Twitter Mocks Donald Trump After He Retweets Satire Website and Calls Himself 'Big T'

President Donald Trump became the subject of much social media mocking after he shared some fake [...]

By Allison Schonter

President Donald Trump became the subject of much social media mocking after he shared some fake news of his own. Early Friday morning, the president tweeted the link to a story headlined "Twitter Shuts Down Entire Network To Slow Spread Of Negative Biden News," though the article was not fact, but rather from a satire website.

Trump, however, apparently believed the story to be true. Reacting to the satirical news, he wrote, "Wow, this has never been done in history" and said "this includes his really bad interview last night." He went on to ask, "why is Twitter doing this," adding, "Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T," the latter of which he later claimed was a reference to "Big Tech" and not himself.

The Babylon Bee, the source of the story, is a self-proclaimed satire website. In the site's About Us section, it clearly states, "The Babylon Bee is the world's best satire site, totally inerrant in all its truth claims. We write satire about Christian stuff, political stuff, and everyday life." The site even boasts a completely impossible origin story, claiming that it was "created ex nihilo on the eighth day of the creation week, exactly 6,000 years ago" and has been "the premier news source through every major world event, from the Tower of Babel and the Exodus to the Reformation and the War of 1812."

The fact that Trump, who is no stranger to calling out "fake news," seemingly believed the site was all fact-based was immediately cause for much social media frenzy, and the president was quickly mocked for his tweet. Scroll down to see how Twitter is reacting.

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In the story Trump shared, the satire site jokingly claimed that "in a last-ditch effort to stop negative stories about Joe Biden and his family from spreading, Twitter shut down its entire social network Thursday." As any Twitter user would know, the site was up and running all throughout the day Thursday.

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The story went on to claim that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey "realized he had to take action" after seeing a single account tweet a "bad story" about Biden. The site humorously claimed that he "smashed a glass box in his office reading 'Break In Case Of Bad Publicity For Democrats,' giving him access to a sledgehammer for smashing Twitter's servers."

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Trump has long criticized Twitter for showcasing him in an unflattering light. Over the course of the past several months, he has slammed the social media platform for consistently putting him in the trending topics.

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In July, the president said it was "disgusting" that the platform so frequently had him trending. He added that it was "really ridiculous, illegal, and, of course, very unfair!"

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Trump again hit out at the platform over the same issue in mid-September. In a tweet, he wrote, "Twitter makes sure that Trending on Twitter is anything bad, Fake or not, about President Donald Trump. So obvious what they are doing. Being studied now!"

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The president has become a popular name floating around Twitter's trending topics ever since winning the 2016 presidential election. In recent months, his name has trended due to his response to the coronavirus pandemic and comments he has made during his campaign.

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According to Twitter, trending topics "are determined by an algorithm and, by default, are tailored for you based on who you follow, your interests, and your location." An algorithm "identifies topics that are popular now, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis." Twitter cannot, however, prevent people from sharing news stories about Trump.

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