Reports claiming that the president-elect Donald Trump pledged during a campaign event in Henrico County, Virginia, to reopen investigation into the September 11, 2001 terror attacks have gone viral on multiple websites. Thousands of excited members of the 9/11 Truth Movement shared the story on social media under the impression that it was a genuine news report.

But as the online fact-checker Metabunk noted, although Trump gave a speech in Richmond, Henrico County, on October 14, 2016, he did not mention 9/11 during the speech. However, he had talked about releasing secret 9/11 documents during a campaign event in Bluffton, South Carolina last February, saying that Americans “will find out who really knocked down the World Trade Center” if he is elected as president.

“It wasn’t the Iraqis,” he said at the time, according to Real Clear Politics. “You may find it’s the Saudis. They have papers in there that are very secret. But you will find out.”

But the latest report ascribing similar remarks to Trump during a campaign event in Henrico County, Virginia, originated from a notorious online purveyor of fake news reports, World News Daily Report (WNDR).

World Trade Center buildings on fire after 9/11 attack [Image by Ken Tannenbaum/Shutterstock]

The fact that the report published on the WNDR website on November 7, and was shared nearly 10,000 times on Facebook suggests that thousands of 9/11 Truthers may have been persuaded to vote for Donald Trump on November 8 on the basis of the misleading report.

Several other websites, including the Daily Star, Your News Wire and Zero Hedge picked up the report, sparking excitement among members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, with many declaring that Trump’s pledge to reopen the 9/11 probe and ensure a transparent investigation shows his determination to “Make America Great Again.”

A rehash of the WNDR story published on Your News Wire on November 10, was shared nearly 120,000 times on Facebook. A similar rehash of the story published on the Daily Star on November 11, was shared more than 3,000 times.

According to WNDR, while speaking at a rally in Henrico County, Virginia, Trump was asked to explain what he would do as president to ensure that terrorist attacks such as 9/11 do not happen again. Trump answered that one of his first acts as president would be to reopen the 9/11 probe, WNDR claimed.

“First of all, the original 9/11 investigation is a total mess and has to be reopened,” Trump said, according to WNDR. “How do two planes take out three buildings in the same day? I never got my head around the fact that nothing is mentioned about the destruction of Building 7 in the 585 page document.”

Trump, according to WNDR, raised questions about the validity of the official 9/11 Commission Report, saying that because the investigation was not thorough and transparent it failed to answer several vital questions.

Trump, according to the fake report, promised to reopen the probe after he takes office as president in January because “Americans deserve to know what really happened.”

September 11, 2001: World Trade Center buildings on fire [Image by Ken Tannenbaum/Shutterstock]

The comments ascribed falsely to Trump were designed obviously to play on the hopes of thousands of members of the 9/11 Truth movement who claim that the deadly 9/11 attack was an inside job, a false flag operation by the Bush administration to win support for its “War on Terror.”

According to conspiracy theorists, the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings were already rigged with powerful explosives that detonated after the hijacked planes flew into them. The collapse of the buildings was therefore a controlled demolition using special types of explosives.

The WNDR report also falsely quoted Trump criticizing the George Bush administration for failing to take appropriate legal action against Saudi Arabia.

“Why did the administration at the time not take legal means against Saudi Arabia?” Trump said, according to WNDR. “Weren’t 19 of the hijackers from Saudi Arabia? Americans deserve answers and I will definitely request a new investigation so that this horrible tragedy never happens again.”

WNDR then went on to inform readers that Trump was not the first to suggest that the 9/11 probe be reopened because the original investigation was not conducted thoroughly and transparently.

The website named Bob Graham, former Florida governor, as one of a small number of politicians who have called for new investigation and release of documents, despite the unpopularity of the suggestion among establishment politicians.

“For years I have been campaigning for the release of the 2002 Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee 9/11 Inquiry’s report, to no avail,” the website claimed Graham said. “These missing pages point to the direct involvement of the government of Saudi Arabia. Why are these being kept secret? Who has to gain from these games of secrecy?”

“I have read these documents myself and if the American public knew what was in these documents, there would be a revolution tomorrow in the streets of America,” Graham added, according to WNDR.

Apparently mistaking the fake news report as genuine, the Daily Star commented in its article published on November 11, three days after the general election, that it was not clear that Trump still intended to fulfill his campaign promise to reopen the 9/11 investigation.

The Daily Star’s comment reflected media reports that following the general election, comments by Trump and some members of his transition team suggest he is reneging on his major campaign promises, such as building a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border, deporting undocumented immigrants, ending the “war on coal” and repealing and replacing Obamacare.

Your News Wire claimed that the reason why George W. Bush did not vote for Trump at the general election was because Trump had pledged to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into 9/11 that would uncover dirty secrets being covered up by the Washington establishment.

“The establishment did all it could to destroy Trump the outsider’s election chances at election,” Your News Wire commented. “Now they are on edge.”

[Featured Image by Ken Tannenbaum/Shutterstock]