Truth behind the Donald Trump quote from 1998 that's rapidly going viral

On Tuesday, Donald Trump was elected the next president. Soon after, an apparent quote from a 1998 issue of People Magazine went viral on the Internet:

Credit: The Other 98%

In the quote, Trump calls voters the "dumbest group of voters in the country." He continued, saying that they'd believe anything Fox broadcasts.

Trump's alleged words began circulating the online sphere in October 2015, when Trump's campaign was beginning to be taken seriously. It has a watermark for The Other 98%, a popular left-leaning Facebook page, though New York Magazine reports that the above photo has now been removed from the page.

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As it turns out, though, the lines have been proven fake.

According to fact-checking site Snopes, they found no record of Trump saying this in 1998 or any other time according to their research.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Trump had talked about politics and the Republican party. For example, in 1988 he told Oprah he "probably" would never run for office. Eleven years later, he told Larry King that he was considering a political run, and that he was a registered Republican.

He has not, however, said those particular words bashing the party.

The image on the photo was from the 1988 Oprah interview:

Snopes also pointed out that in 1998, Fox News was not prominently watched. It was not known as the network it is today.