In July 2025, US President Donald Trump posted a video generated by the artificial intelligence of former President Barack Obama, who was arrested in an oval office.
In July 2025, Tarsi Gabbard, director of US national intelligence, denounced officials in the 2016 presidential elections in the Manufacturing Intelligence Report, and rumors spread that Trump had been arrested at the White House Oval office in an investigation into Russian interference that led to President Donald Trump's first term. Internet users say the video was generated by artificial intelligence.
For example, left-leaning YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen posted a screen capture of a suspected Trump post on Facebook with the caption that Trump posted an AI-generated video of President Obama being arrested.
(Facebook user Brian Tyler Cohen)
At the time of writing, the post had attracted over 28,000 reactions and 14,000 comments. Some users have suggested that this is a way of distracting Trump from criticism for his administration for refusing to create public files related to deceased filings and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Maybe he told me to stop talking about the files and focus on something else? “I asked.
A similar post appeared on Facebook, showing Reddit and Instagram. Snopes readers searched the site to see the truth behind this rumor.
The argument was true. Trump posted this video to the Truth Society (archive)) On July 20, 2025, two days after Gabbard said she would “hand over.” All documents state “relating to her discovery regarding the production of evidence regarding the supposed and assumed Russian interference of the Obama administration” and “to the DOJ for criminal referrals” (archive).
(True social user @RealdonaldTrump)
Trump didn't make the video himself. Used first posted it on Tiktok. There, it received over 420,000 views (archives) before being removed from the public view.
(tiktok user @neo8171)
The video opens with clips of several prominent Democrats, including Obama, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi and former President Joe Biden, saying “no one is beyond the law.” Then, 44 seconds after the video, an AI-generated clip showed Trump and Obama sitting side by side in an oval office, with three men grabbing Obama in their FBI jackets and sunglasses and dragging him to the floor. The video was then cut into clips generated by Obama's other AI, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, sitting, standing or pacing in an apparent prison environment.
Several clues revealed that the clip was generated by AI. For example, FBI agents were smooth, their jackets were not authentic, and their gestures looked unnatural, just like Obama's representation. Trump's frozen smile was added to the sense of unreality, as was the poor solution in the clip. Subsequent clips placed Obama inside or outside the cell, but there was no obvious logic. The final shot zoomed in on Obama's face behind the bar made him look like he'd been painted or painted.
Furthermore, searches for Google, Google News, Duckduckgo and Bing have revealed that Obama has been arrested, no news outlet has reported.
Snop contacted the White House about the message Trump intended to send by posting the video and whether it meant as a threat to Obama. If we receive a response, we will update this report.
