Donald Trump Jr’s account on X was hacked, according to a spokesman for the former president on Wednesday, after the account began tweeting a series of weird and surprising remarks.
“Don’s account has been hacked,” Andrew Surabian posted on X, adding that a post claiming the former president had died was “obviously not true.”
The hacked account falsely claimed that Donald Trump Sr. had died and that Trump Jr. would run for president. In a matter of minutes, the post was shared over 1,000 times on X, and it gained hundreds of thousands of views.
A pinned message on the account’s profile disparaged President Joe Biden using a racist insult, while another appeared to threaten the country of North Korea.
The postings were removed around 30 minutes after they appeared. CNN reached out to X for comment, but received no response.
As a result of the incident, and as the platform prepares for the 2024 elections, additional questions have been raised about X’s responsibility for protecting user accounts, particularly those held by key political figures.
It’s also unclear whether the attack impacted Trump Jr.’s private direct communications or if two-factor authentication was enabled on his account.
The Federal Trade Commission is still investigating X’s ability to sufficiently protect user information and whether it may have broken legally enforceable obligations to secure the platform made in 2011.
The company’s former security chief, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, filed a whistleblower statement last year that exposed widespread and neglected security weaknesses, sparking the probe.
It has previously happened when prominent accounts on the network were hijacked. In 2020, for example, hackers posing as Twitter’s IT support took control of accounts belonging to former President Barack Obama, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and others, including Biden and Musk.
Twitter stated that the hackers had acquired account information, possibly including private messages, at the time.
Many individuals responded to the X post with concern, laughter, and sarcasm.
I’m alive don’t worry
— Donald J. Trump (Parody) (@DonaldTrumparo) September 20, 2023
