A Democracy Drive Thread
The president of the United States now uses AI-generated video and images as propaganda — to glorify himself as a golden idol and a pope, to humiliate opponents with fabricated arrests and racist caricatures, and to degrade the Americans who protest him. Synthetic media, broadcast from the official presidential account.
Generative AI has given Donald Trump a propaganda studio inside his phone. This thread collects, in order and with sources, the fabricated videos and images he has pushed out from his Truth Social account — several amplified by official White House channels — sorted by what they are built to do. Some glorify him: the “Trump Gaza” fantasy with its golden statue and belly dancers, the image of himself enthroned as the Pope. Some manufacture the punishment of his enemies: an AI deepfake of Barack Obama handcuffed by the FBI, the Obamas rendered as apes, a doctored Air Force One tagged with racist graffiti. And some are aimed at ordinary Americans, like the video of “King Trump” dumping feces on millions of peaceful “No Kings” protesters from a fighter jet.
None of it is incidental. It is the deliberate use of synthetic media to blur reality, flatter the leader, and degrade everyone he treats as an enemy — the oldest purpose of propaganda, with a new and frictionless machine behind it. Entries that also belong to other threads (chiefly the attacks on the Obamas) are cross-posted here and marked as such.
February 26, 2025
On February 26, 2025, Trump posted a 33-second AI-generated video to Truth Social depicting Gaza — then in ruins — remade as a glitzy “Trump Gaza” Riviera resort: children walking out of rubble into palm trees and luxury towers, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu sunbathing, an Elon Musk look-alike showered with cash, belly dancers, and a giant golden statue of Trump. It drew condemnation from Arab and Muslim Americans and even Truth Social users; the video’s own creators said they never meant to become the president’s “propaganda machine.” Propaganda glorifying the leader as a literal golden idol — generated by AI and broadcast from the presidential account.
May 3, 2025
Just after the death of Pope Francis and days before the conclave to choose his successor, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself in a white papal cassock and mitre; the White House then reshared it on its official X account. Catholic leaders were appalled — the New York State Catholic Conference said, “Do not mock us,” and a bishop said Trump “owes an apology to Catholics.” Trump dodged responsibility, claiming “that’s not me that did it” while his wife “thought it was cute.” Self-glorifying synthetic media, pushed out on government channels during a period of religious mourning.
July 20, 2025
On July 20, 2025, Trump shared to Truth Social a fabricated AI video depicting FBI agents dragging Obama out of a chair in the Oval Office, cuffing him, and then showing him behind bars in an orange jumpsuit, set to the song “YMCA.” The post came two days after DNI Tulsi Gabbard said she was referring Obama-era officials to the DOJ. It is propaganda in its purest form: using generative AI to manufacture and broadcast the fantasy of imprisoning a political rival, blurring the line between a meme and a threat.
October 18, 2025
Responding to the October 18, 2025 “No Kings” demonstrations — nearly 7 million people across some 2,700 peaceful protests against him — Trump posted a 19-second AI video to Truth Social showing himself, crowned, flying a jet labeled “King Trump” and airdropping brown sludge onto protesters, including an identifiable liberal influencer, as Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” played. Loggins objected to the use of his song. The sitting president used AI to fantasize about literally defecating on millions of citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights.
February 5, 2026
On February 5, 2026, Trump posted a video to Truth Social that ended with the faces of Barack and Michelle Obama superimposed onto cartoon apes as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played. The White House first defended it, then deleted it and blamed a staffer. Trump said he “of course” condemned the racist portion but would not apologize, claiming he “didn’t see the full video.” Even Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Depicting the first Black president and first lady as apes is one of the oldest and ugliest racist tropes in America — deployed here by the sitting president.
July 5, 2026
On July 5, 2026, Trump shared a falsified image showing the Obamas waving atop the stairs of an Air Force One defaced with spray-painted graffiti — including “BLM,” “Obama,” the “Yes We Can” slogan, and Arabic script reading “alhamdulillah” (“praise God”). The graffiti motif is a well-worn racist shorthand meant to evoke crime and “urban decay,” and the Arabic revives the same birther-era smear that Obama is a foreign Muslim. It came just months after the apes video — the same fixation, the same racism, now industrialized with AI image tools.