Short summary: A 6-second video showing Donald Trump appearing to touch Bill Clinton is fabricated. The opening frame is an authentic photo from the 2000 U.S. Open (released by the Clinton Presidential Library in 2016), but the subsequent frames were altered with AI. Key evidence includes a woman who disappears after about three seconds and mismatched background details such as a chair back around four seconds; the clip was posted on X by @NORCAL_icmag on Nov 14, 2025.
AI Deepfake Debunked: Viral Clip of Donald Trump 'Touching' Bill Clinton Is Fabricated
Short summary: A 6-second video showing Donald Trump appearing to touch Bill Clinton is fabricated. The opening frame is an authentic photo from the 2000 U.S. Open (released by the Clinton Presidential Library in 2016), but the subsequent frames were altered with AI. Key evidence includes a woman who disappears after about three seconds and mismatched background details such as a chair back around four seconds; the clip was posted on X by @NORCAL_icmag on Nov 14, 2025.
01:34 AM, 11/16/2025Politics
Fact check — short answer
A six-second video that appears to show Donald Trump touching and patting Bill Clinton's crotch is not authentic. The clip's opening frame is a genuine photograph from the 2000 U.S. Open, but the moving sequence that follows was digitally generated and altered using artificial-intelligence tools.
Where the clip came from
The short video was posted on X (formerly Twitter) by the @NORCAL_icmag account on November 14, 2025. The first frame matches a real photo documenting an encounter between Donald Trump and Bill Clinton at the U.S. Open golf tournament in Flushing Meadows, New York, in September 2000. That photograph was among several released by the Clinton Presidential Library on September 9, 2016.
Why this is a fake
Careful comparison with verified images of the event shows multiple signs of manipulation consistent with generative-video editing rather than a continuous, unaltered recording:
- Disappearing bystander: A woman standing between Trump and Clinton in the opening frame vanishes abruptly after roughly the three-second mark.
- Changing background details: Objects in the background, notably a chair back visible about four seconds into the clip, do not match authenticated photos from the same scene.
- Inconsistent motion and artifacts: The sequence shows abrupt changes in lighting, shadow and object placement between frames — typical artifacts when single still images or short clips are extended and altered by AI tools.
What this means
While the initial still image is real and historically sourced, the moving sequence was produced artificially and presents a fabricated action that did not occur. The evidence (vanishing bystanders, mismatched background elements, and frame artifacts) strongly indicates a synthetic edit rather than an authentic video recording.
Bottom line: The viral six-second clip is an AI-generated fake. Do not rely on it as evidence of an actual encounter.
How to verify similar content
- Check whether the opening frame matches photos from trusted archives (press agencies, institutional libraries).
- Compare background details, shadows and bystanders across frames and against verified images.
- Be skeptical of very short clips that show implausible behavior and of posts that lack credible sourcing.
Recommendation: Do not repost the clip. If you encounter similar content, consult original photo archives or fact-checking organizations before sharing.