Did President Donald Trump's eldest son Don Jr. say on his podcast that "the U.S. should have been sending weapons to Russia" instead of Ukraine, as an X post claims? No, that's not true: The episode in question did not contain such a statement. Two AI detectors indicated that the audio in the viral clip was likely a product of generative AI. Talking to Lead Stories, a spokesperson for Trump's son referred to the clip as "deep fake."
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on February 26, 2025. It opened:
On his podcast yesterday, 'Triggered with Don Jr.' the eldest son of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump Jr. stated that he did not understand why anyone would choose Ukraine as an ally over of Russia, stating 'the U.S. should have been sending weapons to Russia.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Feb 26 21:39:33 2025 UTC)
The entry included a 36-second file. The video showed cover photos illustrating the podcast hosted by Donald Trump Jr., also known as Don Jr.
Simultaneously, social media users heard the following exchange:
MALE VOICE 1: But they forget that Ukraine isn't the kind of country you go all in on. This is ridiculous.
MALE VOICE 2: I, honestly, can't imagine anyone in their right mind picking Ukraine as an ally when Russia is the other option. I mean, just think about it, massive nuclear power, loaded with natural resources everyone needs, literally, the biggest country on the planet. And haha, there's Ukraine, which has Chernobyl and some radiation-proof dogs.
MALE VOICE 1: Yeah...
MALE VOICE 2: Meanwhile, the Biden administration is like, 'oh yeah, this is definitely the ally we need. Let's dump all our money into them.' Honestly, if anything, the US should have been sending weapons to Russia.
The name of episode 219 from the shared file reviewed in this article was consistent with what Don Jr. streamed on Rumble on February 24, 2025, around 6 p.m. EST. A Lead Stories reporter manually listened to it and did not hear the exchange about sending weapons to Russia.
Two online AI detectors, Hive Moderation and the InVid verification plugin, showed a significant presence of generative AI in the audio in question:
(Source: Hive Moderation screenshot taken on Wed Feb 26 21:14:13 2025 UTC)
(Source: InVid screenshot taken on Wed Feb 26 21:09:02 2025 UTC)
On February 26, 2025, Don Jr. reposted (archived here) an entry from Republican strategist Andrew Surabian (archived here) who referred to the exchange as "100% fake AI generated audio":
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Feb 26 22:38:23 2025 UTC)
When reached by Lead Stories via email on the same day, a spokesperson for Donald Trump Jr. said:
It appears to be an AI generated Deep Fake.
