Claim: An video clip circulating on social media supposedly features US President Donald Trump making statements about Imran Khan and Pakistan’s incumbent government in an interview. He can be heard criticising former US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif and the Pakistani Army.
Fact: Trump never made such statements. Audio analysis, AI detection tools, and a lack of credible news reports about the statement confirm that the audio was created artificially.
Following Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, a video (archive) featuring his voice along with Urdu subtitles began circulating on social media in Pakistan.
In the accompanying audio, Donald Trump can be heard saying, “Some powerful people in Pakistan have requested me to stay away from Imran Khan’s case. It’s not just about Imran Khan. I don’t recognise all the fake governments created by Joe Biden, including the Shehbaz Sharif government.
I will talk about Imran Khan soon with Pakistani officials, and they must have to do something. Actually, I don’t recognise Shehbaz Sharif as a prime minister. He is actually a selected man.
He is actually a selected man of his army. He is a proxy. Pakistani’s ambassador in America has requested to meet me several times, but my response has always been the same. I will not talk to Pakistan’s military government. I am very strict on this issue.”
Soch Fact Check is not investigating allegations of any foreign country’s involvement in Khan’s removal from office but only the authenticity of the audio in the claim.
Trump’s Presidency and Khan’s future
Donald J Trump entered politics in 2015 and won the 2016 US Presidential Election on his first run for office. After his initial term, he returned to the political arena, winning the 2024 Presidential Election to become the 47th president.
In the lead-up to the 2024 US elections, the Pakistani-American Public Affairs Committee (PAKPAC USA) endorsed the Republican presidential candidate. In a post on X, published in October, they wrote that the “legislative coup” against former Prime Minister Imran Khan was carried out under the Biden administration.
Khan’s supporters and allies are hopeful that Trump’s return to the US presidency could lead to diplomatic efforts and that the Trump administration might exert pressure on Pakistan’s government to secure Khan’s release from prison, as reported by The Media Line.
On 26 November, foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell attracted the attention of many Pakistanis when he took to X to demand the release of the former prime minister.
Trump appointed him as a special missions envoy on 14 December, and Grenell posted about Khan again on 16 December. In his post, which has a staggering 12 million views as of the writing time, Grenell said, “I’ll say it again, @geonews_urdu: Free Imran Khan.” When his post reached 10 million views, he wrote, “This is clearly popular. Free Imran Khan.”
Grenell has since reposted and written several posts on X, calling for Khan’s release and criticising the State Department’s stance on the issue. He also appeared on NewsMax’s show ‘Newsline’ where he spoke about the US foreign policy with Pakistan and Imran Khan.
As of now, Donald Trump has not issued any official statements advocating for Khan’s release. The situation remains speculative with outcomes dependent on both international and diplomatic efforts and Pakistan’s internal political landscape.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check initially searched for news reports from credible media outlets but did not find any. We could not find any instance where Donald Trump had mentioned Imran Khan or Shehbaz Sharif by name whether in interviews, speeches, or statements.
Moreover, the audio in question is suspicious due to its semantic and grammatical errors, as well as its tone. It was likely engineered with artificial intelligence (AI) or created through audio splicing. Splicing involves cutting and pasting different audio segments together to create a new, manipulated audio file.
We spoke to Shaur Azher, an audio engineer at Soch Videos, who analysed the audio and compared it with authentic recordings of Trump’s interviews. Azher concluded that the audio was fabricated using AI tools and provided a breakdown of his analysis into four key areas:
Voice synthesis indicators
The frequency of the dialogue remains unusually consistent throughout, which is uncharacteristic of natural human speech. Genuine speech varies in pitch and inflection as words or phrases are emphasised. Additionally, the audio’s tonal quality is flat, with each word spoken at the same pitch. By contrast, Trump’s natural speaking style includes dynamic intonation, stress, and abrupt shifts in pitch.
Absence of natural room acoustics
Authentic recordings capture ambient characteristics like reverb, background noise, or echoes, depending on the environment. This audio lacks such room acoustics, suggesting it was synthesised in an artificial or isolated environment.
Frequency spectrum analysis
Natural human voices encompass a wide range of frequencies, including higher ones that add texture and clarity. The analysed audio lacks these frequencies, resulting in an unnaturally processed sound. Furthermore, the harmonics of the audio align with those produced by voice synthesis tools, which generate smooth but artificial sound waves.
Comparison with authentic Trump interviews
Authentic recordings of Trump showcase variations in pitch and emphasis, reflecting his emotional tone and conversational style. The audio in the claim lacks these elements. In addition, Trump’s speech patterns typically include deliberate pauses, stress on specific words, and distinctive pronunciation, none of which are present in the fabricated audio.
Azher reiterated the post’s lack of credibility, noting that the audio’s origin is unverified, and no credible news outlets have reported such statements from Trump. The content seems to be intentionally manipulated and spreads disinformation about the newly-elected President’s views on Khan and his imprisonment.
The audio analysis and comparisons with actual recordings of Donald Trump’s voice strongly indicate that the audio of Trump in the post being fact-checked is synthetically generated and fabricated to spread false information, according to Azher.
Results from AI detection tools
We tested DeepFake-O-Meter, developed by the University at Buffalo’s Media Forensics Lab (UB MDFL). From the available detectors, we used three, namely AASIST, LFCC-LCNN, and RawNet3. They revealed that the probability of the audio in question being fake was 75.6%, 59.4%, and 99.9%, respectively. The results are available here, here, and here; however, only those who have signed up can view them.
We also analysed the audio using Resemble Detect, a tool designed for real-time detection of deepfake audio across various media types, which rated the audio as “fake.”
The tool’s results are based on specific markers that distinguish synthetic sounds from natural human speech. These include audio artifacts, such as subtle distortions or patterns not found in natural recordings, and unnatural speech patterns, such as consistent pacing, pitch, or tone, or the lack of natural variability heard in human speech. Additionally, some AI-generated clips lack background noise or inconsistencies typically present in live recordings.
Since Resemble Detect uses advanced tools to analyse the sound’s patterns and identifies anything unusual, the analysis confirms that the audio of Trump is artificial.
Virality
The audio was shared widely on Facebook including here, here, here, here, here, and here. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On X, it was shared here, here, and here. Archived here, here, and here.
It was shared here, here, and here on Instagram.
On Threads, it was shared here.
Conclusion: The audio of Donald Trump’s statements about Imran Khan and Pakistan’s government is fabricated. Audio analysis, AI detection tools, and a lack of credible sources confirm that it is artificial.
–
Background image in cover photo: AP Photo/John Raoux
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com