President Trump Announces Sale of California to Mexico, Creating “MexiCal”-Satire!
Summary of eRumor:
A satirical story about President Trump announcing the sale of California to Mexico has been mistaken by some for actual news.
The Truth:
A satirical post about President Trump announcing the sale of California to Mexico, creating “MexiCal,” spread across social media and discussion forms in mid-February 2017.
The post’s original author isn’t known, but one of the earliest versions of the “MexiCal” report appeared on Facebook on February 14 under the headline “President Trump Announces Sale of California to Mexico.” The phrase “chat conversation end” appears at the bottom of the post, suggesting that it was copy and pasted from an unnamed forum. The post begins:
WASHINGTON (AP) – at 12:15pm today President Trump disclosed that he has reached an agreement with Enrique Pena Nieto, President of Mexico, which provides for the sale of substantially all of the State of California to the country of Mexico. President Trump noted that this deal, which he claims “is his largest real estate deal ever” is a win-win for everyone involved. One of the benefits he says he will highlight during a prime time address from the oval office later this evening, will include using the proceeds received by the US from Mexico to 1) pay for the Wall (fulfilling yet another campaign promise), a wall which will now include the length of the eastern border of California, 2) fund all the infrastructure spending in the remaining 49 states and 3) pay to relocate the 67 Republicans that currently reside in California.
The report goes on to state that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had already begun fundraising and would soon kick-off her candidacy to be president of Mexico, and that a newly formed real estate company called “pmurT Inc.” would rake in a $25 billion broker fee on the transaction:
The exact northern border of the new MexiCal is still under negotiation. Apparently the White House is concerned that certain members of congress may be unwilling to give up California’s wine country and are suggesting that the northern boarder align with the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
California residents will be issued special blue cards to cross the boarder into the US so that the total number of California liberals entering the US can be tracked and at any point in time not exceed predetermined levels. Residents that remain in California after the effective date of the sale will not be allowed to seek refugee status in the US in the future.
Different versions of the “MexiCal” report have appeared online. Another popular versions name of the newly-created Mexican province is listed as “Mexifornia” and begins:
“WASHINGTON (AP) – at 12:15pm today President Trump disclosed that he has reached an agreement with Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico, which provides for the sale of substantially all of the State of California to the country of Mexico. President Trump noted that this deal, which he claims “is his YUGEst real estate deal ever” is a win-win for everyone involved.
Again, we haven’t been able to identify the original source of the story. Given that there are different versions of the post, however, it appears that multiple writers have added on to or have re-written the original post as it’s been past around.