“Ted Cruz just fell for Twitter’s oldest hoax”: Republican mocked after being duped by fake meme

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Monday fell for an obvious hoax by a troll who posted a 12-year-old fake photo of a shark swimming on a highway and claimed it was a photo from Los Angeles amid tropical storm Hilary. “Holy crap,” Cruz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, sharing a satirical post by Barstool Sports host Big Cat. Readers appended a fact-check to the post, explaining that the fake photo first appeared online in 2011 after Hurricane Irene hit Puerto Rico and has since made the rounds following subsequent hurricanes. “I’m told this is a joke,” Cruz tweeted after coming under fire for sharing the obviously fake photo. “In LA, you never know.”

“Ted Cruz just fell for Twitter’s oldest hoax: the shark on the highway,” mocked NBC News reporter Ben Collins. “This man is a senator,” wrote columnist David Weissman. “If he falls for this think of all the other things Ted Cruz falls for,” added columnist Molly Jong-Fast.