Who started the ‘Melania Trump body double’ conspiracy theory? Look no further


Last week, I pondered on Twitter if the First Lady was actually a Second Lady. Within a week, this lone act of rogue content creation had made headlines around the world

Is it the real Melania Trump or an impostor? We may never know … Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock




View more sharing options

Shares
1,625

Comments706


Marina Hyde

@MarinaHyde

Thursday 19 October 2017 17.55 BSTFirst published on Thursday 19 October 2017 17.30 BST


Finally, some fake news I can get behind. Indeed, I can’t help feeling it is fake news I am literally behind, having pointed out the top-level conspiracy last Friday evening, within seconds of NBC tweeting a video of Donald Trump being interviewed at a Secret Service training facility while Melania stood silently next to him. “Absolutely convinced Melania is being played by a Melania impersonator these days,” my painstaking investigation read. “Theory: she left him weeks ago.”

Imagine my pride to find that by Thursday morning, this cobblers had percolated all the way up to news Valhalla – AKA sections on Good Morning Britain and Sky News – having been fanned by various nutjob social media accounts in the US. Furthermore, it had been smartened up for appearance in the Washington Postand USA Today and so on. In the case of Sky News, the entire backdrop was given over to a splitscreen of “Melania” at the Secret Service facility and a verified Melania image, with the chyron demanding: “DOES THE FIRST LADY HAVE A BODY DOUBLE?”