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Theres a brand of misinformation that spreads widely on social media that falsely suggests Donald Trump is not the former president, but the current one. Weve checked some of it, such as this claim that Trump signed the Insurrection Act and is still president, or that he was secretly inaugurated as the president of the "restored Republic."

Neither statement is accurate, and neither is the title of this video shared on Facebook on Feb. 2. "Trump is in position," it says. "He never left."

This post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

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The video offers no evidence to support this claim.

While Trump is active in politics issuing statements, holding rallies, giving interviews he is no longer the president. He left the White House on Jan. 20, 2021, and hasnt returned.

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It's not true that Donald Trump never left the White House - PolitiFact

Whatever else it is, this old honor culture has deepened todays identity politics. Ostracized from the genteel establishment, many working-class Wyomingites see themselves in these new shows of Trumpian bravado. Like other Americans, they feel a sense of kinship with those who act like them. As Ms. Stubson lamented, We had never been able to connect to the larger community. Her husband, Tim Stubson, a former Wyoming representative, admitted that there was a current there that we were not aware of.

Honor culture isnt about just identity, though. This primitive code also seems indispensable to those Republicans radicalized by todays polarized politics. If one is persuaded that the left is on the verge of destroying American civilization, then electing as many fearless fighters and strongmen as possible is the order of the day. That is why a prominent MAGA donor like Tom Klingenstein said he sees Mr. Trump as just what the doctor ordered in these revolutionary times.

Enter Harriet Hageman, Mr. Trumps proxy candidate in his war against Ms. Cheney. A lawyer who once aligned with the old guard, Ms. Hageman broke from Ms. Cheneys clique to pursue power. Attuned to Wyomings new right, her first campaign ad is already appealing to the states deeply rooted honor culture. It accuses Ms. Cheney of breaking the code of the West, one that requires loyalty, honor and a willingness to fight for compatriots.

Ms. Cheney, though, is fighting on behalf of her own code of honor. Hers is driven by a fidelity to what the Yale political theorist Steven Smith calls enlightened patriotism, one that insists on loyalty to a particular constitutional form that we call liberal democracy or constitutional democracy.

Such patriotism has always been in tension with the motto my country, right or wrong, because it is beholden to abstract, creedal principles, such as equality, individualism and the rule of law. And because these principles are open to interpretation, patriotism in the United States has long had a distinctly critical, questioning character. Mr. Smith even suggests that it birthed the nation, since the American revolutionaries regarded themselves as the true British patriots, not traitors.

Not unlike those British subjects facing a subversive king, Ms. Cheney had no real choice when faced with Mr. Trumps assault on our constitutional order. To Ms. Cheney and her Republican supporters in Wyoming it would have been shameful to remain loyal to Mr. Trump. This is why, on the first anniversary of the Capitol invasion, she admonished on Twitter, Anyone who denies the truth of what happened on January 6th ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Beneath the surface of their honor feud lurk clashing understandings of political ambition. Unlike Mr. Trump, Ms. Cheney is seeking the esteem of future generations by doing whats in the public interest even if she is cast out of office for doing so. Ms. Cheney told a Wyoming paper that just moments before her fellow Republicans pushed her out of House leadership, she warned them that history was watching.

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Opinion | Why Donald Trump and Liz Cheney Are Locked in an Endless Feud - The New York Times

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The New York attorney general is investigating the former president for manipulating the value of his properties in ways that benefit him. Its something were familiar with at Forbes, because Trump tried to mislead us about his financial information for decades. This is the third in aseriesof stories digging deeper into the numbers.

H

igh on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean sits a patch of land offering 18 award-winning holes of golf, a cluster of multimillion-dollar mansionsand a potential headache for its developer, Donald Trump.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating Trumps dealings at the property, called Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, as part of her probe into whether Trump exaggerated the value of his holdings to his lenders, insurers and the Internal Revenue Service.

