Fact-check: Trump supporting Imran Khan? Viral video proven fake
Geo Fact Check conducted reverse search and discovered that original footage used to create deepfake dates back to 2017
Updated Thursday Nov 07 2024
A video clip circulating on social media in Pakistan claims to show US President-elect Donald Trump voicing support for Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, during an interview ahead of the American election.
This claim is false. The video has been generated using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to match Trump’s voice with his image.
Claim
On November 4, a TikTok user shared a 19-second video allegedly depicting Republican candidate Donald Trump expressing support for jailed Pakistani leader Imran Khan and pledging to free him if elected.
In the clip, Trump is purportedly heard saying: “Hello, my Pakistani American friends. I promise that if I win, I will try my best to get Imran Khan out of jail as soon as possible. He is my friend, I love him. I will support him to take over the government again, and rock, and we will work together to make our ties stronger. Imran Khan Zindabad.”
The post has accumulated over 5.4 million views and nearly 625,000 likes. Many users in the comments seem to believe that Trump made these statements.
Identical claims have circulated on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook as well:
Fact
The video is a deepfake and was likely created with publicly available AI tools, confirmed an independent analysis.
Asad Baig, founder of Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD) in Islamabad, reviewed the footage at Geo Fact Check’s request.
“It is most obviously fake,” Baig stated. “Based on principles established by global experts, including those from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the video has clear signs of being developed using generative AI tools.”
Baig added that if Trump had publicly pledged support for Imran Khan, it would have been a significant political event covered by US media — which it was not.
Geo Fact Check conducted a reverse search and discovered that the original footage used to create the deepfake dates back to May 11, 2017, when Trump was interviewed by NBC News’ Lester Holt.
Geo Fact Check reviewed the entire interview and found no mention of Imran Khan. The original interview can be viewed here.
Follow us on @GeoFactCheck on X (Twitter) and @geo_factcheck on Instagram. If our readers detect any errors, we encourage them to contact us at [email protected]