In late October, roughly a week before the 2026 midterm elections, users across Facebook began sharing an image purporting to show a genuine Truth Social post by U.S. President Donald Trump. In the alleged post, Trump preemptively declared a nationwide sweep for every Republican candidate.
The viral image featured the following text:
> “Why are we wasting time counting ballots? Everybody already knows the Republicans WON the 2026 midterms in a historic landslide! ALL 50 STATES!
>
> I am officially declaring victory for EVERY Republican candidate right now. Every Senate seat, every House seat, every governor’s race. The Democrats can count all they want, but it won’t change the fact that we won.”
After receiving numerous inquiries from readers wondering if the screenshot was genuine, an investigation confirmed that the post is entirely fabricated.
The image originated from “Branson Area Breaking News,” a Facebook page that explicitly labels its content as satire. Because the image was subsequently stripped of its satirical label and shared widely online, it has been categorized as content that originated as satire.
A review of Truth Social archives—which track active and deleted posts—shows that Donald Trump never published any statement claiming people were “wasting time counting ballots.” Furthermore, a review of major search engines yielded no credible news coverage of any such statement. Had a sitting U.S. president declared ballot counting a waste of time and claimed preemptive victory for an entire political party just days before an election, it would have immediately generated major headlines across national and international news outlets.
Visual discrepancies also expose the screenshot as a fake. The profile picture used in the fabricated image differs from Trump’s official Truth Social avatar, displaying a noticeably rounder face and fewer stars on the left side.
The source of the hoax, Branson Area Breaking News, is well-known for generating fictional stories—often utilizing artificial intelligence—and explicitly identifies itself in its page bio as a satirical news organization.
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