Michigan native slammed by calls after Trump campaign shares wrong phone number

A Michigan native who now lives in California has been bombarded by calls and texts after President Trump’s campaign mistakenly shared their phone number instead of the number of a Michigan state lawmaker in a post on social media.

O Rose told The Washington Post that their phone began ringing nonstop on Sunday after Trump’s reelection campaign shared a post on Twitter and Facebook urging supporters to contact Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) and former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R), whom the campaign mistakenly identified as the current Speaker, to demand a vote to decertify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state in the race for the White House.

The campaign, however, gave the wrong phone number for Chatfield — sharing Rose’s phone number on both social media platforms.

Rose’s story was first reported by the Petoskey News-Review. They said that they have received thousands of angry calls and text messages from people across the country.

“My phone can’t even take it anymore — it’s breaking,” Rose told the Post. “I was getting so many calls it was impossible to do anything with my phone.”

Although they initially began answering the calls and attempting to explain the mistake, Rose said that many callers were aggressive and did not believe them when they said they are not associated with Chatfield.

Rose said they began responding to text messages with memes, photos of rabbits, pie recipes and more. 

“For some reason, even though I send them some ridiculous things, they still think I’m Lee [Chatfield] and they still keep trying to tell me what they want and they say, ‘I’m sending this to the president!’ ” Rose told the Post, adding that, although they have tried to contact the Trump campaign to edit or delete the social media posts, they plan to change their phone number on Tuesday.

“I’m being personally affected by a decision that [Trump] made without fact-checking, and that’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard,” Rose added.

Rose told the outlet that they figured out the mistake after a friend of their father’s sent them a text believing it was the phone number of the Michigan state representative. 

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.