This Crazy Donald Trump Quote Is Actually Fake

You've probably seen the meme being shared on social media: a photo of young Donald Trump, with maybe a little more hair but no less confidence, coupled with a supposed quote from a 1998 interview: "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 image has been spread far and wide as an example of Trump's distaste for the Republican Party. The only problem is, New York magazine reports, there's no proof Trump ever said those words.

Snopes investigators could find no trace of any interview in which Trump said "anything that even vaguely resembled the words in this meme," and New York notes that the quote apparently didn't exist prior to Oct. 15, 2015, just as Trump was gaining steam in the GOP primary. One of the key giveaways that the quote is manufactured? The reference to Fox News as a source of biased, conservative news—a connotation the channel really only picked up during the George W. Bush presidency, which of course began in 2001. Interestingly enough, many people report remembering seeing a video in which Trump uttered the phrase in question, despite there being no proof such a video ever existed. (More Donald Trump stories.)