One of James claims: that Trump valued unsold lots at the property at $4.5 million, even after getting an appraisal valuing lots there at $1.1 million.

Thats not surprising, given what Trump claimed to Forbes over the years. Trump bought the 261-acre property for a reported $27 million in 2002, after a landslide wiped out part of the golf course and the previous owners declared bankruptcy. He had big plans to rebuild the course and surround it with mansions. In 2005, Trump said he had 75 lots at the property and planned to sell 75 homes on them for $10 million each. By 2009, things were going so well at Trump Los Angelesdespite the nationwide real estate crashthat Trumps chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, said buyers were snapping up houses for around $10 million and empty lots for $8 million. Later that year, a mega deal: Weisselberg revealed Trump had sold a home there for $28 million.

Except most of that didnt happen. Trump didnt really have 75 lotshe had 36, plus two other tracts of land that had yet to be approved for development. One of those tracts is still stuck in the approval process, two decades after Trump bought the property. The second is now a driving rangeand a subject of James investigation.

And those supposed sales? Lot buyers were never shelling out $8 millionor anything close to itaccording to an analysis of property records. Trump offloaded two of his best lots for about $4 million each in 2007, near the height of the real estate bubble, but didnt sell the rest until years later, collecting less than $2 million apiece for most of them. There was no $28 million mega home sale either. Property records show Trump built and sold a half dozen houses at Trump Los Angeles, including four for between $3.2 million and $4.2 million and one for $7.2 million. His biggest sale, by far: When billionaire Phil Ruffin, Trumps close friend and business partner, laid out $12.5 million for a mansion to kickoff sales at the property in 2006. Ruffin sold the place nine years later, taking a $5.8 million loss.

The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Trump has filed suit against the New York attorney general and has criticized her investigation as a partisan witch hunt. (James is a Democrat who is running for reelection after a brief campaign for New York governor.)

The lies extended beyond Forbes, apparently to Trumps lenders and insurers, who received personal balance sheets from the Trump Organization. According to the New York attorney general, Trumps 2012 balance sheet valued lots at the property at $4.5 million apiece, even though a Trump-commissioned appraisal had valued lots at a quarter of that price. In fact, Trump was never able to sell a single lotnot even one of his biggest parcels with the best ocean viewsfor $4.5 million, according to property records. The average sale price for a Trump Los Angeles lot: $1.9 million.

He also seems to have misled lenders and insurers about how many lots he had. A note accompanying Trumps 2012 balance sheet, submitted to Congress in 2019 by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, says the club is presently zoned for 75 home sites, including 52 home sites available for sale as of June 2012no mention that more than half the propertys lots were actually years away from being approved for sale, or that 16 of them were currently being used as a driving range with little chance of ever being converted into homes. The real numbers, according to the records: Trump had about 30 sites available for sale at the time, including two completed homes that had failed to sell for years.

Its the patch of 16 lots that Trump never tried to sell that has become a major focus of James investigation. Trump spent years fighting for approval to build homes on the parcel, which was considered at risk of another landslide. In the meantime, he got permission to use the area as his golf courses driving range and putting green.

It would likely take years, and millions of dollars, to make the land safe enough to be approved for home development. So, Trump came up with a different way to cash in on his troubled piece of land: He used it to cut his tax bill. In 2014, he struck a deal with a local land conservancy. Trump donated a conservation easement over the tract, promising to keep it as green space instead of trying to turn it into homes. In exchange, he could deduct the value of the giftwhich he had appraised at $25 millionon his taxes. Another perk: He got to keep using the property as a driving range for his paying customers. A good deal, even if the optics made his lawyer nervous.

Some could argue that as long as he is operating the golf course, he would continue to keep the driving range, Trump attorney Sheri Dillon wrote at the time, in an internal email obtained by James. Effectively, the US taxpayers are paying him to do exactly what he would already do anyway.

