President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video showing former President Barack Obama’s arrest on his social media platform on Sunday.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via an email sent outside regular business hours and Obama’s office via a contact form on its website.
Why It Matters
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, released a report on Friday alleging that Obama and his national security Cabinet members manufactured intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election to “lay the groundwork for what was essentially a yearslong coup against President Trump.” She said she would refer the officials to the Justice Department for prosecution.
The announcement comes as Trump seeks to move on from the backlash he has received from his supporters over his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.
What To Know
The video, which Trump posted on Truth Social, begins with Obama saying in a campaign speech that “no one, especially the president, is above the law.”
The clip them shows other Democrats—including former President Joe Biden and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi—saying, “No one is above the law.”
Later in the video, Trump and Obama are seen sitting in the Oval Office together when FBI agents handcuff Obama as the AI-generated Trump smiles widely, with the montage set to “YMCA” by the Village People.
The video ends with Obama dressed in an orange jumpsuit in a jail cell.
While some Trump supporters cheered the video and called for Obama’s arrest, others questioned whether it was an attempt to deflect from the Epstein case.
Social media users also said the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling that former presidents had broad immunity from criminal prosecutions for official acts would protect Obama.
What People Are Saying
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures: “Creating this piece of manufactured intelligence that claims that Russia had helped Donald Trump get elected contradicted every other assessment that had been made previously in the months leading up to the election that said exactly the opposite, that Russia had neither the intent nor the capability to try to ‘hack the United States election for the presidency of the United States.’
“So the effect of what President Obama and his senior national security team did was subvert the will of the American people, undermining our democratic republic and enacting what would be essentially a yearslong coup against President Trump, who was duly elected by the American people.”
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, dismissed Gabbard’s claims, telling The New York Times: “This is one more example of the director of national intelligence trying to cook the books. We’re talking about apples and oranges. The Russians were not successful at manipulating our election infrastructure, nor did we say they were.”
Conservative journalist Nick Sortor wrote on X: “President Trump posted an AI video of Barack Obama being ARRESTED by FBI and rotting in a prison cell. MAKE THIS A REALITY, @AGPamBondi!”
MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman wrote on X: “Don’t give Obama the chance to flee to Kenya… Revoke his passport ASAP!”
Political commentator Majid M. Padellan wrote on X: “SCOTUS made it impossible to arrest [Obama] when their dumb ruling gave trump immunity.”
What Happens Next
On Sunday Morning Futures, Gabbard said it would be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to “gather all of the evidence—both that we have released, the facts that have already been known previously, the information that will continue to come out—and move forward with this prosecution and these indictments.”
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