President Obama Placed Life-Sized Bronze Statue of Himself in White House-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
President Obama placed a life-sized bronze statue of himself in the White House that cost taxpayers $200,000.
The Truth:
Claims that President Obama placed a life-sized bronze statute of himself in the White House started as a hoax news story and was re-reported around the internet as a factual story.
Empire News, a well known and self-described fake news website, published a story on December 31, 2016, under the headline, “Obama Orders Life-Sized Bronze Statue of Himself to be Permanently Installed in White House,” that begins:
President Obama has ordered a $200,000, life-sized, bronze statue of himself, with plans to install it in the entryway of the White House. The president says that his legacy “should not be diminished,” and that this is the only way he can “keep an eye” over Trump, as well as future presidents.
“I have been president for only eight years, and in that time, I have done what no other presidents could do in all their time in total,” said Obama. “I have created a legacy that should not be diminished. I have created something that no future president will be able to do. In that regard, I have commissioned this statute, with plans to have it permanently erected in the entryway of the White House, so that all who enter can remember me fondly.”
In the last days of his last days in office, the fictional account of Obama placing a life-sized bronze statue in the White House was picked up and reported as breaking news by a range of fringe websites.
However, a picture of the life-sized Obama statute that appeared with the story can be used to debunk it. The photo actually shows a life-sized bronze statue of Obama in San Juan, Puerto Rico, along the “Avenue of Heroes” that celebrates every U.S. president that has visited the Capital Building. The statue was placed there in 2012:
A photo of the Obama statue in Puerto Rico was clearly photoshopped into the oval office in a picture that has accompanied these fake news stories