A fake recording of Vice President JD Vance criticizing Elon Musk has gone viral on social media.
William Martin, the communications director for the vice president, has since said that the recording is not real and was AI-generated.
“Most certainly not the Vice President,” he wrote, along with a link to a post that has since been taken down.
Vance also responded on X to the fake video, writing, “It’s a fake AI-generated clip. I’m not surprised this guy doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize this fact, but I wonder if he has the integrity to delete it now that he knows it’s false. If not, it could be defamation. I guess we’ll find out!”
While AI tools are getting smarter and more popular, the amount of false video and audio content made by AI is growing very quickly.
The sound quality is terrible and distorted. It’s not clear where or why the audio came from, and it’s not explained why a random social media account would have a private recording of the vice president talking, which is a very unlikely scenario.
The video seems to have come from the TikTok account Joseiitalia, where it had already been seen 1.5 million times. It was also shared on X, where it got over 500,000 views, and it has been posted on several Reddit threads.
In the recording itself, the person imitating Vance talks negatively about Musk, saying: “Everything that he’s doing is getting criticized in the media, and he says that he’s helping and he’s not, he’s making us look bad.”
The voice also says, “he’s making me look bad,” and “he has the audacity to act like he is an elected official. I am an elected official, I am the important one in this situation.”
This comes as the Trump administration is dealing with a major security breach this week.
President Donald Trump responded Monday to The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg after the reporter said he was inadvertently added to a group chat in which senior Cabinet officials discussed airstrikes on Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Goldberg revealed that he connected with National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Signal and was unexpectedly added a few days later to a group chat on the app entitled “Houthi PC small group.”
Officials such as Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard used the chat to discuss striking the Houthis amid interruptions to shipping channels in the Middle East.
Trump told reporters he was unaware of the reports that Goldberg was accidentally included in the messages.
“I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it. You’re saying that they had what?” Trump began.
“Having to do with what? Having to do with what? What were they talking about? With the Houthis. You mean the attack on the Houthis? Well, it couldn’t have been very effective because the attack was very effective, I can tell you that. I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time,” Trump added.
The texts seemed to show top Trump officials debating the merits of the strikes.
Vance expressed worries about helping Europe without any promise of return, since the Houthi attacks were mainly affecting their trade routes.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance wrote his colleagues. “There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Hegseth told Vance, “I understand your concerns – and fully support you raising w/ POTUS.”
He also asserted that acting quickly would avoid making the United States look “indecisive” and ensure that the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza would not fall apart if Israel acted first.
“Whether it’s now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes,” Waltz offered. “Per the president’s request we are working with DOD and State to determine how to compile the cost associated and levy them on the Europeans.”
Vance reiterated, “I just hate bailing Europe out again,” but told Hegseth, “If you think we should do it let’s go.”
Hegseth answered, “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close.”
