By Reuters Fact Check

An AI-generated video of Republican Donald Trump gorging on McDonald's french fries has been shared online as authentic.

A Threads

post

shared the 10-second clip that shows Trum

p in a black and yellow apron scoffing down fries in a kitchen.

The scene

matches

Reuters' photos taken during Trump's visit to a McDonald's in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 20, in part

as a jab

at his Democratic rival Kamala Harris. Trump has said, with no evidence, that Harris lied about having worked at the fast-food chain during her college years.

Some comments on the clip appear to take it seriously, including: "So gross!" and "Unbelievable!!?"

The video is not real, however.

AI-powered detection tool TrueMedia.org found there is "substantial evidence" that the video has been manipulated.

James O'Brien, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in an email that some elements in the video were signs that it was created by an AI software, including Trump's extra fingers, parts of the fries box disappearing as Trump eats, fries floating in the air, and that parts of Trump's face and hand, as well as the fries and fries box flickering in and out of existence.

Siwei Lyu, professor of computer science and engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo, also said the video is AI-generated with multiple giveaways.

"The background is completely static, so this could be made with a text-to-video generation model such as Runway or Pika," Lyu said.

VERDICT

Synthetic media. A video of Trump scoffing down french fries is inauthentic and shows signs of AI manipulation.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

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about our fact-checking work.