In early March 2025, a video went viral on the Internet in which the US President spoke unflatteringly about the outfit of his Ukrainian colleague, emphasizing the supposed cheapness of his clothes. We decided to check whether Trump actually said that.
In the video, which lasts almost a minute, US President Donald Trump talks about how outraged he was by the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and especially by his chosen outfit: “Zelensky appeared at the White House wearing an outfit from Temu (a Chinese marketplace with cheap goods. - Ed.). And I found it very disrespectful, to be honest. From now on I will start calling him Temu Zelensky. Someone buy this guy a suit, for Christ's sake. Sleepy Joe [Biden] gave this guy $500 billion and he can't even afford a $1,000 suit. What a greedy guy. He spent all the money that US taxpayers gave him and spent it on the Temu app. He should at least use Amazon so our taxpayer money doesn't go to China. [Products] Temu is of terrible quality. I think we all agree on this. But in any case, you cannot appear in the White House like this. I've seen homeless people dress better than this guy and he should be president? Even Elon [Musk's] little son, Ax, dresses better than this clown. No wonder President Putin doesn't take this guy seriously."
Social media users shared the video or quotes from it (“VKontakte", Threads, Facebook, X) And blogging platforms, as well as popular Telegram channels: “Media Russia is not Moscow"(219,000 views at the time of writing the analysis), "Oleg Tsarev"(192,000), "The goat screamed"(118,000), etc.
February 28, 2025 Zelensky met with Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance at the White House to sign the rare earths agreement. Before the signing, a protocol meeting with journalists took place, which ended in a skirmish, a scandal and the quick departure of the Ukrainian delegation from Washington.
Meeting a guest on the porch of the White House, Trump noticed journalists that Zelensky, who chose a strict black long-sleeve with the coat of arms of Ukraine on the chest for the visit, was “dressed up.” During a meeting in the Oval Office, a representative of one of the conservative American media asked from Zelensky, why he didn’t put on a suit, whether he even has one and whether he considers the choice of clothing to be disrespectful to the receiving party. The Ukrainian leader, who has indeed worn exclusively military-style clothing in public and even at meetings with leaders of other states since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, responded that he would return to suits after the end of the war. Although Trump, in turn, tried smooth out the situation and joke that he quite likes Zelensky’s appearance, the question asked by the journalist about the suit, many Internet users subsequently became attribute to the American president himself. It is not surprising that when a video appeared on the Internet in which Trump criticizes Zelensky’s wardrobe, many did not doubt its authenticity.
Video footage of Trump talking about Zelensky’s suit and comparing it to the clothes of homeless people could not be found in any official source - it was not published on the official YouTube channel White House, in the account of the President of the United States in X, as well as on my personal blog at Truth Social, which the politician is very actively leading. Not a single authoritative American, Ukrainian or international media outlet wrote about the resonant statement. There was no reaction from official Kyiv either.
Using a reverse image search, Verified discovered the possible source of the video: Trump wearing the same suit and sitting in the same chair with the same flags in the background during his first Cabinet meeting. However, the quality of the viral video is much worse, and the image itself (if compared, for example, with broadcast Associated Press) mirrored. Moreover, Trump could not discuss Zelensky’s outfit during his visit to the White House at that meeting - his meeting with the government took place on February 26, two days before the arrival of the Ukrainian president.
If you look closely at the video, despite the low quality, you can see the Dangerousai watermark in the lower right corner, and just below there is a link to the YouTube channel of the same name. Video with Trump passing a fashionable verdict on Zelensky, appeared there on March 1. From the name of the channel you can guess that its author uses artificial intelligence in his videos, and in his description it is stated explicitly: “Parody AI content. <…> Everything that is said in my videos is an original script written by me. These are not actual quotes or opinions of the people in the video. I use AI to create voiceovers for my videos. These are not the real voices of the characters in the videos."
The first publication in Russian that contains this video and that “Verified” was able to find is a post posted on March 1 at 19:03 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “The goat screamed" The blogger did not leave any indication that the video was processed using AI. This is not the first time that the “Goat Cried” channel has published false information. According to the news posted there, MSNBC anchor allegedly cried when she learned about Elon Musk’s desire to buy this channel, Welt TV channel released footage from the game Call Of Duty for reporting from Donbass, and ABC employee, who claimed that Harris leaked a list of questions at the debate with Trump, died in a car accident.
It is noteworthy that a few hours before the post from “The Goat Screamed” in the channel “Gloger USA Miami“Another video appeared where Trump also criticized Zelensky’s suit, mentioning Temu. The post received only 600 views and was deleted 13 minutes after publication. Apparently, this video was also processed using neural networks. And the basis of the video track became a fragment of a Fox News broadcast where Trump spoke about resolving the war in Gaza, and this fragment appeared on the Internet long before Zelensky’s visit.
Thus, the video in which Trump condemns Zelensky’s outfit, compares it to the clothes of the homeless and indicates that the Ukrainian president purchased these items on the Chinese marketplace Temu, was created using AI. The author of the video, releasing it on his channel, clearly noted this. However, later this disclaimer was lost, either accidentally or intentionally, and Internet users began to distribute the video as a real speech by Trump.
Cover photo: screenshot Associated Press/YouTube
Read on the topic:
- "Myth Detector". Trump's video fabrication about Zelensky's clothing is spreading on social networks
- Did Trump Jr. say that Zelensky asked for an invitation to the inauguration of the US President three times, but was refused?
- Is it true that an image of Zelensky in handcuffs, created by a neural network, was shown in Times Square?
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