On Friday, several prominent liberal voices bashed former President Donald Trump for delivering clean water to residents of East Palestine, Ohio, claiming that the water he was passing out to the people was over a decade old.
Trump visited the city in the wake of the devastating train derailment and spillage of toxic chemical vinyl chloride. The toxic chemicals were subject to a controlled burn that caused a massive pillar of smoke to rise into the sky, and many residents have expressed concern over the quality of the water, following videos surfacing of polluted rivers and other water sources.
Trump was seen passing out Lysol wipes, cleaning equipment and bottled water. However, several liberal voices pointed to the water on Twitter, claiming that it was from a discontinued Trump business that shuttered in 2010.
Tristan Snell, a lawyer who touts in his Twitter bio that he helped prosecute Trump University, appeared to be one of the first to criticize Trump after noticing the labeling on the bottles.
“So Donald Trump shreds the rail safety rules that would have prevented the East Palestine disaster, then he goes to East Palestine and brings them Trump Water that might actually be at least 13 years old (the business went under in 2010)? Got it,” Snell wrote on Twitter.
Podcaster and comedian Paula Poundstone added to the claims, stating that bottled water should only have a two-year shelf life due to the fact that, while water does not expire, chemicals in the plastic bottle can begin seeping into the water.
However, that tweet was flagged with a community note from Twitter, which corrected the claims, saying, “The water in question is a brand produced for Trump’s hotels, not the discontinued ‘Trump Ice’ brand,” and adding a link from Huffpost.
Additionally, publication Newsweek put out a fact-check to the claims on Thursday, explaining much the same. Snell and Poundstone appeared to be confusing “Trump Water” with “Trump Ice,” a brand that was launched in 2004 before being shuttered in 2010. Newsweek explained that the brand was semi-revived as “Trump Natural Spring Water” in 2015.
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