Originally published August 28, 2023 8:00 pm PDT
The falsehood that Trump sold Mar-a-Lago was purportedly designed to make it look like he was selling his assets.
QUICK FACTS:
- Shortly after Zillow posted a false statement about Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, mainstream media outlets published the story.
- The story that Trump sold the property spread quickly on a number of news sites.
- The fake story, apparently designed to make Trump look guilty amid the release of his mugshot and numerous indictments, was pushed by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann.
- Weissman has been closely associated with former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director (FBI) Robert Mueller.
- Media outlets then reported that Trump “transferred” Mar-a-Lago to Donald Trump Jr.
- Donald Trump Jr. told Breitbart, “A lot of media outlets should be embarrassed with themselves for running such a phony story, but we all know that most of them won’t even retract their reports because they have no shame. SAD!”
- Eric Trump called out the lie on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying, “This is pure FAKE NEWS and Zillow has corrected their listing. Mar-a-Lago has not been sold or transferred in any regard.”
INDICATORS THE LISTING WAS FALSE:
- Zillow has not commented on why they published the false property listing, only noting that the information was “incorrect.”
- According to The Washington Times, the square footage of the property was listed as below 6,000 square feet on the publication, although the actual size of the property is over 62,000 square feet.
- The value of the property was listed well below the estimated price by hundreds of millions, as well.
- Actor Brad Pitt was listed as a contact for the property.
BACKGROUND:
- Since the release of his mugshot, Trump’s campaign raised $7.1 million.
- “Organic money has skyrocketed, especially after @realDonaldTrump tweeted out the picture along with the website URL,” Trump advisor Steven Cheung said.
- The Trump campaign has raised nearly $20 million since his indictment by Fani Willis.
