People are falling for a made-up excerpt from the bombshell Trump book that involves him watching 'the gorilla channel'

People are falling for a made-up story about President Donald Trump spending hours a day watching "the gorilla channel."
The fake story, which is formatted as an excerpt from a recent bombshell book on the Trump White House, is going viral on Twitter.

A tweet from the parody account @pixelatedboat with a fabricated excerpt that it claimed was from Michael Wolff's bombshell new book on the Trump administration, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," went viral on Thursday night.

The excerpt says President Donald Trump often spends 17 hours a day watching a makeshift "gorilla channel" put together by his aides.

"On his first night in the White House, President Trump complained that the TV in his bedroom was broken, because it didn't have 'the gorilla channel,'" the excerpt began. "Trump seemed to be under the impression that a TV channel existed that screened nothing but gorilla-based content, 24 hours a day.

"To appease Trump, White House staff compiled a number of gorilla documentaries into a makeshift gorilla channel, broadcast into Trump's bedroom from a hastily-constructed transmission tower on the South Lawn. However, Trump was unhappy with the channel they had created, moaning that it was 'boring' because 'the gorillas aren't fighting.'"

It continued: "Staff edited out all the parts of the documentaries where gorillas weren't hitting each other, and at last the president was satisfied. 'On some days he'll watch the gorilla channel for 17 hours straight,' an insider told me. 'He kneels in front of the TV, with his face about four inches from the screen, and says encouraging things to the gorillas, like 'the way you hit that other gorilla was good.' I think he thinks the gorillas can hear him."

It was entirely fake. And people ate it up.

By Friday afternoon, more than 14,000 people had retweeted the excerpt. The account's previous claim to fame was creating the "milkshake duck" viral meme.

Meanwhile, Wolff's actual book contains several claims that appear outrageous on the surface. Though Wolff has forcefully stood by its content, reporters and — much more so — the White House have expressed skepticism.

Wow, this extract from Wolf... @ the gorilla channel thing is a joke

tfw you parody a guy making... @ the gorilla channel thing is a joke

Even the account's announcing the tweet was made up and changing its name to "the gorilla channel thing is a joke" didn't stop some from running with the fabrication.

@pixelatedboat He fucking h... @ Vote or GTFO

@pixelatedboat This is scar... @ Cheri DelBrocco

#emo#The gorillas aren#emo#t fighti... @ Zaki Hasan

Even some prominent Twitter users were torn on whether it was real, while others fully went with it.

I#emo#m sorry I have a question... @ Farhad Manjoo (feat. Drake)

i concede the first point a... @ Don Cheadle

#FireandFury on Donald Trum... @ Ian Fraser

Wait a minute. The gorilla ... @ Dan Saltzstein

I can't believe people are ... @ Will Sommer

Upon finding out that they had been duped, some lashed out, while others conceded.

Don#emo#t tweet screenshots of ... @ Farhad Manjoo (feat. Drake)

Dammit guys, I got totally ... @ Eric Garland