Posts Share Bogus Audio of Donald Trump Jr. Supporting Arms for Russia, Not Ukraine
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Quick Take
A fake audio clip of Donald Trump Jr. saying that the U.S. should have sent weapons to Russia instead of Ukraine was shared across social media. Deepfake experts said the audio was apparently generated using artificial intelligence. A spokesperson for Trump Jr. said the audio clip is “100% fake.”
Full Story
President Donald Trump has been reaching out to Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks in an attempt to improve relations and arrive at a deal that will end Russia’s war with Ukraine, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, as we’ve written.
The U.S. has appropriated about $174.2 billion in military and humanitarian aid in its support for Ukraine, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, as we’ve also written.
But in remarks on Feb. 18, Trump claimed that Ukraine “started” the war and suggested it could have avoided the conflict by giving up portions of the country to Russia.
Now, social media posts are spreading a fake audio clip purportedly of the president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., saying, in part, “I honestly can’t imagine that anyone in their right mind picking Ukraine as an ally when Russia is the other option. … The U.S. should have been sending weapons to Russia.”
Following the purported quote from Trump Jr., one post said, “America is officially siding with our enemies. Make sure everyone sees this.” A Threads post said, “Statements like this are really easy to understand when you realize that Jr’s daddy is a Russian asset.”
ABC News reported that FactPostNews, an official account of the Democratic Party, also shared the fake audio clip on X and then deleted it.
The audio was apparently generated using artificial intelligence, according to Hany Farid, chief science officer at GetReal Labs, a company that analyzes manufactured content.
Farid emailed a statement to us explaining that the audio shared in the posts was analyzed with two models used to distinguish natural from AI-generated voices.
“Each model, which looks for different patterns in AI-generated voices, classifies the voices with high confidence as AI-generated,” said Farid, who is also a professor of digital forensics at the University of California Berkeley. Based on that analysis, he said, the audio clip “appears to be AI-generated.”
“This was not a simple voice cloning as it involved the interplay between two voices. I’ve been seeing this trend recently and it is somewhat expected as the technology gets better and the adversary becomes more proficient and sophisticated in their use of these AI tools,” Farid said.
The audio post shared on social media was presented as if it were a clip from a Feb. 25 episode of Trump Jr.’s podcast, “Triggered with Donald Trump Jr.,” and makes it seem as if Trump Jr. was responding to a caller on his show, which is aired on Rumble. But the audio in the social media posts doesn’t match any segment on the actual Rumble episode.
Andrew Surabian, a Republican strategist and spokesperson for Trump Jr., in a Feb. 26 post on X, later reshared by Trump Jr., said: “This is 100% fake AI generated audio.”
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Meta to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Meta has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
Congressional Research Service. “U.S. Direct Financial Support for Ukraine.” Updated 31 Jan 2025.
Robertson, Lori and Robert Farley. “Trump’s False and Misleading Ukraine Claims.” FactCheck.org. 20 Feb 2025.
Rubin, Olivia and Chris Looft. “Amid Russia-Ukraine negotiations, fake audio circulates of Donald Trump Jr. supporting Russia.” ABC News. 26 Feb 2025.
Vasilyeva, Nataliya. “Putin Praises Trump for Working to Thaw U.S.-Russia Tensions.” New York Times. 27 Feb 2025.
