Donald Trump Jr.’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, which has more than 10 million followers, was hacked Wednesday morning, leading to the spread of false and inflammatory posts under his name.
The incident sent shockwaves through social media, sparking widespread reactions. In one post, the hacker wrote: “I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024.”
“This just in: North Korea is about to get smoked,” read another post.
Another post from the hacked account read, in part, “F‑‑k @JoeBiden.”
The posts were deleted just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, having been up on Trump Jr.’s page for less than an hour.
Trump Jr. still maintains a large following on X and regularly uses the platform despite his father’s use of Truth Social, a social media platform that the former president has a financial stake in.
Elon Musk purchased Twitter late last year and rebranded it as X this year in July. Musk’s takeover was viewed as a win for conservatives such as Trump Jr., who complained that the previous ownership had repressed conservative voices.
Today’s incident comes three years after a number of high-profile Twitter accounts, including those belonging to Apple, Musk, and Joe Biden, were hacked by attackers to spread a cryptocurrency scam.
This also includes former president Trump’s then-Twitter account which got hacked in 2020 by a security researcher who guessed Trump’s password, but Dutch officials declined to prosecute the researcher for acting in good faith.
