President Trump calls Democrats ‘Godless communists’ in remarks
President Donald Trump criticized the Democratic Party’s policies and political approach in remarks on June 26, calling them “Godless communists.”
President Donald Trump used the names and likenesses of his celebrity critics to target them in an AI-generated video.
In the video, posted to X on July 2, President Trump appears as a doctor “treating” several A-list players with what he has long called Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump Derangement Syndrome is a term used by President Trump and his allies to describe critics they view as irrationally opposed.
The AI-generated skit features portraits of Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell, John Leguizamo, and Edward Norton.
“Have you or someone you know been diagnosed with TDS? The symptoms can be relentless,” President Trump says in the AI-generated video. “Fortunately, I’m Dr. Trump and I have a treatment plan. Let’s hear from some of my patients.”
The video then cuts to an AI-generated O’Donnell sitting in a doctor’s office saying, “I’ve been suffering for over 10 years, but after listening to Dr. Trump, I’m starting to see some results.”
Their feud dates back to 2006, when she was a host on The View, but has escalated in recent years, with O’Donnell citing President Trump’s re-election as the reason for moving to Ireland, and the Trump administration threatening to revoke her citizenship, calling her a “threat to humanity.”
“Oh, I’ve been suffering for years. I never believed there was help out there,” says the AI-generated version of Leguizamo. Leguizamo has long criticized President Trump, his policies, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for O’Donnell, Leguizamo, De Niro, Roberts, Goldberg and Norton for comment.
AI Trump says celebrity patients are ‘gone’
In the video, the AI Dr. Trump said he wasn’t sure he could help the patient because “the patient is far away.”
“I really thought I was a lost cause. This was going to affect me for the rest of my life. But after using the treatment plan, I saw a difference,” AI Goldberg says in the video.
AI De Niro says, “I couldn’t sleep, I was always angry, and I made everyone around me miserable.”
AI Roberts said TDS has made her feel like she has aged 20 years in the past two years.
Dr. Trump then announced his official treatment plan, saying, “Turn off the fake news, pray, and when you feel anxious, drink a Diet Coke like I do. You’ll see a difference.”
Experts warn that AI deepfake videos of celebrities can be harmful
Henry Ajdel, an expert on AI and deepfakes, warned that while AI’s use of portraits of celebrities, including those who have passed away, is not necessarily “dangerous”, it could distort the view of public figures and their legacies.
“Will it be difficult in the future to say this happened or this didn’t happen? Even if the video is not malicious, it can contaminate the information space,” Ageer recently told USA TODAY while discussing a recent AI video of Princess Diana, who died in 1997.
Social media consultant Matt Navarra said some of these videos, even if they’re not overtly derogatory in a sexual or political nature, can create “toxic dynamics.” He told USA TODAY that the amount of these videos could “distort cultural memory.”
“Especially younger viewers may encounter fabricated footage in exactly the same vertical feed as genuine archival footage. One stupid video will not rewrite history, but thousands of composite videos may gradually disrupt the visual record,” he said.
What is “Trump Derangement Syndrome”?
President Trump and his administration have long used the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” to refer to some of the president’s critics.
Early in the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump’s team accused then-President Joe Biden of having TDS after Biden said Trump’s rhetoric reflected Nazi propaganda.
The term echoes an earlier version of the term “Bush Derangement Syndrome” coined by prominent conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer.
Before his death in 2018, Krauthammer wrote a column explaining the shift in terminology for Trump as “not only causing general hysteria about the topic, but also an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences on the one hand and signs of mental pathology on the other.”
President Trump used the term in December 2025 in response to the stabbings of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle Singer Reiner. In a Dec. 15 post on Truth Social, the president said Reiner’s death was “reportedly due to the anger he caused in others due to a mind-numbing illness known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
CContributor: Jennifer Hassan, Fernando Cervantes junior,, america today
