'Rent Free' Alert! L.A. Times' O.J. Simpson Obituary Temporarily Made It About Trump

Doug P. | 3:42 PM on April 11, 2024

What's a possible sign that an L.A. Times writer might have a certain former president and current presidential candidate living in their head rent-free?

When you've "accidentally" used the name Trump instead of the name of the person you're writing the obituary for:

LA Times inserts Trump’s name into OJ Simpson story by “mistake”.
Has to make corrections. pic.twitter.com/2ZEAGttdKJ
— Big Fish (@BigFish3000) April 11, 2024

😬 LA Times accidentally uses the name "Trump" in place of "Simpson" near the end of their obit: https://t.co/BVoH4fYKQz pic.twitter.com/Y5qLS6EN23
— Zack Stanton (@zackstanton) April 11, 2024

The section of the obituary in question was about Simpson's prison term, which was where the name Trump was used instead:

The Los Angeles Times used the former president's name in a prewritten obituary, which media outlets typically have at the ready for celebrities, political figures and other noteworthy individuals, instead of using Simpson's name in a published version that was quickly corrected.
"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 nine years," the obituary initially read upon publication. "He didn’t go far, moving into a 5,000-square-foot home in Las Vegas with a Bentley in the driveway."

Perhaps somebody was trying to get a laugh around the newsroom but forgot to fix it before publication.