Claim: A video shows Trump breaking down and crying over the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires during a visit to the disaster site in California.
Fact: The video is most likely AI-generated.
Just a week after wildfires erupted in Los Angeles on 7 January 2025, multiple posts surfaced on social media carrying a video of US President Donald Trump apparently crying while sitting on the ground and asking for forgiveness from God.
The clip, which also includes three other visuals of what is portrayed as the blazes, is accompanied by an emotional voiceover, possibly in Spanish.
The posts are also captioned as follows:
“وائرل کریں اس ویڈیو کو اللہ انکے غم میں مزید اضافہ فرما 🤲🤲 دنیا کا کوئی بھی پانی کا زخیرہ اس آگ پر قابو نہیں پاسکتا ماہرین امریکہ لاس اینجلس دنیا کا مہنگا ترین شہر جل کرکھنڈر بن گیا
[Make this video go viral, may Allah further increase their [Americans’] grief 🤲🤲 No water reservoir in the world can control this fire, [say] experts. Los Angeles, America, the world’s most expensive city, has turned into ruins after burning to the ground.]”
LA wildfires
As of 21 January 2025, Los Angeles was battling three major fires, the Palisades, Eaton, and the Hughes fire, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE or CDFFP), which noted (archive) that a total of 47,894 acres were burned. Others — such as the Hurst, Auto, and the Little Mountain fires — were successfully contained at that time.
While authorities have not yet provided a definitive cause of the Los Angeles fires, investigations by The Washington Post and The New York Times suggested that remnants of a New Year’s Eve blaze may have played a role.
Both publications also identified the approximate point on the map where the fire started, which is extremely close to a “burn scar” left after the aforementioned New Year’s Eve blaze next to the Temescal Ridge trail near Skull Rock.
Over 29 people have died, according to the Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner (DME), and NBC4 Los Angeles reported that 14,362 structures were destroyed.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check observed various inconsistencies in the video that suggest it was generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
In the clip, Trump’s hair doesn’t appear to have any clear strands showing, his eyes are hardly visible, his hands are disproportionate and of two different colours with his fingers appearing to blend into each other, and the lapels of his coat are indistinct. Moreover, there are sudden jumps in his movement and, at one point, his head moves forward but his hair follows in a slightly delayed manner. There’s a random car that suddenly comes into the frame skidding in the background and the flames behind the US president do not move.
In the other videos, there’s garbled text on one of the ambulances, a motorcyclist merges into an ambulance on the left, human figures spawn out of one another while being transferred into an ambulance, and one car in the background suddenly multiplies into two. The vehicles in the third and last clip appear to suddenly vanish but then reappear on the road.
Moreover, the video shows skyscrapers ablaze. However, the Los Angeles fires primarily impacted residential areas in the city and healthy vegetation, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). There are no reliable news reports about high-rise buildings that were impacted by the fire either.
The government agency added, “The tragic fires sweeping across the Greater Los Angeles area have burned more than 40,000 acres, destroyed more than 12,300 structures, and prompted evacuation orders and warnings for as many as 200,000 residents. Exceptionally dry conditions, coupled with strong Santa Ana winds, have fueled the fires.”
Interestingly, had Trump cried or broken down while visiting any of the sites of the Los Angeles wildfires, it would have made news, more so given that the Republican leader has just assumed office as the country’s 47th president on 20 January 2025.
The US president visited Los Angeles and met various officials, including Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, on 24 January 2025, according to various reports.
Trump has consistently blamed Newsom for the disaster both before and after assuming office, while threatening to withhold the disaster-related aid by the federal government unless Californian leadership changed the way they manage water supply. He has also demanded the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) be reformed.
Terming the fires “tragic”, the President also said the California Governor was “incompetent” during his inauguration speech.
However, none of the footage available from that time, as well as other talks, including from when he remarked on the wildfires as the then-President-elect, match the scene depicted in the viral video that we are investigating. These can be viewed here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Emotional Spanish voiceover
As for the emotional voiceover in the background of the viral clip, we suspected that it was in Spanish, so we uploaded the audio to Maestra, an AI-powered transcription and translation tool. The results are as follows:
“¿Hasta cuándo vamos a entender, Iglesia, que Dios nos está llamando? ¿Hasta cuándo vamos a entender que nos queda poco tiempo? Cristo ya viene, Cristo ya viene.
[How long are we going to understand, Church, that God is calling us? How long are we going to understand that we have little time left? Christ is coming, Christ is coming.]”
Soch Fact Check also corroborated the translations by reaching out to the teams at Spanish-language outlets Factchequeado and Maldita, based in the US and Spain, respectively, which provided the following responses.
According to Factchequeado, it says, “Until when are we going to understand, Church, that God is calling us? Until when are we going to understand that we have little time left? Christ is coming, Christ is coming.”
According to Maldita, it says, “Until when we won’t understand, Church, that God is calling us? Until when we won’t understand that we have little time? Christ is coming, Christ is coming.”
Therefore, Soch Fact Check concludes that the video is likely AI-generated.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video circulating on multiple social media platforms.
The clip was shared here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, here, here, and here on YouTube, here, here, here, and here on Instagram, and here and here on TikTok.
Conclusion: The video is most likely AI-generated and does not authentically depict Trump crying over the LA wildfires.
Background image in cover photo: Jessica Christian
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com