John Legend mocks Trump’s false vote claim, invites Twitter pile-on

Musician also ridiculed the US president’s use of the word ‘hereby’

Singer-songwriter John Legend has mocked Donald Trump online after the US President falsely claimed electoral victories in several US states.

On Wednesday (4 November), Trump wrote that the Republicans had won in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan – which they had not.

Trump tweeted: "We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. 

“Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact, there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!”

Both tweets were flagged by Twitter as containing potentially misleading information.

Legend, who has been a vocal critic of the president throughout his time in office, then invited his followers to ridicule the president’s false claims by making fabricated boasts of their own.

“Let’s all claim things we don’t have any right to. What y’all got,” he wrote, adding: “To be clear, you have to say ‘hereby’ to make it legally binding.”

Some used the prompt to issue political declarations targeting the Trump administration, with one person writing: “I hereby claim Trump Tower to house hundreds of folks who are currently or are about to be homeless due to the mismanagement of the pandemic and utter lack of concern or assistance from the GOP & current administration.”

Other responses, however, were more esoteric, with one respondent writing: “I hereby declare a new season of [cancelled Netflix series] The OA shall start filming henceforth. @netflix I proclaimth thee my property and ye shall maketh it so. With haste.”

You can keep up with the latest developments with the US election here.