumors had emerged in The Wall Street Journal about the president having an affair with a porn star named Stormy Daniels. Bakker himself had been accused of rape before and has served time for fraud. The entire Bakker quote is made up although the jury is still out on the Trump-Daniels affair.

The false story about Bakker originated on satirical website The Babylon Bee where it was published (archived here) under the title "'Trump Was Merely Sharing The Gospel With That Porn Star,' Explains Jim Bakker". It opened:

BLUE EYE, MO--Squashing accusations that President Trump had a sexual encounter with porn star "Stormy Daniels" while he was married to Melania, televangelist Jim Bakker explained to his audience Friday that he had confirmed that Trump was merely scheduling private time with the woman in a hotel suite in order to share with her the good news of Jesus Christ, as he had become acquainted with her and was very concerned that she was not a Christian.

Bakker.jpg

But "The Babylon Bee" comes with following dislaimer on every page:

The Babylon Bee is Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.

Some of their greatest past hits include:

With a track record like that it is clear that you shouldn't take anything posted on the site seriously and you definitely shouldn't confuse it with real news. Despite this reputation the fake story obtained over 160,000 likes, shares and comments and many people on social media seemed to think it was real:

Don't fall for it!

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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