Donald Trump Jr.'s Twitter Account Hacked, Claimed His Father Donald Trump Died
The hacker posted several alarming messages in the half-hour that they were in control of Trump Jr.'s account.
Donald Trump Jr.'s account on X – formerly known as Twitter – was hacked on Wednesday morning. Whoever took over the account used it to post false messages, including one claiming that former President Donald Trump had passed away, and that Trump Jr. would be running for president in 2024. That post was deleted after about 30 minutes, but it's unclear how this security breach happened in the first place.
At 8:25 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Trump Jr.'s verified X account made a post reading: "I'm sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024." Naturally, even in just 30 minutes that post got a lot of attention, including thousands of likes and "re-posts" as well as hundreds of bookmarks. Meanwhile, the hacker made several other posts, including one that read: "This just in: North Korea is about to get smoked" and another that read: "Some interesting messages with Jeffrey Epstein."
The hacker really tipped their hand with a message reading: "I also f-ed your girl btw @LoganPaul," which is when many readers began to assume the account had been hacked. According to a report by Variety, X restored the account to its proper owner, but so far it's not clear what went wrong here. Trump Jr. has not made any new posts since then.
This security breach is just the latest concerning episode since Elon Musk took over Twitter and began making drastic changes – including the new name, X. The billionaire laid off thousands of employees at the company which has intermittently impacted functionality in all kinds of ways. He also fundamentally changed the meaning of a verified account, allowing subscribers to pay for the privilege rather than using it to denote the true account of a public figure. As a paying subscriber, Trump Jr. should have had access to increased security measures including multi-factor authentification.
#MakeAwkwardMoreAwkward
— 𝒮𝒶𝒾𝓂𝒾𝓃🍍 (@creativ_juices) September 20, 2023
Get your account hacked AND you are Donald Trump Jr. pic.twitter.com/3idA0BrbU1
Musk also reinstated the elder Donald Trump to X earlier this summer. The former president was banned from Twitter in January of 2021 by the previous operators of the website, who believed that his posts may have helped organize and direct the mob that broke into the U.S. Capitol and tried to attack elected officials. So far, Trump has not returned to his previous level of activity on X, though he is still posting frequently on his company's app, TRUTH Social. So far, he has not commented publicly on his son's hacked X account either.