Donald Trump Jr’s X account briefly hacked, claims father died

The account of Donald Trump Jr. on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, was briefly hacked early on Wednesday, sending a series of offensive tweets, including one falsely announcing the death of his father, former president Donald Trump.

“I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024,” read the first message from Donald Trump Jr’s account at 8:25 a.m.

Proving he was still alive, the 77-year-old former president sent an unrelated message on his own X rival, Truth Social at 8:46 am -- more than 20 minutes after the fake death announcement, the New York Post reported.

A series of obviously hacked messages quickly followed on Donald Jr’s account, including an inflammatory one saying that “North Korea is about to get smoked”, and another pretending to show Donald Jr saying he had “some interesting messages with Jeffrey Epstein”, more than four years after the paedophile died in his Manhattan lockup.

Other tweets on his account read “F–k Joe Biden”, calling him a “stupid ass” n-word, and another claiming crypto personality Richard Heart, who was accused of stealing $12 million from investors, is innocent.

The tweets have now been deleted and the account restored.

The Trump Organisation did not immediately respond to a request for comment early on Wednesday, the report said.