Fact Check: Did Trump call Republicans the ‘dumbest group of voters’ in 1998?

WASHINGTON, DC: A rumor has been circulating for years claiming that Donald Trump once told People magazine in the late 1990s that he could coast into the White House by manipulating “dumb” Republican voters. The supposed quote, packaged to look like a 1998 magazine clipping, keeps resurfacing across Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, and Bluesky.

Claim: Donald Trump called Republicans the ‘dumbest group of voters’

A viral post claims that Donald Trump told People magazine in the late 1990s that he could easily win the White House by manipulating “dumb” Republican voters. The quote attributed to him reads: “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 line usually appears alongside an old photo of Trump on what looks like a clipped newspaper page, labeled “People Magazine, 1998.” It has been shared across social media, including Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, and Bluesky.

Fact Check: No record of a 1998 People interview with Donald Trump

There is no evidence that such an interview ever took place in 1998. While Donald Trump appeared frequently in People magazine throughout the 1990s—often in stories about his parties, divorces, and high-profile relationships—none of those articles contained anything resembling the viral quote. 

Coverage from that decade focused on some of Trump’s most public moments, including his split from Ivana Zelníčková, the headlines surrounding Marla Maples, and his new relationship with 28-year-old Melania Knauss in 1998. He was also often asked about politics at the time, as questions about a possible run for office had followed him since the late 1980s

People magazine noted that it would not have been unusual for a reporter to ask Trump which party he might choose if he ever pursued a political career, given his shifting affiliations: leaving Republicans in 1999 for the Reform Party, becoming a Democrat during the George W. Bush years, returning to the GOP in 2009, briefly going independent from 2011–2012, and then settling back with Republicans in 2012

Still, the outlet emphasized that the quote circulating today raises immediate red flags. At the time, Trump was promoting several conservative positions and would have had no reason to publicly insult Republican voters if he was serious about a future in politics. 

Past attempts to debunk the Donald Trump rumor

This rumor has been circulating for about a decade, resurfacing online every few months. Since roughly 2015, major newsrooms and fact-checkers have tried to put it to rest. Snopes, The Associated Press, Reuters, CNN and FactCheck.org have all labeled the quote as fabricated and urged readers not to share it.

People magazine also revisited the claim. Through a spokesperson, the outlet said the staff “looked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in Oct. 2015.” After combing through years of Trump coverage, they found nothing to match the viral quote. “We combed through every Trump story in our archive,” the spokesperson said. “We couldn’t find anything remotely like this quote — and no interview at all in 1998.”