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US President Donald Trump posted disturbing images on his Truth Social account on Tuesday showing a man fatally mauled by a tiger in Britain, sparking backlash on social media.
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Trump captioned the video “Never play with nature!”
He then released another clip featuring apparently AI-generated footage of people being attacked by felines, accompanied by synthesizer music.
The original 41-second clip, showing the British man attacked at a wildlife park on Saturday, was also shared by the White House’s “Rapid Response 47” account on X.
Later Tuesday, Trump released an AI-generated video of himself wrestling and befriending a smiling tiger, set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
“Disgusting” and “sick”: Social media users react to Trump video
Several users commenting on the White House post on X called the video “disgusting” and “sick,” with some users calling it disrespectful to the man who died in the attack.
“A family is grieving and you decide to post their family members’ final moments to the entire world,” one user wrote.
“I voted for you but not this one. Can’t you just hire an intern to run your social media campaign?” commented another.
Trump has previously faced backlash over controversial social media posts, including AI-generated videos mocking marginalized groups and an image depicting him as Jesus Christ, which he later deleted following criticism from religious groups.
The president and his administration have frequently used AI-generated memes as part of a strategy described as “memetic warfare” by Kurt Sengul, a researcher at Macquarie University in Australia.
Speaking to Euronews last year, Sengul said this use of memes and generative AI creates an environment where nothing seems to be taken seriously.
Trump’s approach, he said, suggests that anyone offended by such content is simply “humorless and can’t take a joke.”
Gn world
