Now even ‘Russia Today’ is joking about Trump’s looming re-election defeat
Allegations of dealings with the Russian government have plagued Donald Trump’s presidency since before he took office. Now even Moscow’s most infamous global media outlet — Russia Today — is having some fun at Trump’s expense. On September 22, RT shared a deepfake video parodying the 45th U.S. president’s options after his potential defeat by Joe Biden this fall. “November 3: Donald Trump loses U.S. election to Joe Biden,” says the caption for RT’s YouTube video. “November 5: Trump flies to Moscow to sign a contract with RT.”
In the video, Trump struggles to keep up with a teleprompter, he stands at attention when receiving a phone call from the Kremlin, and he skips out on his Moscow cafeteria bill, saying Mexico will pay for his food.
On social media, Russia Today editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan shared the video, writing: “You wanted fakes? Try this one on for size.” Simonyan’s willingness to mock Trump represents a sharp departure from her attitude four years ago, after Trump was elected, when she famously tweeted that she wanted to parade an American flag through Moscow.
Deepfake?
Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. In Russia Today’s YouTube video, the network digitally grafted Donald Trump’s face onto a body double and used pre-existing recordings of Trump’s voice.
November 5?
If Trump loses his re-election bid, he will in fact remain in office as a “lame duck” until January 20, 2021, when the U.S. inaugurates the 2020 election’s winner.