Trump’s Campaign Website Briefly Taken Over by Hackers

Donald Trump‘s campaign website appeared to be temporarily overrun by hackers Tuesday. 

“This site was seized,” a message read across the top of the donaldjtrump.com “About” page. “The world has had enough of the fake news spreaded daily by President Donald J Trump. It is time to allow the world to know the truth.” 

The hackers accuse “trump-gov” of being involved with the origin of the coronavirus and claim to be in possession of evidence that could discredit Trump. There was also a demand for payment in the form of cryptocurrency, specifically Monero, which TechCrunch describes as a method “that’s easy to send but quite difficult to track.” 

The site was briefly taken offline before returning back to its original content shortly thereafter. 

Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh told NBC News the “website was defaced and we are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack. There was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site. The website has been restored.” 

As the Trump campaign reaches the home stretch in his bid for re-election, they are reportedly facing financial issues, which has forced them to heavily rely upon the assistance of the Republican National Committee. Even with the RNC’s help, the Trump campaign will only spend $2.9 million in ad dollars in the final week for Florida, a potential make-or-break state for his run at a second term. In comparison, Joe Biden and the DNC will be shelling out around $6.8 million in advertising.