Fact Check: Trump Tells Two False Stories About Oprah Winfrey, One He’s Been Repeating for 11 Years

Washington
CNN
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Former President Donald Trump told two fictional stories about Oprah Winfrey on Saturday: one is new, the other he’s been telling for at least 11 years.

Trump’s statements about Oprah Winfrey are both innocuous. But they are the latest in a long line of recent examples of the Republican presidential candidate telling gripping but imaginary stories as she seeks again the highest office in the land.

Winfrey threw her support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s presidential opponent, at the Democratic National Convention in August. Winfrey hosted a livestreamed virtual campaign rally for Harris in Michigan on Thursday.

In a social media post Saturday night, Trump wrote: “A long time ago, Oprah Winfrey asked me to do her last television show. The last week of her show was a big event, and it was an honor for me and my family to do it.” He then criticized Harris, saying that when he watched Winfrey’s event with her, “I couldn’t help but think that wasn’t the real Oprah.”

Facts First: Trump’s claims are false. He did not appear on the final episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2011, or even in the show’s star-studded final week. Instead, Trump appeared on the show about three and a half months before it ended.

The Oprah Winfrey Show ended on May 25, 2011. Trump and his family appeared in the episode that aired on February 7, 2011.

Trying to exaggerate his past prominence in the eyes of Oprah Winfrey, who has endorsed Trump’s Democratic opponents in each of the last three presidential elections, Trump falsely bragged at least four times during his presidency about appearing on her popular show during his final week. CNN fact-checked the story in October 2020 — and noted that Trump had been doing so since at least 2013.

The show’s final week featured a star-studded tribute to Winfrey, including celebrities such as Michael Jordan, Will Smith, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Beyoncé, but not Trump, and appearances by memorable non-artist guests from previous episodes. The very last episode was devoted solely to Winfrey.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Harris is lying about working at McDonald’s. (The Harris campaign claims she worked at a restaurant in California for a summer while she was in college in the 1980s.)

At a campaign rally in North Carolina earlier Saturday, Trump said: “And didn’t Oprah ask her about her experience at McDonald’s? And she just wouldn’t answer that question. ‘Let me not talk about it.’ Oprah said, ‘You work at McDonald’s, it’s great.’ You know, Oprah didn’t hear the bottom line; she never worked there. So Kamala kind of hid under the desk, like all the other answers she gave.”

Facts First: Trump’s claim that Harris dodged a question from Winfrey about her job at McDonald’s is false. In fact, Winfrey never even asked Harris about working at McDonald’s. On the contrary, Winfrey mentioned the McDonald’s job in passing during her introduction of Harris, before the vice president took the stage for their conversation.

It was Winfrey’s only mention of McDonald’s at the event: “In no other country on this Earth could her story have unfolded the way it did. From child of immigrants to big sister to McDonald’s employee, there is hope for all of you: district attorney, wife and ‘Momala’, senator, and vice president. Please welcome Kamala Harris.”

Harris came out to applause, hugged Winfrey, and they began their conversation about topics other than McDonald’s.