A photo circulating online appears to show a young Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) in his high school yearbook praising “Sir-Mixes-a-Lot,” a misspelled reference to popular 90s rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot.
In a tweet this week, which has been viewed more than 3.2 million times, a user named Luke Barnett shared the picture alongside a caption stating that DeSantis’ remark should “automatically disqualify” him from running for public office.
The quote by DeSantis, pictured under his yearbook photo, states: “My Mount Rushmore is Jesus, Sir-Mixes-a-Lot, and Nintendo 64.”
The photo quickly led to mockery and criticism not only of the quote but of DeSantis himself.
“I’ve never seen a more punchable face in my life,” one user said.
Others noted that Mount Rushmore features the faces of four people, not three, making the remark from DeSantis even more incorrect.
“Not only is it wrong, but there’s only three things listed for his Mount Rushmore,” another added.
But many were skeptical of the photo’s legitimacy, and with good reason. Numerous users noted that the quality of the picture and the text below it appeared vastly different.
“This looks fake af,” one user wrote. “That text is too clear for a photo that old and pixelated.”
While the majority of commenters appeared to believe that the quote was legitimate, it turns out that the image was in fact manipulated.
The original image, as recently noted by Forbes, first appeared on Reddit in April and featured no quote at all.
“I went to high school with Ronald DeSantis and found my yearbooks,” the user wrote.
A disclaimer has since been placed on the viral tweet noting that the image is fake.
The image comes amid attempts by DeSantis to secure the Republican presidential nomination ahead of the 2024 election. Aside from being unpopular among supporters of former President Donald Trump, many of the Florida governor’s policies have made him even more unpopular than many other conservatives among left-wing voters.
