Trump And Clinton, Baron’s “Boyfriend”, Mamdani To Transition! We’re Easily Duped When Nonsense Becomes News
Stories that would have been laughed away a decade ago, are now spreading like wildfire in the guise of “news”. They get picked up. They get shared. They become talking points. Whether they’re true barely seems to matter anymore.
Three recent examples from the United States show just how messy things have become. One involved a New York politician’s staffing choices. Another centered on an email between two brothers that went viral. The third was pure fiction that millions believed anyway.
That rumour about Trump performing oral sex on “Bubba”.
This month, the House Oversight Committee released emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. Among them was a March 2018 exchange between Jeffrey and his brother Mark.
Mark asked Jeffrey to “ask him if Putin has the photos of Trump blowing Bubba.”
The internet exploded. Because Bill Clinton was known by the nickname “Bubba,” questions arose about who the Epsteins were speaking of. Social media went wild with speculation about compromising photos of Donald Trump and the former president.
Mark Epstein later issued a statement insisting the exchange was “simply part of a humorous private exchange between two brothers and were never meant for public release or to be interpreted as serious remarks.” He added that “Bubba” was not a reference to Bill Clinton.
Representative Robert Garcia, who released the emails, admitted the committee lacked sufficient information to accurately interpret the message.
“We’re not sure, actually, what that’s in reference to, obviously. So is it a joke? Is it not? Who’s he talking about? We don’t know.”
The idea of Donald Trump going down on Bill Clinton is absurd enough. That there might be a picture of it is even crazier. Yet the story took off. Memes flooded timelines. The phrase “Trump blowing Bubba” trended. A throwaway line in a private email became a cultural moment.
President #Trump has brought such dignity to his high office that in the space of 24hrs the speculation has gone from him performing oral sex on Bill Clinton to doing the same to a horse called 'Bubba'
— Rob (@PolicyRob) November 18, 2025
What a time to be alive. 😁 pic.twitter.com/NefI8nGksV
We now know way too much about Epstein’s anatomy.
Speaking of Epstein, a disturbing new detail has surfaced that we frankly could have lived without knowing. In a recent Substack interview with Tina Brown, artist Rina Oh, who alleges she was abused by Epstein, claimed the disgraced financier had a “severely deformed and unusually small” penis.
Oh described it as being the “shape of a lemon” or egg-like. While similar descriptions have popped up in legal depositions before, this specific interview has reignited the conversation online. It is a gruesome detail, but it adds yet another layer of grim reality to the Epstein saga.
Jeffrey Epstein had a tiny, ‘extremely deformed’ penis shaped like a lemon: victim https://t.co/02aUvQMCn4 pic.twitter.com/u3SjHJH0ea
— New York Post (@nypost) November 19, 2025
Barron Trump’s mystery Argentinian “boyfriend”.
Then there’s Barron Trump, son of the president. The 19-year-old university student has kept a low profile. He rarely appears in public. He doesn’t have social media accounts. He focuses on his studies at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
In October 2025, a TikTok rumour claimed Barron was dating a man named Carlos, identified as an Argentine ballroom dancer named Carlos Strasser. One user said Donald Trump himself closed multiple floors of Trump Tower for a date between the pair.
The story went viral. One TikTok video received nearly 4 million views. Users created sketches. They made memes. The boyfriend named Carlos became part of online lore.
There was just one problem. None of it was true.
Stuttgart Ballet spokesperson Jennifer Schurr confirmed that Carlos Strasser “has no connection whatsoever to Barron Trump. He has never met him. He is also not 32 years old, has no training as a ballroom dancer, and has no Argentine roots.”
The entire story was fabricated. Yet millions believed it. They shared it. They discussed it as if it were a fact.
The Zohran Mamdani “transition” face plant.
Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s newly elected mayor (set to take office on January 1, 2026), announced a “transition fund” to support his upcoming administration. Within days, it hit the US$1 million mark thanks to more than 12,700 donors averaging about US$78 each.
But here’s where things get queerer (in all senses). That “transition” phrasing became an in-joke in trans and queer circles. Many joked he was actually transitioning, and the fundraiser was his gender care fund, even though he’s not trans.
Fact check: It’s not about gender identity. The fund is for building his administration, such as hiring staff, research, and infrastructure. Still, the joke stuck, especially in our communities, because the language resembled well-worn narratives about “pink money,” queerness as satire, or queerness as politics.
We just raised $1 million dollars for our transition to City Hall. The groundwork to make this city a fairer and more affordable place is happening because of you. pic.twitter.com/2GB4T1fRgZ
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) November 16, 2025
Why do we fall for it?
These three stories represent different points on the truth spectrum. One was completely false. Another was a misinterpreted joke. The third involved real controversy but got tangled in political battles.
What they illustrate is how quickly misinformation spreads, how widely they were discussed, and how little verification seemed to matter in their initial waves of attention.
We’re living in an era where the line between news and noise has disappeared. A TikTok video can create a fictional boyfriend. An email can spawn international headlines. A staffing decision can become a referendum on someone’s entire worldview.
The question isn’t whether wild stories will keep appearing. They will. The question is whether we’ll get better at spotting them before they take hold.
Right now, the answer seems to be no. And that should worry all of us.
