AI slop videos falsely claim Trump expelled 58 Canadian diplomats
- Published on July 6, 2026 at 23:11
- 2 min read
- By AFP Canada
Brittle relations between the United States and Canada have spawned numerous false claims about diplomacy and trade developments between the two countries and a new series of video posts alleged without evidence that US President Donald Trump expelled dozens of Canadian envoys from Washington in mid-2026. The videos originated from a large YouTube network employing AI-generated content to push unverified stories about Canada for nearly a year and there is no legitimate reporting confirming the story.
"Two hours ago, the State Department issued expulsion orders for 58 Canadian diplomatic personnel operating across the United States," claims the introduction to a now-deleted July 1, 2026 YouTube video.
The stilted voice-over proceeds to report Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's supposed reaction to the slight without giving a clear reason for the envoys' expulsion.
Several other clips across YouTube spread the same claim, while the rumor also jumped to Facebook, TikTok and Threads.
Since Trump returned to the White House in 2025 and instigated a trade war driven by tariffs, Canada has distanced itself from its historic ally. In June, the president once again jabbed that Canada could be the 51st US state (archived here) and the United States declined to renew the US-Mexico-Canada trade pact in its current form, fueling uncertainty for businesses.
The novel Canada-US tensions have been the source of numerous false claims about trade and diplomacy between the two countries, including videos which falsely alleged the American ambassador Pete Hoekstra had been expelled from Ottawa.
The posts claiming Trump kicked 58 Canadian diplomats out of the United States are similarly fake and appear to be part of the "slopaganda" network of YouTube channels which have been fabricating stories about Canada for nearly a year using paid actors and artificial intelligence (archived here).
While the videos and social media posts were shared on different dates, their titles all claimed that the supposed news had dropped "2 HOURS AGO." Several YouTube videos spreading the claim also included the platform's label denoting AI-generated content.
AFP reached out to YouTube about the videos and a spokesman said in a July 6 email that the clips and associated accounts had now been deleted (archived here, here, here and here).
"YouTube has strict community guidelines, and spam content or content that intends to mislead users isn’t allowed on the platform," the spokesman said.
Furthermore, AFP could not find any legitimate evidence that the Canadian diplomats were expelled in mid-2026. Keyword searches do not turn up news stories about the dispute, leading instead to more content based on the AI-generated claims.
Typically, expulsions of foreign envoys mark major diplomatic breaks which are officially announced, as was the case when Canada kicked out the Indian ambassador to Ottawa in 2024 or when the United States expelled a South African diplomat in 2025.
However, there were no such announcements about the expulsion of Canadian diplomats from the US State Department, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Global Affairs Canada or Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand (archived here, here, here and here).
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.
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