Fake News: President Trump Did NOT Expel 438 Wakandan Refugees

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: President Trump Did NOT Expel 438 Wakandan Refugees

Did President Trump really expel 438 refugees from Wakanda? No, that's not true: the country doesn't even exist, it is a fictional land created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby of Marvel Comics. The refugee story is not real

It originated from an article published by Daily World Update on June 10, 2018 titled "BREAKING: President Trump Expels 438 Wakandan Refugees, Liberals Going Crazy" (archived here) which opened:

During the Obama administration, the United States took in more than ,1500 refugees from Wakanda, a small country on the southern tip of Africa.

The country of Wakanda has a high infection rate of HIV and AIDS, boasts an impressive 97% poverty rate, and is run by criminal drug, war, and rapelords who hate America and Jesus. It's also the country where Boko Haram, who kidnapped hundreds of children in a single year (and gave Michelle Obama an excuse to look sad for the camera), originated.

"America is a cesspit of corruption and intolerance," Wakandan dictator Oranje Bale said in a speech in 2016 during a mass exodus of his war-torn third-world country. "Obama is weak and will accept those of you who wish to flee from this glorious nation. But God will punish you."

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

BREAKING: President Trump Expels 438 Wakandan Refugees, Liberals Going Crazy

Back to Wakanda with them!

There are several hints in the story that prove it is not real (Nancy Pelosi is not a senator, there is no executive order 247-B, the article is listed in several nonsense categories...).

The site comes with a clear satire disclaimer at the bottom of each article:

sat·ire ~ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
If you disagree with the definition of satire or have decided it is synonymous with "comedy," you should really just move along.

The owner and main writer of the site is self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has made it his full time job to troll gullible conservatives and Trump supporters into liking and sharing his articles. He runs several other websites, including potatriotpost.us, dailyworldupdate.us and nofakenewsonline.us. Sometimes he is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll". A second man working on the sites is John Prager as revealed in this earlier story we wrote.

Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up and he keeps knocking them down.

If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.

We wrote about dailyworldupdate.us before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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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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