‘Fantasy’ AI Video, Shared by Trump, of Gaza as Luxury Resort Draws Scorn

 

‘Fantasy’ AI Video, Shared by Trump, of Gaza as Luxury Resort Draws Scorn

 

One scene from the video, whose origins are unclear, shows President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sitting shirtless at a pool with drinks. Hamas condemned it as “disgraceful.”

 

By Natan Odenheimer and Alan Yuhas

Feb. 26, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/world/middleeast/trump-gaza-ai-video.html

 

President Trump on Tuesday night shared an AI-generated video depicting the devastated Gaza Strip as an opulent resort emblazoned with his name, less than a week after he appeared to back off his proposal to displace Palestinians en masse from the territory and assert U.S. control over it.

 

It was not immediately clear where the video originated or who made it, and Mr. Trump did not add any comment to the social media post that shared it. Versions of the video had appeared on social media sites including LinkedIn, X and Instagram in recent weeks. The video shared on Mr. Trump’s account appeared to have been downloaded from Rumble, a Florida-based video platform popular on the right.

 

The video was immediately scorned by many Palestinians, much as Arab nations rejected Mr. Trump’s plan when he announced it early this month.

 

“It’s a fantasy,” said Ahmed al-Soufi, the mayor of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where huge numbers of displaced people live in tents amid rubble. “If Mr. Trump wants to give Palestinians a place to live in dignity and a future, he must give them a state alongside Israel.”

 

The video begins with scenes of people, including gunmen, walking through the ruins of heavily damaged streets, then quickly transitions to images of development and then beachside luxury. Scenes variously show a child holding a balloon shaped like Mr. Trump’s head; a large golden statue of the president; and a man throwing money in the air on a beach.

 

Some signs of AI-generated imagery are more subtle than others. One scene shows a man who resembles the billionaire Elon Musk, a close adviser to the president, eating bread with six fingers on one hand. Other scenes show belly dancers with beards and green head scarves on a beach; Mr. Trump dancing with a woman at a nightclub; and Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel sitting shirtless at a pool with drinks.

 

Mr. Trump proposed in early February that the United States take control over Gaza and permanently remove the entire Palestinian population of about two million people to countries like Egypt and Jordan. The leaders of those nations and others swiftly rejected the plan, and experts said the forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international humanitarian law, a war crime and a crime against humanity.

 

Last week, Mr. Trump seemed to concede that his efforts to persuade Egypt and Jordan had failed, telling Fox News in an interview that he was “a little surprised” by those countries’ response.

 

“I’ll tell you, the way to do it is my plan,” he told the Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. “I think that’s the plan that really works. But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it.”

 

He also spoke of his proposal in the past tense, saying, “I liked my plan. I thought my plan was good.”

 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the video.

 

The militant group Hamas, which has tried to demonstrate its continued control of Gaza over the course of a cease-fire with Israel in recent weeks, rejected the vision presented in the video on Wednesday.

 

“We strongly condemn, in the harshest terms, the disgraceful video published by U.S. President Donald Trump, which contains unethical scenes that violate the customs, morals and traditions of our Palestinian people,” said Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza.

 

During his first term, Mr. Trump outlined a Middle East peace plan that strongly favored Israel while offering the Palestinians the possibility of a fragmented state with limited sovereignty. This month, the president remained ambiguous about whether he supported a two-state solution.

 

“It doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or a one-state or any other state,” he said at a White House news conference.

 

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.