State Department employee changes Trump’s term end date on website

The changes to the president's biography set social media abuzz

Jan 11, 2021

Trump supporters have questions for the U.S. State Department after the biographical pages for President Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence were changed on Monday.

As it turns out, a disgruntled employee reportedly edited the pages at the State Department’s website, which noted an end to Trump’s term in office, BuzzFeed reports.

“Donald J. Trump’s term ended on 2021-01-11 19:39:22,” his biography page declared. A similar change was made to Pence’s biography page — see screenshots of the pages below.

“It’s 100%, not a hack,” a diplomat told Buzzfeed.

The changes to the biographies set social media abuzz, prompting their immediate take down.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reportedly ordered an investigation into how the edits on the State Department’s website were made.

“It could have been a bunch of people, but was likely a lower level technical staffer,” a former State Department official told the Washington Examiner.

The edits come nine days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, and less than a week after Trump incited a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol that resulted in 5 deaths, including one Capitol police officer.

Several Republicans and Democrats support impeaching the president for a second time. Many have called on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the former reality television star from office.

In a letter, lawmakers have reportedly called on Pompeo to condemn Trump’s role in the violent attempt to takeover the U.S. government last week.

“It is critical that we communicate to the world that in our system, no one — not even the President — is above the law or immune from public criticism,” the memo said.

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