{"id":155993,"date":"2026-01-30T03:38:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155993\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T03:38:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:38:06","slug":"trump-pushes-obviously-fake-videos-bashing-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155993\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump pushes obviously fake videos bashing California"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Trump administration<\/a> has used artificial intelligence to create a fake image of a protester crying<\/a>\u00a0and to splash ads across the\u00a0internet for months. Now, the president is using videos that seem clearly to be created with the new tech to fan his base’s anti-California sentiment.<\/p>\n

During a wave of posts and reposts to Truth Social on Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s account twice shared an apparently\u00a0AI<\/a>-generated, news-style video claiming Walmart<\/a> is shutting down 250 stores across California due to the state’s policy choices. One of Trump’s posts included a screenshot of a commentator calling it, “More bad news for Gavin Newson,” aka\u00a0Newsom, California governor and the president’s most prominent Democratic\u00a0foil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Walmart spokesperson told\u00a0CNN<\/a> that the company is not shutting down a wave of stores in California, and actually just opened a new location in the Inland Empire.\u00a0Newsom’s Press Office bashed<\/a> Trump for the posts, saying another posted video was AI-generated and had accused the governor of running a drug-money laundering scheme. “We cannot believe this is real life,” the governor’s post said, “And we truly cannot believe this man has the nuclear codes.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Walmart video is riddled with red flags, including the implausible claim and the fact the computerized-sounding voice that doesn’t quite match the mouth of the speaker. But it apparently looked realistic enough for Trump to share. It has a tabloid-y headline, a news-graphic-style thumbnail and a serious-sounding voice. A seemingly AI-generated news anchor opens with the\u00a0Walmart claim, and then delivers a classic antiestablishment spiel.<\/p>\n

“My name is Megan Wright,” the fake anchor says, “and this is where we investigate the stories the mainstream media won’t touch. If you value independent journalism that follows the money, exposes the decisions and holds power accountable, then subscribe to this channel right now.”<\/p>\n

Trump’s post was a reshare of a video apparently posted originally by a YouTube channel called @MeganWright62,\u00a0which as of Thursday evening did not show the video. The channel does still have a different video with similarly anti-California rhetoric posted two weeks ago with about 67,000 views.<\/p>\n

These types of anti-California videos have become an entire category on the\u00a0internet. For example, a similar channel, called @DavidScott-o8n, has been posting a spree of news-style but inaccurate videos as well, usually organized around the idea of some company closing or leaving California and Newsom panicking. The stories have targeted many of the state’s biggest names, including Apple, Tesla, In-N-Out and Meta, with its claims occasionally spreading to other social media.<\/p>\n

YouTube seems to be aware of these accounts – one of the “Megan Wright” account’s collaborators has been\u00a0shut down<\/a>.\u00a0And YouTube CEO Neal\u00a0Mohan’s year-preview letter<\/a>, posted on Jan. 21, called out the issue of “AI slop” in particular.<\/p>\n

Mohan wrote that “creators must disclose when they’ve created realistic altered or synthetic content.” He also said “to reduce the spread of low quality AI content, we’re actively building on our established systems that have been very successful in\u00a0combatting spam and clickbait, and reducing the spread of low quality, repetitive content.”<\/p>\n

Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at\u00a0stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.<\/p>\n

More News<\/p>\n

– Officials confirm tuberculosis outbreak at SF private school<\/a>
– Bay Area driver frustration triggers updated Highway 101 rules<\/a>
– ‘Please help’: Photos show Death Valley destruction from white Toyota<\/a>
– COVID’s long shadow looms over new generation of college students<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up for\u00a0daily SFGATE breaking news alerts here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Trump pushes obviously fake videos bashing California<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Trump administration has used artificial intelligence to create a fake image of a protester crying\u00a0and to splash ads…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,2926,9,8,536,1258,76416,1695,2837,76417],"class_list":["post-155993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-governor","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-gavin-newson","tag-megan-wright","tag-trump-administration","tag-walmart","tag-walmart-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}