Donald Trump's covid-19 post deleted by Facebook, hidden by Twitter

Agencies

October 7, 2020

Washington, Oct 7: Social networking site Facebook has deleted a post in which US President Donald Trump had claimed Covid-19 was "less lethal" than the flu.

He wrote the US had "learned to live with" flu season, "just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!"

Twitter hid the same message behind a warning about "spreading misleading and potentially harmful information", the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Users have to click past the alert to read the tweet.

Trump is at the White House after three days of hospital treatment having tested positive for the virus.

"We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19, and have now removed this post," said Andy Stone, policy communications manager at Facebook.

An exact mortality rate for Covid-19 is not known, but it is thought to be substantially higher - possible 10 times or more - than most flu strains, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The President has reacted by posting: "REPEAL SECTION 230!!!"

This is a reference to a law that says social networks are not responsible for the content posted by their users.

But it allows the firms to engage in "good-Samaritan blocking", including the removal of content they judge to be offensive, harassment or violent.

If the law were to be repealed, social media companies would face being sued over the edits and changes of user content they made.

This is the second time that Facebook has deleted a post from the president. Twitter has intervened more often with deletions and warnings.

Both social networks have vowed to combat potentially dangerous misinformation around the virus.

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In meeting with Zohran Mamdani, Trump repeats claim he stopped India-Pak war

Agencies

November 22,2025

New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump has again claimed to have solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, repeating his assertion during a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office.

Mamdani flew to Washington DC for his first meeting with Trump in the White House on Friday. Trump said he “enjoyed” the meeting, which he described as “great.”

During remarks in the Oval Office, with Mamdani standing next to him, Trump repeated his claim that he solved the May conflict between India and Pakistan.

"I did eight peace deals of countries, including India and Pakistan,” he said.

On Wednesday, Trump had said he threatened to put 350 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they did not end their conflict, repeating his claim that he solved the fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called him to say “we're not going to go to war.”

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over 60 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.

India has consistently denied any third-party intervention. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

Mamdani emerged victorious in the closely-watched battle for New York City Mayor, becoming the first South Asian and Muslim to be elected to sit at the helm of the largest city in the US.

He had been the front-runner in the NYC Mayoral election for months and defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and was officially endorsed by Trump just hours before the elections.

Indian-descent Mamdani is the son of renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Mamdani became a naturalised US citizen only recently, in 2018.

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