Clip of Donald Trump asking Kenya’s President William Ruto to resign is AI-generated
- Published on May 20, 2025 at 17:11
- 4 min read
- By Peris GACHAHI, AFP Kenya
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Mounting public dissatisfaction with Kenyan President William Ruto’s administration has led to calls for his resignation, driven by various concerns including economic hardship and reports of human rights violations by security forces. A video recently published on Instagram claims to show US President Donald Trump urging Ruto to resign. But the claim is false; the clip was AI-generated, and the original video shows Trump speaking after the 2024 assassination attempt on his life.
“Trumpp telling the president of kenya to do what kenyans want (sic),” reads the text overlay on an Instagram post published on May 6, 2025. The post has been liked more than 32,000 times.
“If I was the president of Kenya today and see all that is happening, I will just resign. No need of forcing yourself in power. If people don’t want it, it means they don’t want you,” Trump appears to say in the clip.
The clip was also published in other Instagram posts here and here.
'Ruto must go'
Since taking office in 2022, Ruto’s administration has faced criticism over a series of policies and actions that have exacerbated economic hardships and fuelled public outrage.
Key among these was the Finance Bill 2024 which sparked countrywide protests last year (archived here).
Marked by “Ruto must go” chants, the demonstrations were marred by accusations of police brutality, including killings, arrests, and abductions of protesters and activists (archived here).
Since then, the chants have grown popular at social gatherings and political rallies, leading Kenya’s security chiefs to warn that those chanting must adhere to constitutional guidelines (archived here).
However, the Instagram clip of Trump urging Ruto to listen to Kenyans and resign is altered.
Doctored video
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches on keyframes from the clip and found the original footage published by BBC News on July 19, 2024 (archived here).
“Donald Trump addresses Republican convention in first speech since shooting,” reads the video’s title.
Comparisons show Trump in the same attire and in front of the same background in both videos.
Trump was speaking at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, recounting the assassination attempt that occurred five days earlier, leaving him with a grazed right ear.
The distinctive bandage he wore during the speech is slightly visible in the Instagram video when he turns his head.
In the address, also published by other news outlets, Trump made no mention of Ruto or Kenya (archived here and here).
We also analysed the Instagram clip’s audio through InVID-WeVerify's audio detection tool, and the results suggested strong evidence of voice cloning.
We did not find any credible reports of Trump commenting on Kenyan politics.
AFP Fact Check has recently debunked other Trump AI-generated claims.
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