Trump Critics Were Convinced a White House Lawn Speech Was Green Screened
In the waning days of his term, former President Donald Trump found himself on the receiving end of possibly one of the oddest deepfake adjacent allegations. Trump posted this video of himself giving a speech on the White House lawn and almost immediate commenters flooded the internet to devise a conspiracy theory. Trump, they alleged, wasn’t in front of a lawn at all, but was in a studio with a green screen.
TO MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! pic.twitter.com/38DbQtUxEu
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2020
The grainy quality plus seemingly off, loop-like movements of the trees in the background convinced some Trump was up to something suspicious. Political commentators, including major figures like MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, ran with the idea and amplified the greenscreen conspiracy. In reality, digital forensics experts speaking with BuzzFeed at the time said there was a much simpler solution: the video was just heavily compressed.
I think it's pretty clearly a green screen. The sharpness of the outline and the lighting. Also it's a very long way to bring a sick president to shoot something when you have the Rose Gardenl. https://t.co/bBZyb2m0Fs
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 8, 2020
