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Viral Deepfake Video Falsely Shows Trump Threatening to Remove Nigerian President
A manipulated video showing former U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to remove Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has gone viral on social media, amassing over 2.5 million views on TikTok despite being entirely fabricated. The 28-second deepfake clip has spread rapidly across platforms since Saturday, when Trump made separate comments about Nigeria.
In the doctored footage, a voice mimicking Trump criticizes Nigeria’s leadership structure and delivers an ultimatum: “I’m sending the US military to Nigeria for a peacekeeping mission. How can the President and Vice President of Nigeria be Muslims? I would be giving Bola Ahmed Tinubu just 72 hours to fix this issue, or I will destroy Boko Haram, and I will remove Tinubu as Nigerian President. Enough is enough.”
The clip appeared on a parody account imitating Nigerian social media personality VeryDarkMan (VDM) and quickly gained traction with more than 140,000 likes and 9,500 shares as of Monday afternoon. The video has sparked numerous reactions from viewers, some of whom appeared to believe the content was authentic.
“If America likes, let them take all of our mineral resources and give us security after all, we are not getting anything from the government. It is our politicians who are enjoying all the resources,” commented one TikTok user named Pentecost, while another user, Sunday Michael, wrote: “President Trump, Pls do it for us. I will forever be grateful to you if you do this thing you are saying.”
Technical analysis by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) revealed clear signs of manipulation. Close examination showed that Trump’s lip movements were not synchronized with the audio, a common indicator of deepfake technology. When analyzed through Deepware, a specialized video analysis tool, the clip registered 38 percent deepfake content.
Further image searches using TinEye produced no matching results for the original video, confirming its fabricated nature.
The emergence of this sophisticated fake comes at a particularly sensitive time in U.S.-Nigeria relations. The video began circulating shortly after Trump made separate comments about Nigeria, which were then exploited to create this more inflammatory fabricated content.
Digital misinformation experts have long warned that AI-generated deepfakes pose a significant threat to information integrity, especially in regions with lower digital literacy rates. The FactCheckHub recently cautioned that such technologies would increasingly be used to create hyper-realistic manipulated content capable of misleading Nigerian audiences, potentially causing widespread mistrust and confusion.
This incident highlights the growing challenge of combating AI-generated disinformation across social media platforms. As deepfake technology becomes more accessible and sophisticated, distinguishing between authentic and manipulated content becomes increasingly difficult for average users.
The rapid spread of this particular deepfake demonstrates how quickly fabricated content can gain traction in today’s digital ecosystem, especially when it touches on politically sensitive topics or appears to come from high-profile global figures.
Social media platforms continue to face pressure to improve their detection and removal systems for such misleading content. However, the viral spread of this video before any intervention occurred demonstrates the persistent challenges in real-time content moderation.
The Foundation for Investigative Journalism has definitively concluded that the TikTok video is AI-generated and that the statements attributed to Trump in the clip are entirely fabricated.
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9 Comments
This parody account really capitalized on the controversy around Trump’s recent comments about Nigeria. Seems like they were able to get millions of views by creating this fake video.
Yeah, it’s a good example of how misinformation can spread quickly on social media. Platforms need to do more to identify and remove this kind of manipulated content.
Interesting that the video managed to gain so much traction, even though it was clearly a deepfake. I guess some people just want to believe certain narratives, even if they’re not true.
That’s a good point. Confirmation bias and echo chambers can make people more susceptible to falling for disinformation. Critical thinking is key when consuming online content.
The fact that this video got over 2.5 million views on TikTok is really concerning. It shows how easy it is for false information to spread rapidly, especially on social media platforms.
Absolutely. TikTok has become a hotbed for this kind of viral misinformation. The platform needs to take stronger action to identify and remove manipulated content.
Spreading deepfake videos like this is really concerning. We need to be careful about believing everything we see online, especially when it comes to political content. Fact-checking is so important these days.
Totally agree. It’s scary how realistic these deepfakes can be. We have to stay vigilant and verify the source before sharing or reacting to this kind of content.
This is a good reminder that we should always fact-check claims, especially when they seem sensational or politically charged. Falling for deepfakes can have real consequences.