Joe Biden’s inauguration has not stopped people from falsely claiming that Donald Trump is actually still in power. One theory spreading on social media suggests that in 1871, Congress passed legislation that formed the “Corporation of the United States of America” and made Washington, D.C., a foreign entity under the control of the City of London. According to a version of this theory published by a blog called The Marshall Report, Trump’s 2018 executive order aimed at foreign election interference was aimed at undoing this legislation and “the military is now in the process of seizing the assets of this foreign country” and “We are literally watching the reclaiming of the United States of America.”

The article also says that this 1871 Act made U.S. citizens “property of the corporation centered in Washington D.C,” which supposedly made D.C. a “foreign entity.” Adherents of this theory claim that the Organic Act of 1871 did away with the Constitution and ended Americans’ sovereignty.

Following President Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, there have been manyclaims circulating in the form of tweets and articles, that the “Act of 1871,” established America as a “corporation.” 

This theory isn’t new. See, for example, this  article shared in 2015, which outlines the same claim: “When congress passed the act of 1871 it created a separate corporation known as THE UNITED STATES and corporate government for the District of Columbia. This treasonous act has unlawfully allowed the District of Columbia to operate as a corporation outside the original constitution of the United States and in total disregard of the best interests of the American citizens.”