Fact Check: Did Charles Krauthammer Write an Op-Ed Arguing for ‘Trump the Pragmatist’?

The Courier-Tribune of Asheboro, North Carolina, posted an op-ed on Wednesday titled “A different take on Trump the pragmatist” that it credited to Charles Krauthammer, along with an editor’s note claiming that “Krauthammer is back on a partial basis after taking time off for surgery.”

Krauthammer, however, is not the author of this essay. The piece was written by Mychal Massie in January 2016 and posted on his personal blog at the time. Since then, the article has been misattributed to Krauthammer several times.

TWS Fact Check reached out to the Courier-Tribune, and a representative said they had been informed that the op-ed was not from Krauthammer and had deleted the post (a process, they said, which can take a few hours to entirely remove the post from the website).

The false op-ed attribution has also circulated on Facebook recently, with certain online discussion groups misattributing the essay to Krauthammer.

Readers should disregard the editor’s note and essay from the Courier-Tribune.

If you have questions about this fact check, or would like to submit a request for another fact check, email Holmes Lybrand at [email protected] or the Weekly Standard at [email protected]. For details on TWS Fact Check, see our explainer here.

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