College Student Scammed Republicans by Pretending to Be a Slighted Trump Supporter

A Howard University college student scammed Trump supporters via Twitter by pretending to be a slighted Trump supporter and soliciting donations from sympathetic MAGA fans, according to a Monday report from BuzzFeed News. The shakedown began on October 27, when the student tweeted a picture of herself with a MAGA bucket hat alongside the caption: “I will not hide any longer, the left has made us feel as if us black republicans should hide!! but not anymore!! #BlacksForTrump#WalkAway#maga.” After the tweet caught on, she started posting updates: On Nov. 1, she tweeted screenshots which purportedly showed her mother evicting her over her political views. “Maybe one of those trumpies that luv you so much can take you in,” said one of the messages she received.

But the student later admitted to BuzzFeed that it was all a farce—in reality, she doesn’t “really support Trump.” “A lot of Republicans have this idea that everyone thinks Republicans are mostly racist and they’re really desperate to get that stigma off of them,” she told New York magazine. “I just felt like capitalizing on that.” Eventually, though, she felt guilty, and admitted her stunt. GoFundMe refunded the donations of all four donors—which only totaled $97, despite what one conservative outlet alleged—and has banned the woman’s account. “I just honestly didn’t want to take their money,” she said in the New York magazine interview. “Yeah, I can’t pay for school but I don’t want Republican money to pay for it. I just want everyone to think I’m the finesse queen, which I am.”