For a few fleeting moments on Election Day, it appeared as though Donald Trump’s website had been hacked to display a poop emoji—and a message declaring in all caps “HILLARY WINS.”
In a sense, it was. Someone figured out a way to generate new webpages on Trump’s site by manipulating its URL structure. The new pages are “real,” in that they do exist, as Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Parker Higgens was quick to clarify, but Trump’s campaign was not responsible for their creation, and the actual content on the page hasn’t been changed. It just’s a new banner over the same archive of press releases.
Lots of folks sharing images of 💩 on Trump's site. It's "real," but that page just puts the URL in the header https://t.co/AtEYTyvOqN pic.twitter.com/ZCwk2xDR1Y
— Parker Higgins (@xor) November 8, 2016
Even still, it’s a lot of fun to play with a great stress reliever.
It's ridiculously easy to 'hack' Donald Trump's website: pic.twitter.com/KZMIL3y6Qn
— Austin Powell (@_AustinPowell) November 8, 2016
It’s ridiculously easy to do. Just type your message after the following URL: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/archive/
Then separating each word with “%20”.
So, if you want the website to say “PLEASE DEAR GOD LET THIS ELECTION END,” your URL should be: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/archive/please%20%dear%20god%20let%20this%20election%20end
Screengrab via Donald Trump
Got it? Let’s try again just for practice. Here’s how the URL should look to display “TRUMPSTER FIRE”: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/archive/trumpster%20fire
Screengrab via Donald Trump
Now go out there and make Trump’s website great again.