Did a Fake Donald Trump Dupe News Hosts? What We Know

An interview with former President Donald Trump on conservative news network Real America's Voice caused some to question whether the network had been duped by an imposter on Thursday night.

The sound of the former president's usually instantly recognizable voice raised eyebrows on social media right after the airing of a roughly 17-minute phone interview with Real America's Voice hosts John Solomon and Amanda Head.

Some speculated, wrongly, that the voice may have belonged to a Trump impersonator or was created by artificial intelligence.

In a since-deleted post to X, formerly Twitter, The Daily Beast reporter Zachary Petrizzo claimed that Real America's Voice owner Robert Sigg remarked that Trump's voice in the interview "sounds like ChatGOP" and an "internal investigation will be needed to determine its authenticity."

Additional now-deleted X posts from Petrizzo noted that host Solomon insisted that the interviewee was "definitely Donald Trump," while Petrizzo described the sound of the caller as "pretty strange," based on a small clip.

However, a statement from Real America's Voice spokesman that was emailed to Newsweek on Friday confirmed that the interview was with the former president and claimed that Petrizzo had reported an entirely fabricated quote from Sigg.

"Last night, President Trump was interviewed on Real America's Voice, providing his customary insights and wisdom for our millions of viewers," the statement reads. "Then, early this morning, The Daily Beast claimed in a published story that it wasn't really the 45th President on the air."

"The far-left outlet published a direct quote from Real America's Voice owner, Robert Sigg, with outlandish claims that the Trump interview was 'Chat GOP' ... These are all scurrilous lies in a fake quote that The Daily Beast never received from our network."

The statement goes on to say that, "Ironically, in a story they wrote about RAV being duped, it was The Daily Beast in fact that may have been 'punked' into believing they had a qualified quote from us."

The network said that it had demanded an "immediate retraction" from The Daily Beast and "all options are on the table" legally.

Trump's office did not respond to Newsweek's emailed request from comment on Thursday night.

Despite the guest's voice raising suspicions that the interview was conducted with an imposter, Trump did not seem to make any statements that were noticeably out of character for the former president, repeating frequent lines about "perfect" phone calls and "rigged" elections.

The voice of the person being interviewed did seemingly glitch out on multiple occasions. Trump also offered repeated praise for Real America's Voice, including at one point asking when the network would "get a Pulitzer Prize" for being "right about Russia and so many other things."

Regardless of Trump's voice sounding somewhat unusual, his phrasing and the choice of vocabulary was typical of the former president. At least one person argued that Trump's voice had been fed through a filter that changed it almost beyond recognition.

"The call was clearly run through a software in an attempt to enhance the 'quality' (Likely the free Adobe Enhance one.)," wrote X user @OaklandKnight, before sharing a short video demonstrating the software in action. "Below is a recent Trump phone interview raw, and then with the enhancing software applied about 10 seconds in:"

Deepfake and artificial intelligence technology for both video and audio has dramatically improved in recent years, sparking concerns from some that cloned likenesses may soon become indistinguishable from the real thing.

Using the technology to create fake versions of prominent figures making false and potentially damaging statements could have a particularly devastating impact on the political world.

Trump was active on Truth Social Thursday night but did not mention or share any content from his interview on Real America's Voice in the hours after suspicions about his voice were raised. However, he did re-share an unrelated post from Solomon earlier in the day.

Real America's Voice promoted the interview on multiple platforms.

Update 09/01/23, 4:29 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include a statement from Real America's Voice that confirms the interview was genuine and to provide additional information and context.