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A video attacking former President Donald Trump has gone viral across social media platforms. In the video that seems to have originated from a Ron DeSantis support page, the former can be seen embracing and kissing former White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci. However, the video is not real and was created using artificial intelligence technology.
The video originated from the “De Santis War Room” Twitter account, which was created by the presidential candidate’s political aide Christina Pushaw. The page came into being last August and has garnered a massive following of 100.9K followers. In the video, which has garnered nearly 7.5 million views, the former POTUS can be seen with Anthony Fauci.
The clip begins with Donald Trump firing contestants during his time as a reality television show host. The video proceeds with the former president explaining why Fauci will not be dismissed. Speaking about Fauci, Trump says in the fake video:
“I’m not firing him. I think he’s a wonderful guy. “Should you have fired Fauci?” A lot of people ask me that question... because if you do fire him, you’re going to have a firestorm on the left again. Why?... First of all, you’re not allowed to... every time he goes on television, there’s always a bomb. But there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him. Frankly, you can’t win that one.”
The video shows certain real instances of Fauci and Trump together, while others are AI generated. For example, the three images of Trump kissing Fauci’s cheek are not real.
Donald Trump did not kiss or hug Anthony Fauci
Images of the rivals embracing are not real either. Twitter has notified viewers of the video on the social networking site. In a warning, they wrote:
“At 0:25 in this video, a collage of photos of President Trump hugging Anthony Fauci appear. These pictures are not real; they are AI-generated images.”
However, certain images of the pair together are authentic. Three of the images in the video show the men together in March 2020. AFP has confirmed that the images are real and were taken by Getty Images, the National Institute of Health, and Reuters. However, pictures of Trump seen kissing Fauci’s cheeks are fake, and a reverse image search of them will suggest that they are AI-generated.
The pair can be seen with glossy and blurry features, physically unrealistic poses, and the background of the two together is an inaccurate portrayal of the White House press briefing room, indicating that the pictures are fake.
Speaking about the fake images, Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley professor and expert in misinformation, image analysis, and digital forensics, said:
“It was sneaky to intermix what appears to be authentic photos with fake photos, but these three images are almost certainly AI generated.”
Siwei Lyu, a digital media forensics expert, also confirmed that the images were not authentic:
“I am pretty sure these are not real photos.”
Responding to the viral video, J.D. Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, said that ridiculing the former president with fake images is “unacceptable.” He added in his tweet:
“Be even more skeptical of what you see on the internet.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ardent supporter of the former president, responded to Vance by saying that the video must be “taken down immediately.”
