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US President Donald Trump posted disturbing footage on his Truth Social account on Tuesday showing a man being fatally mauled by a tiger in Britain, sparking backlash on social media.
Trump captioned the video “Don’t ever mess with nature!”
He later posted another clip featuring apparently AI-generated footage of people being attacked by big cats, accompanied by synthesiser music.
The original 41-second clip, showing the UK man being attacked at a wildlife park on Saturday, was also shared by the White House’s “Rapid Response 47” account on X.
Later on Tuesday, Trump posted an AI-generated video of himself wrestling with and befriending a smiling tiger, set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
‘Disgusting’ and ‘sick’: Social media users react to Trump’s video
Several users commenting on the White House’s post on X described the video as “disgusting” and “sick,” with some users criticising it as 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 for this. Can’t you just get an intern to run your social media campaign?” another commented.
Trump has previously faced backlash over controversial social media posts, including AI-generated videos mocking marginalised groups and an image depicting himself 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 Australia’s Macquarie University.
Speaking to Euronews last year, Sengul said this use of memes and generative AI creates an environment in which nothing appears to be taken seriously.
According to him, Trump’s approach suggests that anyone offended by such content is simply “humourless and can’t take a joke.”