Donald Trump Attempts Deepfake With 'Independence Day' Speech, and Social Media Is Speechless

President Donald Trump baffled followers on Saturday by tweeting an elaborate video edited to make it look like he gave the climactic speech in the 1996 movie, Independence Day. The video was made by an anonymous Twitter user, and edited to put Trump's face on the body of President Thomas J. Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman. The attempted "deepfake" video featured other conservative leaders edited over other characters in the movie.

The president tweeted the Independence Day parody on Saturday afternoon without adding any commentary of his own. For many followers, the video itself spoke volumes. In it, Trump's mouth moved and Pullman's voice came out, delivering the empowering speech at the climax of the alien invasion movie. From the crowd, he was watched by the edited faces of everyone from Sean Hannity to Ted Cruz.

pic.twitter.com/L3sxMC9fXm

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2020

It is not clear why the president tweeted this video this weekend, or why he might have come across it just now online. The video was originally posted on April 14 by Twitter user "Mad Liberals." It was posted on YouTube with the same username. The original poster thanked the president for sharing it shortly thereafter.

Whatever the occasion, Twitter as a whole was caught completely off guard by the president's tweet on Saturday. Many wondered if they were supposed to interpret some kind of implicit message from the video, or if it was meant to relate to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump's only follow-up came a few minutes later — a tweet reading "OBAMAGATE!"

Many critics encouraged Independence Day's creative team, stars and studio to pursue legal action against the president for copyright infringement. Meanwhile, some of his supporters seemed to delight in the confusion the video caused. Here's a look at how Twitter is responding to Trump's Independence Day video.