Republican lawmaker mocked after brutally falling for a 'fake' Jerome Powell resignation letter
GOP Senator Mike Lee shared the fake letter in a post on X with the caption 'Powell's Out!', before he realized his mistake and deleted it.
The letter contained several obvious signs of being fake, including a seal that appears to be AI generated. It was also addressed to 'The President, The White House, Washington DC,' and had several oddly placed hyphens in the middle of words.
Lee admitted his error to The Hill, stating that 'There appeared to be one, and it occurred to me seconds after I posted it that I hadn't seen it anywhere else, so I deleted it out of an abundance of caution. I don't know whether it's legit or not.'
Still, that momentary lapse in judgement drew the ire of social media users who took no pity on Lee.
Tim Miller, former communications directors for Jeb Bush 's Presidential campaign and now a writer for the Bulwark mocked Lee, replying on X that the post was deleted out of 'an abundance of caution!'
X user John Lindsey, wrote 'Bahahaha, he saw one completely fabricated letter and posted it, even though he hadn't seen it anywhere else. Can we please dump these low iq morons. It's such an embarrassment to the country and the state of Utah.'
Another X user who posts under the handle @dmgtexas was much more direct in his approach, adding 'He's so hyper online, his brain is mush.'
Senator Mike Lee's tweet sharing the fake resignation letter. The tweet was deleted shortly after it was posted.
Lee has circulated falsities online before, including spreading a Russian propaganda video about Ukrainian soldiers, and sharing a fake statement about the death of former President Jimmy Carter.
This isn't the first time in recent weeks that Capitol Hill Republicans have made a spectacle of fake resignation letters for longtime government bureaucrats.
Freshman GOP class president Brandon Gill wrote up his own fake letter which he made seem to have been written by NPR CEO Katherine Maher, amid Republican attempts to get her resign her post.
. @krmaher, I went ahead and wrote your letter of resignation for you—all you have to do is sign it. pic.twitter.com/llB1gU1GLU
— Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) July 18, 2025
Gill told Maher that all she had to do was sign the letter. Republicans on Capitol Hill voted in favor of $9 billion in cuts to public media funding last week. Impacted organizations include NPR, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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