'Donald Trump passed away,' claims hacked X account of his son
text_fieldsWashington: The X (formerly known as Twitter) account of activist and former US president Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. was hacked on Wednesday, sending a series of offensive posts, including one falsely announcing the death of his father.
"I'm sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024," read the first message from Donald Trump Jr's account at 8:25 a.m.
Minutes after the fake death announcement, the 77-year-old former president sent an unrelated message on his own X rival, Truth Social at 8:46 a.m., proving he was still alive.
A series of hacked messages quickly followed on Donald Jr's account, including an inflammatory one saying that "North Korea is about to get smoked", and another pretending to show Donald Jr saying he had "some interesting messages with Jeffrey Epstein", more than four years after the paedophile died in his Manhattan lockup.
Other tweets on his account read "F-k Joe Biden", calling him a "stupid ass" n-word, and another claiming crypto personality Richard Heart, who was accused of stealing USD 12 million from investors, is innocent.
The posts have now been deleted and the account restored.
The Trump Organisation did not immediately respond to a request for comment early on Wednesday, reports said.
With inputs from PTI