Viral Video of Don Jr. Arguing America ‘Should Have Been Sending Weapons to Russia’ Is Fake

Screenshot via Axios

A viral video of Donald Trump Jr. arguing that the United States “should have been sending weapons to Russia” to aid it in its war against Ukraine is fake.

The video, which has been shared by a number of large-follower accounts on X, supposedly showed the president’s son interacting with an unknown interlocutor, who remarks “But they forget that Ukraine isn’t the kind of country you go all in on — this is ridiculous.”

“I honestly can’t imagine anyone in their right mind picking Ukraine as an ally when Russia is the other option,” Trump replies in the clip. “I mean, just think about it: Massive nuclear power loaded with natural resources everyone needs, literally the biggest country on the planet. And ha ha, there’s Ukraine, which has Chernobyl, and some radiation-proof dogs. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is definitely the ally we need. Let’s dump all our money into them.’ Honestly, if anything, the U.S. should have been sending weapons to Russia.”

The alleged comments went viral on social media, and were promoted by a number of prominent accounts including FactPost, which is run by the Democratic National Committee:

But while the clip was circulated widely online, there was good reason to be suspicious. The clip purported to show Trump’s podcast, Triggered with Donald Trump Jr. playing on Spotify, yet that episode is not yet up on the app. Moreover, if you listen to the entirety of said episode on Rumble, Trump never says what he does in the clip online.

Drew Lynch, executive producer for Trump Jr.’s show, confirmed that the video was a fake, telling Mediaite that “This audio is absolutely, 100% fake.”

Andrew Surabian, a rep for Trump, also confirmed the video was fake on Wednesday afternoon, writing on X: “This is 100% fake AI generated audio, but I’m sure that won’t stop anti-Trump resistance accounts from continuing to dishonestly spread it” — in a post retweeted by Trump Jr.

The comments would have been remarkable given President Donald Trump’s recent comments in which he erroneously labeled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” and submitted that Zelensky shouldn’t have “started” the war that began with Russia’s invasion of its western neighbor in 2022.