Trump, Twitter and Fake News

This study aims to provide rationality regarding Donald Trump as a fake news aggregator. Donald Trump's leadership from 2017-2020 is controversial and created a massive wave of fake news. As a populist leader, he often issued statements that confused the public during his reign, causing people's trust in the Trump administration to decline. He made the statement not only on national television but also on social media. Social media is the right political communication funnel for any populist leader when it comes to audience reach. Donald Trump is an active user especially on Twitter and uses it to spread misinformation and disinformation to spread what he calls as a truth. Many statements make Donald Trump worthy of being called a fake news aggregator. This study uses a qualitative approach with the content analysis method. Thirty-two samples of Donald Trump's hoax statements that were examined found that the hoaxes spread by him were not limited to just one topic. This research has both theoretical and practical significance. From a theoretical point of view, this research contributes to the development of literature regarding the relationship between hoaxes and populist leaders. In practical terms, this literature contributes to understanding the characteristics of populists and how social media is used as a funnel to spread hoaxes.