President Donald Trump responded to this weekend’s massive ‘No Kings’ protests with an AI-generated video of him in a fighter jet, dropping what appears to be sewage (or poop) on American protesters, and told reporters on Sunday that the nearly 7 million people who attended the nationwide rallies “are not representative of the people of our country.”
“The regime can’t decide if this was a violent insurrection or if it was such a bust that it never happened, but regardless, Trump is clearly pissed,” Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the protest’s organizing group, Indivisible, said in a statement emailed to Fast Company.
In that 19-second video, which Trump posted on Truth Social, the president of the United States is pictured riding in the cockpit of a fighter plane, wearing a crown, in what appears to be a nod to the movie Top Gun as its iconic “Danger Zone” song by Kenny Loggins plays in the background.
Loggins requested his music be removed immediately, according to Rolling Stone.
“This is an unauthorized use of my performance of ‘Danger Zone,’” Loggins said in a statement. “Nobody asked me for my permission, which I would have denied . . . I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us.”
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance took to Bluesky in what also appeared to be an attempt to mock the protests, posting a black-and-white AI-generated meme of Trump wearing a crown and pulling out a shiny sword, as former House Speaker and current U.S. representative Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats bend down on one knee to him. (Some critics have said Trump and Vance’s posts only prove the protesters’ point that he is, in fact, acting like a King.)
It’s not the first time this administration has used generative AI to mock Democrats. Amid the government shutdown, Trump posted a deepfake video on Truth Social with doctored audio of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer saying, “nobody likes Democrats, we have no voters because of our woke, trans b-shit,” and standing next to House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had a fake mustache and was wearing a fake sombrero.
And according to NBC News, Trump has posted dozens of such AI-generated videos to his Truth Social account since the beginning of his second term, half of which appeared in August and September. Those videos came from other accounts and were then promoted by Trump.
Looking back even further, to his campaign, Trump also posted on Truth Social a fake AI-generated image of musician Taylor Swift endorsing him for president along with other such “Swifties for Trump” memes. The original image depicted Swift as Uncle Sam, and read, “Taylor wants you to vote for Joe Biden.” The singer said Trump’s meme inspired her to endorse Kamala Harris for president.
