Amid Russia-Ukraine negotiations, fake audio circulates of Donald Trump Jr. supporting Russia
As President Donald Trump seeks an end to the war in Ukraine, what an expert says is fake audio purporting to show Trump's son voicing support for Russia over Ukraine is circulating online -- garnering millions of views and a repost from a Democratic Party social media account.
In the audio, a voice that sounds like that of Donald Trump Jr. can be heard saying, in part, "I can't imagine anyone in their right mind picking Ukraine as an ally when Russia is the other option."
"Honestly, the U.S. should have been sending weapons to Russia," says the audio, playing over a video supposedly showing a page promoting Donald Trump Jr.'s podcast.
Hany Farid, chief science officer at GetReal Labs and an expert on synthetic media, told ABC News the recording was likely generated by artificial intelligence. Farid said that assessment was based on the results from two GetReal Labs models trained to detect AI-generated audio.
The audio was posted several times to X, formerly Twitter, where it was shared at least 6,600 times and viewed over 1,800,000 times across several posts, some of which have since been deleted.
ABC News also found the audio was shared on the messaging platform Telegram in a post by a pro-Russian account with over 200,000 followers. It's possible that's where the post originated, as that post is the oldest one ABC News was able to locate.
Another X account that posted and then deleted the recording was FactPostNews, the official rapid response account of the Democratic Party.
A spokesperson for the DNC told ABC News they have a clear policy against misinformation and that they removed the post as soon as it was brought to their attention that the audio was inauthentic.
A spokesperson for Donald Trump Jr. said the audio was fake.
"The audio in question, which was amplified by the official X account of the DNC, along with countless other major anti-Trump accounts, is 100% fake," the spokesperson told ABC News. "It appears to be an AI generated deep fake."
The video accompanying the audio, which shows what appears to be the page for Donald Trump Jr.'s podcast on the streaming platform Spotify, displays a podcast episode that was not visible on Spotify on Wednesday. A spokesperson for Spotify confirmed that the episode shown in the post was not available on their platform.
An episode by that name did appear on the video platform Rumble, which also hosts Donald Trump Jr.'s podcast, but the episode does not contain the audio from the post.
The post comes as experts warn of the rising dangers of artificial intelligence in politics. President Trump himself has at times drawn criticism for his reposting of AI-generated content.
Late Tuesday, on the heels of Trump calling for the U.S. to "take over" war-torn Gaza and redevelop it, he posted an AI-generated video entitled "What's next," featuring fake Gaza beach scenes, a faux "Trump Tower" building, and a made-up shot of Trump lounging poolside with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- a video that was criticized by some Democrats.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump posted AI-generated images of an individual wearing a "Swifties for Trump" shirt, according to CBS News.
"I don't know anything about them other than somebody else generated them, I didn't generate them," Trump told Fox News at the time. "AI is always very dangerous in that way. It's happening with me, too."
ABC News' Gaby Vinick, Kerem Inal and Lena Camilletti contributed to this report.
