Was Donald Trump caught on tape during a Fox News commercial break, saying that someone who is called into war is a "dumbfuck redneck" and that volunteering for military service is "stupid"? No, that's not true: This recording is fake -- it originated from a parody account. It appears that a human voice actor impersonated Donald Trump in this recording, as both the parody account and AI detections tools say this voice was not generated with AI.
The video was posted on X (archived here) on August 28, 2024. It was captioned:
After criticizing Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for skipping Arlington Memorial Ceremony, newly unearthed video appears to show Donald Trump calling soldiers 'dumb' and service 'stupid' during commercial break on Fox News. SCOTUS Michigan and Wisconsin #Project2025 Jack Smith
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Aug 29 15:34:16 2024 UTC)
The video shows a handheld camera recording of a television screen, playing what appears to be a Fox News broadcast of Sean Hannity's show. The screen alternately shows a still placeholder photo of former President Trump "ON THE PHONE," alternated with candid "off-camera" footage of Hannity adjusting his collar and looking down. The top of the screen shows a digital timer for a 60-second break, and the lower screen shows a chyron announcing the "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP" with a scrolling ticker. The ticker says:
President Trump was on an antibody cocktail for his coronavirus treatment last weekend. President Trump's campaign is urging...
Closed captioning, white letters with black outlines, displays the transcript of the spoken words over the chyron. While a newscaster-style voice (Hannity impersonator) tried to break in, a voice with mannerisms similar to those of Trump said:
The amount of stupidity it would take to do that. I don't even possess that on my worst day.
[Hannity impersonator]: Let me ask you th-
Excuse me. I wouldn't be in battle because I'm not some dumbf##k redneck who gets called into war and volunteers for stupid service and conflicts.
[Hannity impersonator]: Uh- I- We dont have a lot of time left - I won't - I wo-
This video originated on the X account @parodyislegal Parodia World News and was posted on August 27, 2024 (archived here), with essentially the same caption. The post was followed with a comment (archived here) on August 28, 2024 (pictured below), that states:
UPDATE: While we have not verified its authenticity, we can confirm definitively that no part of this is video is 'AI generated.' @TrumpPod
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Aug 29 22:43:24 2024 UTC)
If you have any legal concerns about our parody content please us know
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with X screenshots taken on Thu Aug 29 23:00:36 2024 UTC)
In the August 28, 2024, comment, @parodyislegal tagged the X account @TrumpPod (pictured above right) which is a labeled a "parody show." The suggestion here is that there was no AI involved and the voice actor from @TrumpPod did the video's soundtrack. The X account is named "Making Podcasts Great Again" and the account details says this is "The weekly podcast of the 45th President of the United States. Voiced by @JLCauvin and co-hosted by @JayNog (PARODY SHOW)"
Lead Stories asked True Media's AI Detections tools to analyze the video (see the full report here) and five different audio analysis tools all found "little evidence" that the audio had been AI generated -- and this would be the case if the audio was voiced by a person.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims about Donald Trump and the 2024 Elections can be found here and here.
