On 2 December 2016, a satirical article by Andy Borowitz reporting that New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie, was arrested for keying Donald Trump’s limousine appeared in the New Yorker:

The incident, which rocked political circles in Trenton and Washington, happened in full view of the midtown-Manhattan crowds outside of Trump Tower, where the vandalized limo had been parked. “Suddenly, this guy broke through security, whipped out his keys, and made a gigantic gash along the side of the limo,” said Harland Dorrinson, a tourist from Missouri who witnessed the incident. “Police started wrestling him to the ground, and I was, like, ‘Holy crap, that’s Chris Christie.’”

While the Borowitz Report is a well-known source of satire, its articles still occasionally fool readers who are unfamiliar with the tone of his writing. In this case, the article caused extra confusion as it was republished by web sites that do not publish exclusively satire (such as WN.com and Goodviews.net), then appeared on various forums, and was briefly aggregated on Yahoo:

A video named “Chris Christie Arrested For Keying Trump’s Limo” was also uploaded to YouTube, although that footage consisted solely of the New Jersey governor’s press announcement on 29 November 2016, in which he stated that he intended to complete his full term as governor.

Despite widespread coverage, there is no truth to the report that Chris Christie was arrested for keying Donald Trump’s limo. The Borowitz Report is a satirical column that does not publish factual stories: