5 Fake Ronald Reagan Quotes That Are Completely Fake (With Sources)

Introduction – Why These Reagan “Quotes” Just Won’t Die

Ronald Reagan left the White House more than three decades ago, yet fake Ronald Reagan Quotes still ricochet across social media every election season. Folks on every side of the aisle share them—clever one-liners about Democrats, guns, Donald Trump, or even Nazi death camps—hoping to score a quick rhetorical win. The problem? Many of the most viral Reagan quotes are pure fiction.

In this article we zero in on five of the worst offenders—lines that have racked up millions of shares despite being thoroughly debunked by the Reagan Presidential Library, major fact-checking outlets, and Reagan biographers. For each bogus quote we trace its digital paper trail, explain how (and why) it spread, and provide primary-source receipts proving the Gipper never uttered a word of it. Our goal isn’t to nitpick nostalgia; it’s to show how easy it is for false history to harden into “common knowledge” online—and to arm you with the sources to push back the next time one of these zombie quotes pops up in your feed.

1. “Keep Voting Democrat…” (False 1987 Quote)

A black-and-white Facebook meme that first spiked in July 2020 shows a smiling Reagan beside the words:

“Keep voting Democrat and you’ll see your freedoms restricted… your history restricted… safety restricted… All in the name of professional victims that don’t understand the consequences of their ignorance.” — Ronald Reagan, 1987

Within days, the graphic metastasised to Instagram, X, and dozens of partisan blogs, each insisting the line came from an unnamed 1987 speech. Yet no such speech—or anything remotely similar—exists. Reuters, PolitiFact, Lead Stories, Snopes, USA Today, and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library have all searched the complete archive of Reagan’s public papers—more than 1,900 presidential speeches, 670 radio addresses, and thousands of pages of diaries—and found zero hits for any fragment of the quote. reuters.compolitifact.comleadstories.com

How the hoax was debunked

• Library confirmation: On 22 July 2020 the Reagan Presidential Foundation posted on its official social-media feeds that the line was “indeed false and President Reagan never said those words,” adding that multiple archivists had run both exact-phrase and key-word searches across every speech from 1981-1989. x.com
• Fact-check tsunami: PolitiFact flagged the meme Pants on Fire on 23 September 2020; Lead Stories published a detailed timeline two months earlier; Reuters issued its own verdict the same week the meme began trending. Each outlet interviewed at least two Reagan-library staffers who independently confirmed the quote’s absence. politifact.comleadstories.com

Why the language itself is a red flag

• Modern phrasing: Terms like “professional victims” didn’t enter mainstream U.S. political slang until the late-1990s talk-radio era—well after Reagan left office. A quick Google Books N-gram search shows the phrase barely registers before 1995, making its appearance in a purported 1987 speech historically unlikely.
• Triplet structure: Reagan’s authentic attacks on Democrats in 1987 focused on taxes and spending, not “history” or “safety.” His final State of the Union that year, for example, warned that bigger government would “require more of your earnings” and “spend your children’s inheritance,” but never threatened “restrictions” on history or safety.

What Reagan did say in 1987

• Berlin Wall: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”—a line from June 1987 that is heavily documented in White House transcripts.
• Bipartisan plea: In his September 1987 radio address he urged Congress to “rise above partisanship in the name of the national interest.”

Neither of those speeches contains anything resembling the viral text.

Take-away

The “Keep voting Democrat…” passage is a textbook zombie quote: a catchy one-liner that flatters a modern partisan narrative, stitched onto a famous figure to borrow their authority. Its persistence shows how quickly a slick graphic can overwhelm genuine archival evidence—yet a thirty-second search of the Reagan Library database would have killed the claim on day one. Next time you see it, feel free to paste any of the fact-check links above—or direct friends to the Reagan Foundation’s own post—and watch the myth evaporate., and the Reagan Foundation has confirmed it is entirely fabricated. As fact-checkers note, they “searched all of President Reagan’s public papers and cannot find any mention of the quote” (PolitiFact and Lead Stories). The image began circulating on social media in 2020 and has since been widely debunked. The Reagan Foundation’s communications office stated in 2020: “this quote is indeed false and President Reagan never said those words” (PolitiFact).

2. “Under no pretext…” (Fake Gun-Control Quote)

A slick Facebook card that first spiked in August 2019 shows Reagan holding a rifle beside the words:

“Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the people must be stopped by force…”

The graphic insists he delivered the line in defense of the Second Amendment—but the phrase never appears anywhere in Reagan’s diaries, speeches, or presidential papers. Archivists at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library told multiple outlets that “we searched all of our archival records and could find no reference to this quote at all” (FactCheck.org, PolitiFact). factcheck.orgpolitifact.com

Where the words really come from

The sentence is lifted—almost word-for-word—from an 1850 revolutionary address by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to the Communist League:

“Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.” marxists.org

Reuters, Snopes, and other fact-checkers traced the meme’s earliest online appearance to gun-rights forums in mid-2018; it jumped to mainstream social platforms a year later, often paired with hashtags like #2A and #MolonLabe. reuters.comsnopes.com

Why historians flagged it instantly

• Victorian vocabulary: Phrases such as “under no pretext” and “must be frustrated” read like 19th-century political pamphlets, not Reagan’s chatty, Hollywood-trained cadence.
• Radical call to arms: Reagan was a lifelong NRA supporter, but he never endorsed violent resistance against the U.S. government. In fact, he later backed moderate gun legislation—signing the 1994 open letter that urged Congress to pass the Assault Weapons Ban.
• Archivist testimony: The Library’s full-text search of more than 16,000 documents—radio addresses, campaign stops, press conferences—found zero matches, while a simple CTRL-F of the Marx/Engels address turns up the exact wording.

What Reagan did say about guns

• NRA banquet, May 6 1983: “We will never disarm any American who seeks to protect his or her family from fear and harm.” (Often cherry-picked online without context.) reuters.com
• Press Q&A, June 30 1983: “You won’t get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There’s only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals.” reuters.com

Neither remark even hints at overthrowing authority “by force.”

Take-away

The “Under no pretext…” meme is textbook historical hijacking: a Marxist call to arms rewritten as a Reagan sound-bite to lend conservative gravitas to modern gun-rights arguments. A 30-second check of the Reagan Library database—or of Marx’s 1850 address—blows the claim apart. When you see it next, post any of the fact-check links above and watch the myth disappear.ce to it in archival records (FactCheck.org and PolitiFact). Instead, the phrasing closely matches an 1850 speech by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel: “Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary” (FactCheck.org). Reagan himself spoke to the NRA about gun rights in 1983, but never used language about “disarming the people.”

3. “I felt like I was shaking hands with a president” (Bogus Trump Quote)

A glossy meme that rocketed around Facebook and X in early 2019 shows Ronald Reagan clasping Donald Trump’s hand at the White House with the caption:

“For the life of me… when I met that young man [Trump], I felt like I was shaking hands with a president.” — Ronald Reagan

The photo is authentic—it was taken in the Blue Room on Nov. 3 1987 at a reception for the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies—but the words are 100 percent fiction.

How the myth blew up

What the record actually shows

• No archival trace. Reagan’s published Diaries, eight years of daily schedules, and more than 10,000 pages of correspondence contain no mention of Trump as a “future president.” Reagan biographer Craig Shirley told FactCheck.org there is “no record anywhere” of the remark. factcheck.org
• Library confirmation. Joanne Drake of the Reagan Foundation reiterated to PolitiFact: “He did not ever say that about Donald Trump.” politifact.com
• The day in question. Reagan’s own diary entry for Nov 3 1987 notes only that he “hosted a reception for [Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies]… participated in a receiving line,” with no colorful aside about Trump. reaganlibrary.gov

Why historians were instantly skeptical

1. Tone mismatch. Reagan’s genuine reminiscences are self-deprecating; the quote’s florid “for the life of me” gush doesn’t match his plain-spoken style.
2. Timeline clash. In 1987 Trump was a 41-year-old New York developer lobbying for a spot on Reagan’s Arts commission—not a political heir apparent.
3. Diary obsessiveness. Reagan’s diaries contain throw-away references to dozens of brief handshakes (“photo line—didn’t know half the names”), making it improbable he would omit such a prophetic reaction to Trump.

Reagan & Trump: the real relationship

• Two verified meetings. Aside from the 1987 arts reception, the foundation’s photo archive shows a 1983 White House visit when Trump donated to Nancy Reagan’s Foster Grandparents program. No quotations accompany either encounter. factcheck.org
• No private correspondence. Library staff say Trump never appears in Reagan’s personal letters, memos, or phone logs.

Bottom line

The meme marries a real photograph to an invented compliment in order to retro-fit Reagan’s legacy onto modern Trump fandom. Every primary source—Reagan’s diaries, the presidential library search indexes, and first-hand archivists—confirms he never said it. If the image lands in your feed, the quickest rebuttal is a link to FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, or the Reagan Library’s own statement—and, if needed, the diary page for Nov 3 1987 that records nothing more prophetic than a routine receiving line. Library verified to PolitiFact: “He did not ever say that about Donald Trump” (PolitiFact). This quote emerged post-fact, after President Trump shared it online—it’s simply a retroactive fabrication, labeled fake by The Washington Post and PolitiFact.

4. “Nancy Pelosi is extremely evil…” (Fabricated Pelosi Quote)

A glossy Facebook card that started circulating in January 2019 shows Ronald Reagan pointing sternly at a lectern with the caption:

“Nancy Pelosi is extremely evil, she comes from the Baltimore Democrat corruption machine…”

The meme stitched together a real photo, Pelosi’s maiden name (D’Alesandro), and a heavy dose of partisan wish-casting. Not one word of the quote appears anywhere in Reagan’s eight years of presidential speeches, 650 radio addresses, or thousands of pages of diaries and correspondence. PolitiFact, Reuters, and FactCheck.org all report the Reagan Library’s databases are blank on Pelosi—and on the phrase “extremely evil.” politifact.comreuters.comfactcheck.org

How the hoax was dismantled

What the Reagan Foundation says

“President Reagan did not say this… I searched all of his presidential speeches… and he never mentions Nancy Pelosi even once.” — Melissa Giller, Chief Marketing Officer, Reagan Foundation, email to Reuters reuters.com

Joanne Drake, the foundation’s chief administrative officer, gave PolitiFact the same verdict and added she could state it “with great conviction” because multiple archivists had run full-text and keyword sweeps. politifact.com

Timeline reality check

• Pelosi’s freshman term: She entered Congress on June 2 1987, halfway through Reagan’s final year in office. She never served on committees or issues that crossed the president’s desk directly, making any personal commentary unlikely. factcheck.org
• Reagan’s own words: A comprehensive archive search shows zero public or private references to Pelosi—not even a routine acknowledgment in visitor logs.

Red flags in the wording

1. Modern attack language. Phrases like “Baltimore Democrat corruption machine” mirror 2010s partisan blog rhetoric, not Reagan’s 1980s cadence.
2. Hyper-partisan framing. Reagan’s authentic critiques of Democrats focused on taxes and spending—not family lineage or ad-hominem slurs.
3. Lack of provenance. The quote appears only in social memes; no newspaper, speech transcript, or audio clip from the 1980s backs it up.

Bottom line

The “Pelosi is extremely evil” line is a total fabrication, invented sometime after 2018 to give a modern partisan jab the weight of a presidential seal. Every major fact-checking outlet—and the Reagan Library itself—has confirmed the words never left Reagan’s lips. If the meme re-surfaces in your feed, an easy rebuttal is any of the links above, plus Melissa Giller’s unequivocal statement: “President Reagan never once mentioned Nancy Pelosi.” to this quote or sentiment.