The New York attorney general, meanwhile, is taking aim at a different aspect of the deal: how Trump arrived at $25 million for the value of his gift. The higher the value of the land Trump agreed not to develop, the more he could deduct on his taxes. According to James, the Trump Organization and the appraisers it hired used a number of tactics to inflate their estimate, including downplaying the time and cost required to make the lots safe and lowballing the value of Trump keeping the driving range.

According to court filings, Trump submitted the questionable appraisal to the IRS and got more than $5 million in federal tax benefits between 2014 and 2018, thanks to the conservation easement at Trump Los Angeles and a similar agreement Trump made at a property he owns in New York state.

Trump, one appraiser wrote to another, according to the court filings, is fighting for every $1.

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How Donald Trump Inflated The Value Of His Los Angeles LandAnd Got A Tax Break - Forbes

Georgia Gov. Brian KempBrian KempKemp invokes Trump in ad after former president slams him in ad for Perdue Stacey Abrams raises over M since launching bid for Georgia governor Ohio secretary of state finds 27 potentially illegal votes MORE (R) is responding to an ad from his chief primary rival that heavily features Donald Trump with a spot of his own invoking the former president.

The 30-second spot comes just a few days after former Sen. David PerdueDavid PerdueKemp invokes Trump in ad after former president slams him in ad for Perdue Stacey Abrams raises over M since launching bid for Georgia governor Ohio secretary of state finds 27 potentially illegal votes MORE (R-Ga.), whom Trump has endorsed to replace Kemp, unveiled the first ad of his gubernatorial campaign. That ad features Trump himself hammering Kemp and touting his support for Perdue.

But Kemps spot, which was paid for by the governors leadership committee, looks to turn the tables on Perdue, accusing him of outsourcing jobs to China throughout his lengthy business career despite Trumps campaign promise to bring back jobs that were sent overseas.

President TrumpDonald TrumpCanadian premier calls truckers protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandate an 'occupation' Hogan calls RNC censure of Cheney, Kinzinger a 'sad day' for GOP Jan. 6 defendant asks to subpoena Trump as trial witness MORE worked hard putting America first, a narrator says in the ad before flashing a clip of the former president vowing to bring jobs back from China.

But David Perdue sent American jobs to China over and over again, by the thousands, and made millions, the narrator continues. The ad then features a clip of Perdue saying that he was proud to outsource jobs.

The dueling ads underscore the bitter nature of the primary fight between Perdue and Kemp, a onetime Trump ally who drew the former presidents ire after he refused to help overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Despite Trumps efforts to oust Kemp, the incumbent governor has pushed on with his campaign, and recent polling shows him with a clear lead over Perdue. A Quinnipiac University survey released last week found Kemp notching 43 percent support among likely Republican voters in Georgia, while Perdue finished second with 36 percent.

Still, theres plenty of time between now and the May 24 primary. The eventual nominee will likely go on to face Democrat Stacey Abrams in the November general election. Abrams, who previously faced Kemp in the 2018 race for governor, isnt facing any primary opposition, giving her a glide path to the Democratic nomination.

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Kemp invokes Trump in ad after former president slams him in ad for Perdue | TheHill - The Hill

Donald Trump intervening in who he believes needs to be running in the Ohio GOP Senate primary is the latest example of the former president trying to influence elections across the country in order to see a return of a MAGA-majority government.

On Thursday, Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno announced he is dropping out of the crowded Republican primary race after speaking to the former president and coming to the agreement that there are "too many Trump" candidates already vying for the seat.

Trump thanked Moreno for his "time and effort" during the campaign which he spent more than $3.75 million of his own money on.

"His decision will help ensure the MAGA Ticket wins BIG, as it is all over the Country. Thank you, Bernie, for your support and keep fighting," Trump said.

The move from Trump was a slight change in tactics in his overall plan to remain the de facto leader of the GOP ahead of the midterms and the 2024 election.

