Video Reportedly Created with AI Appears to Show Trump Backing Biafra Secession

In February 2025, a video circulated on Facebook that appeared to show U.S. President Donald Trump expressing support for Biafran independence and calling for the release of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu. However, fact-checkers reportedly traced the visuals to a 2021 BBC video unrelated to Biafra; they noted signs of AI manipulation. The altered clip reportedly used tools such as ElonTalks to generate synthetic audio and video from a user-submitted script.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.1 Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale

The AI system was used to generate a political deepfake of a world leader to influence public opinion and support secessionist movements in Nigeria.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The AI system was used to generate highly realistic false statements attributed to a world leader, spreading misinformation on social media.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was caused by a human user intentionally using the deployed ElonTalks AI platform to generate a deceptive deepfake video of Donald Trump for political influence.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Risk Level 3: Limited Risk. The system is used to generate deepfakes (AI-generated content), which under the EU AI Act are subject to transparency obligations to ensure users are aware the content is synthetic.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: ElonTalks
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Voice Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: ElonTalks
• Alleged deployer: unknown
• Alleged harmed parties: U.S.-Nigeria relations, Nnamdi Kanu, Indigenous People of Biafra, General public of Nigeria, Donald Trump, Biafra activists

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Negligible. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Negligible, indirect Minor
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Minor
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Negligible, indirect Minor
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report describes the creation and spread of a deepfake video containing fabricated political statements.

Directly caused: The AI platform ElonTalks was used to directly generate a deepfake video of Donald Trump claiming he would liberate Biafra.

Indirectly caused: The generated video was shared across multiple Facebook posts, spreading political disinformation to social media users.

Inferred additional harm: It is likely that thousands of social media users were exposed to this malicious political deepfake across the various shared links, potentially inflaming regional tensions.

Democracy

Reported: Yes, the report describes an attempt to influence public opinion and political processes regarding Biafran independence using a fabricated statement from the US President.

Indirectly caused: The deepfake video sought to manipulate public perception of US foreign policy and support for secessionist movements in Nigeria.

Inferred additional harm: The use of synthetic media to impersonate world leaders on sensitive geopolitical issues poses a continuing threat to democratic discourse and international relations.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report describes the fabrication of a video where Donald Trump appears to make statements he never actually made.

Directly caused: The AI tool generated a highly realistic voice and video of Donald Trump speaking a fabricated script.

Indirectly caused: The video circulated on Facebook, misleading some users into believing the US President had officially supported Biafran independence.

Inferred additional harm: Such deepfakes contribute to the erosion of public trust in video evidence and the shared information ecosystem.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly exposed: 1200

Potential causes

Management

• Inadequate Safeguards by Platform: ElonTalks.com management failed to implement guardrails against misuse.

Technology

• Easy AI Video Generation Tools: ElonTalks.com allows realistic video generation from simple text scripts.
• Realistic Voice Synthesis: AI synthesis of celebrity voices makes deepfakes highly convincing.

Data Inputs

• Use of Real Video Templates: BBC video of Trump from 2021 was used as a template for the deepfake.

Human Factors

• Intentional Disinformation: Secessionist group IPOB used the deepfake to spread their political message.
• User Credulity: Social media users shared the video without verifying its authenticity.

Process and Methods

• Lack of Platform Moderation: Facebook failed to proactively detect and flag the AI-generated fake video.
• No Script Verification: ElonTalks.com did not filter or verify the scripts input by users.

Regulatory Environment

• Lack of Deepfake Regulations: Absence of laws restricting the creation and sharing of political deepfakes.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly identifies the AI platform used (ElonTalks), the nature of the manipulation (voice and video synthesis of Donald Trump), and the platform where it circulated (Facebook). Fact-checkers successfully traced the original source video to a 2021 BBC broadcast, leaving no ambiguity about the faked nature of the content.
• Ambiguities identified: The exact number of views, shares, or users misled by the Facebook posts is not specified.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The video is demonstrably a synthetic deepfake.

A synthetic deepfake video of US President Donald Trump falsely expressing support for Biafran independence in Nigeria was generated using the ElonTalks platform and shared on Facebook. While representing an attempt to manipulate political discourse and international relations, the video was quickly debunked by fact-checkers, resulting in minor national security impact.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Multiple nations
• Primary target: Nigeria
• Other affected: United States
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The specific incident has been resolved and debunked, representing an ongoing strategic concern regarding AI-enabled disinformation rather than an active crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI platform, ElonTalks, operates as a tool requiring a human user to provide the script and select the template to generate the synthetic media.
• Novelty: Established threat. The use of AI deepfakes to impersonate political figures for disinformation is an established threat with numerous prior occurrences.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical harm, kinetic attacks, or threats to critical infrastructure were reported or occurred as a result of this incident.
• Information security: Minor. The incident involved a deepfake video of a world leader used for political disinformation, but it was quickly debunked by fact-checkers with limited demonstrated national security impact.
• Sovereignty: Minor. The deepfake sought to manipulate perceptions of US foreign policy regarding Nigerian sovereignty, but there is no evidence of actual disruption to government operations or electoral processes.
• Economic security: Negligible. No threats to economic stability, strategic industries, or technological competitive advantage were reported.
• Societal stability: Minor. While the video targeted a sensitive geopolitical issue (Biafran secession) and could have inflamed regional tensions, no civil unrest or widespread instability was reported.