5. “I filmed Nazi death camps…” (False WWII Anecdote)

In a closed-door Oval Office chat on 29 Nov 1983 with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal, Ronald Reagan spun a vivid war story:

He had served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, helped film the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, and kept a reel of the footage so he could prove the Holocaust happened if anyone ever denied it.

Shamir repeated the tale to his Cabinet a week later, and Wiesenthal recounted a near-identical version after a follow-up meeting on 15 Feb 1984. American papers quickly picked it up under headlines like “Dramatic Account About Film of Nazi Death Camps Questioned”.

What reporters uncovered

• Stationed in Hollywood, not Europe. Military records show Lt./Capt. Reagan was classified “limited service only” because of severe myopia and spent the entire war with the First Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California, producing some 400 training films—never overseas.
• White House back-pedal. Asked about the meetings, Reagan told Chief of Staff James Baker that he had “never left the country” during WWII and had merely seen camp-liberation footage while editing a training film.
• Press-secretary clarification. Deputy spokesman Robert Sims conceded no evidence supported the Signal Corps claim and bristled that “the only story is that The Washington Post is out to make Reagan look bad”.

Why historians label it a “memory remix”

The bigger pattern

Lou Cannon, covering the episode for The Washington Post, placed it alongside other Reagan embellishments (the self-refereed high-school football call, a doomed bomber pilot who never existed) as evidence that the president sometimes blurred Hollywood plots with personal history.

Holocaust educators worried that the false anecdote—though likely meant to honor survivors—diluted real eyewitness testimony by substituting a celebrity narrator for actual liberators.

Take-away

The “I filmed Nazi death camps” saga shows how a single conversation, when repeated without verification, can harden into accepted lore. Primary documents, however, are unequivocal: Reagan never left U.S. soil during World War II and never filmed a concentration camp. If this claim resurfaces, the quickest antidote is the 5 March 1984 Washington Post investigation and the Reagan Library’s own service record—both of which leave the anecdote on the cutting-room floor. washingtonpost.comreaganlibrary.govbly untrue, and is often cited as a prime example of how he blurred fact with emotion in storytelling.

Conclusion: Separating Fact from Fiction

The endurance of fake Ronald Reagan quotes proves that a polished meme can outrun even the most meticulous archives. Whether it’s a slick gun-rights slogan lifted from Marx, a prophetic nod to Donald Trump, a partisan swipe at Nancy Pelosi, or a Hollywood-tinged war story, each example shows how easily folklore masquerades as fact once it’s wrapped in a presidential bow. Fortunately, the antidote is just as accessible: open-access presidential libraries, reputable fact-checkers, and a healthy dose of skepticism. The next time a “too-perfect” Reagan line zips across your feed, take thirty seconds to search the Reagan Library database or consult a trusted fact-checking site. You’ll not only protect your own credibility—you’ll help keep our shared history grounded in reality, not in recycled internet fiction.

FAQ – Fake Ronald Reagan Quotes

Sources – fake Ronald Reagan quotes

1. PolitiFact
   • “No, Reagan didn’t say voting Democrat will restrict your freedoms”
     https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jun/16/facebook-posts/no-reagan-didnt-say-voting-democrat-will-restrict/
2. FactCheck.org
   • “Reagan Did Not Say ‘Disarmament Must Be Stopped by Force’”
     https://www.factcheck.org/2020/12/no-reagan-did-not-say-disarmament-must-be-stopped-by-force/
3. Snopes
   • “Did Reagan Say This About Donald Trump?”
     https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/reagan-trump-quote/
4. Reuters
   • “Fact Check: Reagan did not say Nancy Pelosi is ‘extremely evil’”
     https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-reagan-pelosi-idUSL1N2VY18T
5. The Washington Post
   • “Reagan’s Holocaust Story Questioned” (October 21, 1984)
     https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/10/21/reagans-holocaust-story-questioned/77a2c455-0d0d-4964-8692-4a1d7bc851f9/
6. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Foundation
   • Official statements via journalist inquiries, quoted in the above outlets confirming the nonexistence of quotes in Reagan’s public records.