A newspaper article authentically reported that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had to undergo a stomach pump after ingesting horse semen.
In August 2024, a rumor circulated online that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had to undergo a stomach pump after ingesting horse semen as a dare. It appears to have originated on Reddit and was posted in the subreddit r/AskALiberal. The account has since deleted the post.
The claim made its way to X, where it also quickly gained popularity. A post showing an image of what looked like a newspaper article about the alleged incident has been viewed more than 3.8 million times at the time of writing.
(X-Account @ImMeme0)
The article began:
“Local gets stomachache after neighborhood car goes wrong”
Nebraska man hospitalized after unusual incident of overeating
August 30, 1995 West Point NE
In a bizarre and unprecedented medical emergency, West Point, Nebraska resident Tim Walz was admitted to West Point General Hospital last night after allegedly ingesting too much horse semen. The incident, which left the community in shock and disbelief, sparked discussions about the dangers of consuming unconventional substances.
At around 11 p.m., emergency services were called to Mr. Walz’s apartment after he began experiencing severe abdominal pain and discomfort. According to paramedics on site, Mr. Walz was conscious but in severe discomfort and had to be taken to hospital immediately.
We investigated the story and the alleged newspaper clipping and found that both were completely fake and the clipping was likely created using artificial intelligence.
Although West Point is a real city in Nebraska and Walz’s birthplace, at the time the article was supposedly written, Walz was a high school teacher in Alliance, Nebraska, which is over a five-hour drive from West Point.
Second, while there is indeed a West Point News, there is no West Point Daily News. Furthermore, we have found no record of the existence of a West Point General Hospital.
Third, the photo used in the story is likely Walz’s portrait taken during his time as a high school teacher in Nebraska. Contrary to what the source says, Reuters never published the photo.
Finally, we ran the entire text of the article through several AI text recognition apps – including QuillBot, ZeroGPT, and GPTZero – and found that the article is 86 to 100 percent AI-generated.
In summary, we rate this claim as “False” because the details of the story are not based on facts and the story itself was likely created using artificial intelligence.
