Critics See Outlet's Mix-Up Of Trump For O.J. Simpson As Sign Of Ex-President's Legal Future

In April 2024, O.J. Simpson died at 76 years old following his prostate cancer diagnosis. When the Los Angeles Times published an obituary for the late Simpson, they made a glaring error: they originally switched Simpson's name with Donald Trump's name when describing Simpson leaving prison in 2017. A screenshot of the typo was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, and the mistake read: "Long before the city woke up on a fall morning in 2017, Trump walked out of Lovelock Correctional Center outside Reno, a free man for the first time in 9 years."

After the typo was discovered, the L.A. Times switched "Trump" for "Simpson" and included a note, timestamped April 11, 2024 at 2:39 p.m., explaining what happened. However, Trump's critics felt the mistake was a sign, especially after his mounting lawsuits.

The post on X sharing the original typo included one reply that simply said, "Freudian slip," referring to a phenomenon where someone misspeaks and it's indicative of their subconscious thoughts or feelings. Another said, "A slip from an alternative universe? Let's all manifest it to make it happen!"

The tweet sharing the typo in O.J. Simpson's L.A. Times obituary received more comments from Donald Trump critics, who weere loving it and hoping it would come true one day. However, Trump supporters were angered by the mistake, with one saying, "Fire the editor."

It was likely nothing more than a harmless mistake, possibly due to all the news coverage of Trump's legal troubles. All of the criminal cases against him include prison time as a possible sentence, depending on the ruling. 

For instance, Trump's hush money case includes 34 counts of falsifying business records, which can mean up to four years in prison, according to AP News. Since they are "Class E felonies" per USA Today, the maximum prison sentence would be 20 years (i.e., the judge could not multiply 34 by four to give Trump a 136-year sentence). Trump also could just receive probation instead, or if he gets elected president and is sentenced to prison time, he may not have to serve the time until after his presidential term.