Video of Trump slamming supporters of the Philippines' Duterte is AI-generated

"DDS CRITICISED BY TRUMP," read the Tagalog-language overlaid text on a TikTok video viewed over 518,000 times since it was posted on July 30, 2024.

The footage appears to show Trump rebuking supporters of the Duterte political clan, locally referred to as "DDS" or "Diehard Duterte Supporters".  

"What's funny about them is that they are so gullible and effortless to manipulate. They wholeheartedly believe that a deepfake video of their president putting something on his nose was true," Trump purportedly said.

He appears to be referring to a video allegedly showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos inhaling white powder that circulated in July 2024.

The footage -- shown at a Los Angeles rally organised by a political group linked to Marcos' predecessor Rodrigo Duterte -- was denounced by cabinet ministers and police forensic experts as fake.

The video proceeds to show Trump saying that if he is elected in the US presidential polls in November, he will make sure that the "DDS" will no longer have access to the internet so they can "no longer spread fake news."

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Screenshot of a post of the AI-generated video, captured August 21, 2024

Trump and former president Rodrigo Duterte had met before and have spoken positively of each other, with Trump saying he had a "great relationship" with his then Philippine counterpart (archived link). 

The Marcos and Duterte families have had a bitter, public falling out as they attempt to shore up their rival support bases and secure key positions ahead of the 2025 mid-term elections.

Duterte and Marcos have accused each other of being drug addicts, although neither of them has offered proof of their allegations.

The same video was shared elsewhere on TikTok here and here.

Some users appeared to believe the clip was genuine.

"Bravo, ex-president Trump! You deserve to win," one user commented.

"Correct, Mr Trump. Educate the DDS. Support BBM," said another, referring to Marcos' nickname "Bongbong".

But the video was AI-generated.

AI-generated clip

A reverse image search on Google led to the earliest upload of the clip on July 29 by TikTok user @DDSBeLike, whose profile said it posts satirical content (archived link).

The post -- which has since been taken down -- showed an uncropped version of the Trump video, including the caption: "SINCE YOU LIKE TO BELIEVE IN FAKE VIDEOS, THIS ONE IS ALSO FAKE! WE ARE SO SCREWED, FELLOW DDS."

The user confirmed to AFP on August 20 they created the video with AI, using the text-to-speech application starvoice.ai.

"Yes, it's definitely AI. It's the same app I used for the Taylor Swift video," they said, referring to an AI-generated video of the pop megastar that was previously debunked by AFP.

An analysis by Siwei Lyu, director of the Media Forensic Lab at the University of Buffalo, showed that the video's poor quality, noticeable defects around the mouth and chin, and unusually low blinking frequency indicate the clip is not authentic (archived link). 

"This video is detected as fake by our algorithm with high likelihood," Lyu told AFP on August 21. 

Old Trump video

Further Google reverse image searches found that the false video matches Trump's appearance in a January 14, 2021 video uploaded to YouTube by US news network CNBC (archived link).

Titled "President Donald Trump condemns the 'calamity at the Capitol'", the five-minute video shows the politician talking about a deadly assault on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on January 6, 2021.

Trump did not mention Duterte or his supporters in any part of his speech. 

Below is a screenshot comparison between the AI-generated TikTok video (L) and Trump's address regarding the January 6 incident (R):

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Screenshot comparison between the AI-generated video (L) and Trump's address regarding January 6 (R

As of August 22, 2024, there have been no official reports of Trump assailing Duterte supporters in connection with the alleged video of Marcos.