When Donald Trump tweeted a clearly altered image of his head on Rocky Balboa’s body, the media jumped to action, confirming – not that it was needed – that the picture was fake. But one outlet took things to the next level.

After the Washington Post did some serious investigative journalism, revealing that the photo was “doctored” and that the body was in fact “taken from promotional materials” for the 'Rocky III' movie, the Trump team responded in jest.

In a clear wisecrack and dig at the Post’s unnecessary clarifications, Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign account tweeted that the newspaper had claimed the picture was doctored “without evidence.”

Washington Post claims - without evidence - that @realDonaldTrump shared a “doctored” photo. https://t.co/iOvNdsFJIc — Team Trump (@TeamTrump) November 27, 2019

Then, Mediaite stepped in.

Taking the bait and entirely missing Team Trump’s sarcasm, one of the website’s journalists penned an outrage-laced article, claiming that Trump was “disputing” reports that the Rocky picture was fake – and reiterating (yet again) that the image was not “authentic.” Trump will likely file this one under ‘fake news’ since his campaign is not actually disputing anything.

Trump Campaign Falsely Claims Trump/Stallone Photo Actually Wasn't 'Doctored' https://t.co/BLwlrRVUUt — Mediaite (@Mediaite) November 28, 2019

Apparently unaware that it was opening itself up to ridicule, Mediaite insisted that the Post had offered “ironclad proof” that the body was not that of Trump, but of the fictional movie boxer.

Mocking naturally ensued on Twitter, with many informing the website that Team Trump’s response was only a joke and not to take things so seriously.

“I don’t know what’s more embarrassing – writing this piece or paying to have it written,” one user wrote.

“Gullible is written on the ceiling. You should look,” added another.

“Is this your first day on the internet?” one asked.

Team Trump responded too, retweeting Mediaite’s article with a simple comment: “Face palm.”

Wow, someone actually wrote this. Lmao. — Greg Lomax (@lomax_greg) November 28, 2019

It wasn’t just the Washington Post and Mediaite that whipped themselves into a frenzy over Trump’s Rocky tweet, either. Numerous outlets felt the need to run pieces clarifying that Trump does not possess the super-ripped body of a fictional heavyweight champion.

It’s not the first time the media has massively overreacted to Trump’s penchant for posting Photoshopped images and memes.

One journalist was widely mocked last month for deciding to ‘fact check’ when Trump tweeted an obviously fake image of himself awarding a medal to the military dog who helped take down Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!