For months, Trump has made it his mission to see those who voted to impeach him for inciting the January 6 insurrection, as well those who don't support the view that the 2020 Election was rigged, defeated in the upcoming elections.

The former president has endorsed dozens of candidates running across all forms of government who seem willing to continue to push his voter fraud claims, the end goal being for the GOP to retake both the House and the Senate with his chosen lawmakers, pushing his MAGA politics from the inside.

Trump has been so keen to try parachuting his staunch allies into congressional seats that several of his picks are even challenging incumbent members of his own party who have dared to stand against him.

As noted by The Atlantic, there are three GOP incumbents who Trump would like to see lose their seats: Representative Liz Cheney, Senator Lisa Murkowski and Governor Brian Kemp.

Cheney, a Wyoming congresswoman, is one of only two Republicans who is part of the January 6 House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack.

She is arguably the most vocal Trump critic within the GOP and is currently facing a censure vote by the RNC having previously been ousted from her role as the party's conference chair over her repeated criticism of Trump.

In September, Trump endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman in her attempt to unseat Cheney. According to The Atlantic, Trump has been engaging in minor developments of Hageman's campaign, including going through copies of local news coverage and op-eds with a Sharpie pen and mailing the candidate notes of encouragement.

Another Republican who Trump has set his sights on is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican senator who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial over the January 6 attack who is standing for re-election in 2022.

In November, Trump endorsed rank outsider Kelly Tshibaka, a former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration who has promoted claims of election fraud, for the Alaska seat.

Trump made no secret of his plan to back anyone who is challenging those he considered an enemy of the MAGA movement, soon after announcing his backing of Tshibaka.

"Saving America starts by saving the GOP from RINOs, sellouts, and known losers! In the Senate, the 'Disaster from Alaska,' Lisa Murkowski (challenge accepted), must go. There is 'almost' nobody worse," the former president said.

Trump is also using his influence in areas of Alaskan politics. In December, he warned the state's incumbent GOP Governor Mike Dunleavy that he will endorse him, but only on the condition that he doesn't back Murkowski.

"If Mike endorses her, which is his prerogative, my endorsement of him is null and void, and of no further force or effect!" Trump said.

Another GOP politician facing the scorn of Trump is Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

Kemp, who only narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in 2018 after getting unbridled support from Trump, has since earned the former president's ire after he upheld the state's 2020 Election results, which ruled President Joe Biden the winner.

In response, Trump spent months urging David Perdue, a former Georgia senator who lost his seat in January 2020, to challenge the governor.

In a video confirming his backing of Perdue, Trump stated how the Democrats "walked all over" Kemp during the last election campaign.

"He was afraid of Stacey 'The Hoax' Abrams. Brian Kemp let us down. We can't let it happen again," Trump said. He also reiterates that Perdue is the only person running for Georgia governor that has his endorsement.

The significance of the midterms now has an added subplot with regard to how much power and influence Trump still has.

In previous years, Trump tended to mainly pick primary candidates who were already the favorite to win.

However, as noted by Five Thirty Eight, Trump's desire to endorse people who oppose him or the MAGA movement has meant he has backed more than 20 candidates who are up against incumbents, who rarely lose renomination.

Republican strategist Karl Rove said that Trump's 2022 endorsements based on "how vocally" they are willing to back his dismissed voter fraud cries rather than on their "viability" may ultimately backfire.

"In his business career, Mr. Trump put his name on everything from steaks to menswear to vodka, with mixed results," Rove wrote in a December editorial for the Wall Street Journal.

"Now he risks more than diluting his personal brand. Mr. Trump could help some Democrats hang on in an otherwise devastating election cycle in 2022 by forcing their opponents to harangue voters about an unpopular topic. If the GOP can't learn to shake the Trump obsession with alleged election fraud, the former president could even hand Democrats the White Houseagain."

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Donald Trump is Pulling the Strings in Races Up and Down the Country - Newsweek