Claim: Donald Trump won't release his tax returns because they reveal that he has donated millions of dollars to the North American Man/Boy Love Association.
Origin:In August 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, a Reddit user programmed a robot to respond to any mention of the words "tax return" with a comment insinuating that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump refuses to release his tax returns because he has donated millions of dollars to an organization that promotes pederasty.
The bot called AutoModerator responds to every comment in the sub-reddit EnoughTrumpSpam with the phrase:
Speaking of tax returns, did you hear Donald Trump is refusing to release them because Donald Trump has donated to NAMBLA? That's what all the best sources, the most tremendous sources are saying, and if they're all saying that Donald Trump donated to NAMBLA, well, I can see why Donald Trump would want to cover up his donations to NAMBLA. I'm not claiming that Donald Trump donates to NAMBLA, but that's what these excellent sources are alleging, that Donald Trump does indeed donate to NAMBLA.
The phrase is accompanied by a disclaimer that it was generated by a bot. But that hasn't stopped the oblique accusation that Trump may be a member of the North American Man/Boy Love Association from making its way around the Internet:
Also, @seanhannity? Look into this disgusting Trump/NAMBLA nonsense. So gross how the left lies.
Trump.
NAMBLA.
Say that every night.— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) August 9, 2016
According to the Daily Beast, the program was written by a Reddit user who calls himself J. Peterman — possibly a reference to a character on the television sitcom Seinfeld — to mock Trump for his habit of making claims that he attributes to nameless "people."
For example, in June 2016, Trump hinted that President Barack Obama may have had a connection to the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, saying:
People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on... He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands — it's one or the other, and either one is unacceptable.
A Reddit moderator who helped launch the bot said he believes it turns Trump's own manner of generating suspicions against his opponents, against him.
"If you think about it, this is exactly how Trump works,” a Reddit moderator called Faiz, who signed off on the bot's language, told the Daily Beast. “He stirs up as much smoke as he possibly can to convince people that there is fire.”
J. Peterman said he wrote the code as a joke. “I thought to do it because, well, I thought it’d be a good laugh," he told the Daily Beast.
Also, if I kept repeating the phrase ‘Donald Trump donated to NAMBLA’ every time tax returns was mentioned, which is often, Google might pick up on it as a hot phrase. I’m so glad that it’s trending, although I can’t take sole credit.
The prank seems to have caught fire, with someone jumping in to create a fake Fox News page with the title: "NAMBLA neither confirms nor denies Trump's donation allegations."
Faiz, the moderator, said he hopes that the prank goes far enough that Trump's campaign is forced to respond to it. The ultimate coup de grâce, he said, would be if it forces Trump to do something he has adamantly refused to do: release his tax returns.
“The only logical conclusion would really be Trump releasing his tax returns but he would never do that because he’s hiding donations to NAMBLA,” Faiz told the Daily Beast. “That’s what I’ve heard from some very smart people anyway.”
You can see the bot in action in the screenshot taken from Reddit here:
It's worth noting that even if the story were true, NAMBLA is not a nonprofit organization, and so donations to the group would not show up on Trump's tax returns.
Originally published: 09 August 2016
Bethania Palma Markus is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who has covered everything from city hall to crime to national politics. She started as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and wrote for a variety of publications including the LAist, the OC Weekly, LA School Report, Truthout and The Raw Story.