Trump Claims He Ran For President Only Once, But ‘Associated Press’ Has Receipts, Photos Of Trump’s 2000 Run

President Donald Trump made an odd assertion on Twitter on Saturday, January 6, which has caused the question “How many times has Donald Trump run for president?” to surge more than 140 percent above normal, according to Google Trends. As seen in the below tweets, Trump wrote that he transformed from being a successful businessman to a TV star to President of the U.S., with Trump adding parenthetically “on my first try.” The strange and easily verifiable assertion that Trump had never run for president before has sent people to the search engine to verify that Trump indeed has run for president more than once.

As reported by the Associated Press, Trump appeared in Beverly Hills on Monday, December 6, 1999, as seen in the above photo, as a “potential Reform Party presidential candidate.” According to TV Guide, Trump indeed threw his hat into the presidential ring as a Reform Party candidate and in the California primary, garnered more than 15,000 votes.

As a result of Trump’s tweet, the president is getting replies that are reminding him that other presidents have also won the presidency on their first tries, like former President Barack Obama, while also reminding Trump that it wasn’t actually his first time running for president. Trump is being accused of having a short memory, out-and-out lying, or suffering from dementia due to his tweet.

….Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018

….to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018

Other questions being posed to Google in the wake of Trump’s tweets include, “Did Trump run for president in 2000?” That particular query is up 140 percent. Others Googlers are asking variations of the question, such as: “How many times has Trump run for president?” That question has increased 70 percent.

Up 50 percent, according to Google, is the question: “How many times did Trump run for president?”

The grammar for some questions regarding Trump’s previous presidential run might be incorrect, but the heart of such questions that are up 40 percent conveys the same sentiment: “How many times has Trump ran [sic] for president?”

Finally, up 40 percent in Google’s search engine is the simple statement being typed by inquiring minds: “Trump ran for president in 2000.”

Apparently, plenty of people are looking for proof to debunk Trump’s statement.