Republican Congressman George Santos left social media users confused after he claimed that Democrats were trying to ban toilet paper.
Mr Santos told his Twitter followers that Republicans were "working to put Americans First" and to "lower the cost of living."
Those noble works stood in contrast to what Mr Santos believes Democrats are doing, which includes "trying to ban toilet paper and gas stoves."
Conservatives on social media and cable news had a minor freakout in January after a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission spoke with Bloomberg about the health risks associated with gas stoves. He was quoted saying that a prohibition on gas stoves was "on the table" — a statement the commission later said was not true — and triggered a meltdown.
In that instance, the explosive response was at least attributable to a serious statement made a regulatory head.
However, there has never been an effort to prohibit toilet paper in either the Congress or any state legislature. Big Bidet has never seriously challenged TP's dominance in US restrooms, and certainly never at the legislative level.
So, where did Mr Santos get the idea that Democrats were trying to ban toilet paper?
The freshman congressman is perhaps best known for the many, ridiculous lies he told to fool his constituents about his life and credentials. In this instance, however, it seems Mr Santos is the one who has been fooled.
New York City Councilman Erik Bottcher issued a fake press release on 1 April claiming the city would move to ban toilet paper and other single-use paper products like paper towels and tissues.
"I don’t know about you, but my dream is to live in a world where people look at a roll of toilet paper and say, ‘What is that?’” the fake press release said. It also included a reference to a bogus activist group called the "Coalition Against Kleenex" led by someone named "Scottie Cotton."
Mr Bottcher represents Manhattan, and Mr Santos serves New York's 3rd district, meaning its entirely possible the Republican congressman saw the fake tweet.
The city councilman has no doubt Mr Santos stumbled upon his joke and took it to heart.
"He fell for it big-time," Mr Bottcher told Yahoo News.
The councilman left a response for Mr Santos on his tweet about Democrats and toilet paper.
"Our quest to ban toilet paper may have gone too far," he wrote.
He told the news outlet that he intentionally tried to pick something so absurd that no one would fall for the joke.
"I thought long and hard about the best April Fools’ joke to do, and I picked something that I thought was so outlandish that no reasonable person would actually believe it,” he told Yahoo News.
