Former President Jimmy Carter is alive, according to a statement from the Carter Center.
A letter circulated on X, formerly known as Twitter, had announced Carter’s death. The Carter Center confirmed that the letter is false.
“This is false. There has been no announcement or change,” a Carter Center spokesperson told Channel 2 Action News on July 23.
The original X post with the fake letter has been deleted.
Carter, 99, entered hospice care in Feb. 2023. Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years and former first lady, died months later in November after a battle with dementia.
Jason Carter gave an update on his grandfather’s health in June, saying he is “experiencing the world as best he can.”
“I told him, I said: ‘Pawpaw, you know, when people ask me how you’re doing I say, ‘honestly I don’t know,’” Jason told Southern Living. “And he kind of smiled and he said ‘I don’t know, myself.”
The former president has faced several medical issues, including cancer, and entered hospice care at his Georgia home in February 2023. He made a rare public appearance in November at a memorial service for his wife, who died on Nov. 19.
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The earliest iteration of the fake letter image appears in a post on X, opens new tab and carries text revealed by clicking “ALT” on the screen, saying the former president “is still alive” and that the letter “was an experiment to see how gullible people are to sensationalist headlines.”
In response to a request for comment, the owner of the account took credit for creating the letter, telling Reuters in a direct message, “I created it last night. The amount of misinformation which spread throughout the weekend surrounding the state of President Biden’s health was maddening.… I wanted to prove that many people on X often spread sensationalist news and headlines without actually fact checking or double checking the source content.”
The author added, “I have no ill will towards President Carter and his family, and I admire him greatly for his service to our nation and efforts to promote democracy around the world.”
Text within the letter itself also provided indications that it was a hoax, including a typo in the sixth paragraph (bweing) and a fake quote calling Carter’s late wife “the original Brat” – a reference to a meme that took hold shortly after Vice President Kamala Harris announced her 2024 presidential campaign, in which internet users paired videos of Harris with songs by the British artist Charli XCX.
Jimmy Carter turns 100 years old on Oct. 1.
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