Ted Cruz fooled by fake Hurricane Hilary shark meme

US Senator Ted Cruz was fooled by a fake picture from the flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Hilary and people are gobsmacked.

On Sunday (20 August), Tropical Storm Hilary became the first storm in 84 years to hit the Southern California area.

It left a deluge of rainfall in Los Angeles and across the southern Californian deserts causing flooding and sparking a host of new jokes and memes that seem to have tripped up Cruz.

One such joke was shared by one X (formerly Twitter) user who posted a fake picture of a shark appearing to be swimming down a flooded road.

They wrote in the caption: “Friend of mine out in LA just took this picture on the 405. And yes, all news and media outlets you have permission to use this. Wild.”

The community notes later explained that the picture was a “digital hoax” that had been mocked up from a real image a kayaker took of a great white shark trailing them. It first appeared online in 2011 in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene in Puerto Rico.

Despite the hoax being more than 10 years old, it didn’t stop it from fooling the Texas Senator, who reposted the tweet, writing: “Holy crap.”

Later, Cruz revealed that he had been told it was a hoax, adding: “I’m told this is a joke. In LA, you never know…”

People expressed concern that a sitting Senator was able to fall for something so easily.

One person questioned: “If he falls for this think of all the other things Ted Cruz falls for.”

Another said: “We are governed by people who get duped by hoaxes so old they have their own Wikipedia page.”

“Thinking this was real should get you expelled from public office,” someone else suggested.

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