A viral video on social media misstates that U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting the employment of Indian customer care representatives in the U.S.
BOOM authenticated the video to be a satirical production of the YouTube channel ‘Sobering Satire’. The conservative political satire channel featured a Trump impersonator in a voice-over and employed AI to control Trump’s lip sync.
The video, which is Trump supposedly declaring the ban, was edited from an actual press conference given by Trump on January 10, 2025. There is no reference to banning Indian customer service representatives in the original video.
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The channel of satire also explained that the voice in the video was performed by voice artist Micheal Clive, and AI was merely applied to change his face. Even after the manipulation, AI detection did not report strong evidence of AI-generation in the audio, though visual manipulation was discovered near Trump’s lips. The video came with a disclaimer clearly noting the satirical content of the video.
In addition, the viral video was shared with a Hindi caption that read, “If we want to join hands with America, then population control is a must!!” There is no official statement or executive order by Trump on such a policy, and up until now, no such executive order has been announced.
Trump has previously been criticized for making fun of Indian accents, most notably at a 2016 campaign rally, but he also complimented India as a “great place.”