Doctored video falsely claimed to show 'Trump confronting Kenyan opposition politician' on US visit
- Published on September 3, 2025 at 15:02
- 6 min read
- By Peris GACHAHI, AFP Kenya
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“Trump shuts down Gachagua for good,” read the Facebook post published on August 21, 2025, and shared more than 600 times.
In the clip, which contained a 'breaking news' banner, Trump appears to be sitting with Gachagua at the White House in the Oval Office.
Trump seemingly begins by questioning Gachagua’s credibility, asking: “You were impeached. Tremendous disgrace. Why should anyone, especially Americans, take you seriously when you disturb your own government?”
He purportedly goes on to accuse Gachagua of fuelling division and instability, saying that “chaos doesn’t win” and that investors reject disorder.
In response, Gachagua appears to defend himself. “I wasn’t impeached for failure. I was impeached for rattling a corrupt system.”
Gachagua also seems to shift blame toward Kenyan President William Ruto’s administration, arguing that “what divides Kenya is hunger, broken promises and Ruto’s government choking the people”.
The purported exchange ends with Trump saying: “People don’t want speeches. They want results,” to which Gachagua says that “losers hide behind excuses. Kenya bleeds today because Ruto’s house is burning. I’m not afraid to say it”.
Some of the replies under the post suggest that the video is edited. Others, however, believed it to be real.
"Gachangua, I hope you heard, people want actions, not speeches!! Superb Mr Trump (sic)," one user wrote.
"Gachagwa is embarrassed. I don't know how these politicians are (sic)," another comment reads in Swahili.
Gachagua, who was impeached last year while serving as Ruto’s deputy, is now looking to unseat him in the upcoming 2027 elections (archived here and here).
However, the video purportedly showing Gachagua being confronted by Trump is digitally altered.
Gachagua’s US tour
Gachagua embarked on a two-month US tour on July 9, 2025, to engage with the Kenyan diaspora ahead of the 2027 elections (archived here).
While there, he visited several cities including Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles (archived here, here and here).
The tour, which came shortly after the launch of his new Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP), drew backlash from Kenyan leaders who accused him of exporting tribal politics by largely engaging with his own community abroad (archived here, here and here).
On August 14, Gachagua announced an early end to the trip, saying he was returning home to prepare for upcoming by-elections in various parts of the country, noting that the remaining engagements would be rescheduled for early next year (archived here).
Doctored clip
AFP conducted reverse image searches on screengrabs from the clip and found it was created using two old and unrelated videos, combined with AI-generated audio.
The footage of Gachagua purportedly responding to Trump was lifted from a June 27, 2025, interview with Kenyan local media outlet NTV titled, “Protest And Chaos – Gachagua’s Take” (archived here).
Gachagua, who was speaking from his Karen home in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, dismissed allegations linking him to recent violent protests in the country. At no point did he say any of the things attributed to him in the altered Facebook clip.
Both videos show Gachagua wearing a patterned floral shirt, seated on a decorative carved chair with a golden backrest, against a backdrop of draped curtains and a vase of bright flowers on a side table.
The footage in the altered post has also been flipped and shows evidence of colour manipulation.
Meanwhile, the footage of Trump appears to have originated from one of several videos of him taken in the Oval Office on August 18, 2025. Wearing the same suit and tie, Trump talked about Ukraine and an end to the war with Russia (archived here and here).
Trump does not mention Gachagua in this earlier video.
Further searches revealed that the doctored clip was originally posted on a TikTok account under the username “chrissrebon” and it has been shared more than 1,700 times (archived here).
The account mainly publishes AI-generated content, and its bio reads: “Transforming reality with AI magic, photoshop, Al amination, Al video editing” (archived here).
Additionally, the lip movements of both Trump and Gachagua are out of sync with the audio, which has robotic tones, unnatural pacing and odd accents.
An analysis by AFP Fact Check using InVID-WeVerify’s audio detection tool suggested strong evidence of voice cloning.
Based on Gachagua’s social media updates on his trip, he did not meet with Trump, and we have not found any official reports stating that he did as of September 3, 2025.
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