Is it fake or a mistake? How the video with Trump in Saudi Arabia became a reason for speculation

During Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2025, accusations against the Al Arabiya Farsi TV channel circulated on social networks: it allegedly created a deepfake video of the US president drinking traditional coffee to hide his refusal of the drink. However, GFCN fact-checking confirmed: the version about “deepfake” turned out to be a myth, and the footage where Trump allegedly gave up the drink was filmed elsewhere. How inattention in comparing different moments of the visit led to accusations of false information — further in the arcticle.

Fake news: Trump did not drink a welcome cup of coffee during his visit to Saudi Arabia, which expressed his disrespect, and the Al Arabiya Farsi TV channel prepared and published a deepfake video where the American president nevertheless drank this traditional drink.

Reality: The TV channel did not fake the video with the help of AI, but published the footage found on social networks. At the same time, no AI interference was found on the «disputed» online video — according to the totality of facts, the video is rather authentic.

GFCN explains:

On May 13, US President Donald Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia. In Riyadh, the American leader was received by members of the royal family in the best Eastern traditions. One of them is the presentation of a welcoming kahwa — a cup of coffee, which symbolizes honor to the visitor. According to tradition, the guest should accept the cup and sip from it to show reciprocal respect for the host.

However, according to media reports, Trump did not drink from the cup offered to him and placed it on the table, which some social media users were quick to interpret as disrespect.

At the same time, some users noticed that Al Arabiya TV channel, which has been covering the events of 2025, published a video from these talks, where the president sips coffee from a cup. Users suggested that the channel’s employees intentionally edited the video with the help of artificial intelligence.

Let’s look at the details:

Indeed, the TV channel has published a video of President Trump allegedly drinking coffee. The video appeared on the Telegram channel Al Arabiya Farsi, which is a division of the parent channel that produces content in Farsi. The video is captioned, “Video footage of Donald Trump, the US president, drinking Saudi coffee during a meeting ceremony with Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh has caught the attention of social media users.”

This footage interested the audience because all other footage shows Trump taking the cup in his hands but then quickly placing it on the table without taking a sip.

After that, the information spread across social networks that the TV channel deliberately created a deepfake with the American president sipping from a cup in order to “hide Trump’s refusal of the drink, as it is a manifestation of gross disrespect to the host party.”

But what was it really like?

GFCN analysts have studied the videos circulating online and have come to a conclusion: the so-called “deepfake” with US President Donald Trump, allegedly created with the help of AI, is actually a genuine video clip.

Frame analysis conducted by comparing the video with a slow-motion frame rate showed that Trump’s movements in the alleged generated video fully correspond to the real recordings. The sequence of actions of the US president and the interior of the room coincide with the official broadcast of his meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, organized by Reuters during his visit to the Royal Palace in Riyadh on May 13, 2025. In particular, the timecode 2:37:01-2:37:03 shows the politician taking a cup from his lap and then handing it to staff.

It is noteworthy that the video, which web users were quick to call AI generation, cuts off at the very moment when the president’s hand is on his knee. At the same time, GFCN analysts did not find in the video any characteristic artifacts inherent to AI generation models. This is another argument in favor of the fact that the publication was mistaken for a fake.

An important contradiction also came to light when comparing two videos that countered each other in the fake publication about Trump not having a welcome coffee in Saudi Arabia and disrespecting Saudis.

One footage actually captured Trump drinking traditional Saudi coffee at the Royal Palace, while the other — which purportedly refutes this fact – was filmed at a very different location — the Royal Terminal of King Khalid International Airport on the same day. Although a detailed examination of the full video from the second meeting showed that Trump did not drink from the cup, the comparison was incorrect because the events took place in different locations.

GFCN managed to find an earlier publication of the very same clip of Trump “drinking from a cup.” It appeared on the page of social network X user with the nickname @draj_qasm on May 13 at 14:37 (UTC+3). The post was accompanied by a sarcastic caption and joke emoji. The video was also shared by other social media users before it appeared on Al Arabiya’s Telegram channel.

Thus, even before the channel published the provocative video, this material was posted on social networks. Al Arabiya Farsi noted in its Telegram channel that the video was shared by “social media users”. This indicates that the video was not created by the Al Arabiya Farsi channel, but was borrowed by it from public access.

As a result, the information that Al Arabiya Farsi TV channel created a deepfake video featuring US President Donald Trump turned out to be erroneous. GFCN’s analysis showed that the published video clip, in which Trump allegedly drinks traditional Saudi coffee, is authentic and contains no signs of artificial generation. In addition, accusations of misinformation arose due to an incorrect comparison of videos of different events — one episode actually took place at the airport, and the other – at the Royal Palace the same day. The fact-checker of the Arabic edition of An-Nahar, Hala Homsi, came to similar conclusions.

It is also important to note that Trump’s refusal to drink coffee earlier may not have been due to disrespect, but to his personal principles based on his health and his family’s experience. Thus, the deepfake rumors were the result of insufficient information verification.

And while some sources indicate that the American president’s refusal of coffee may be related to his personal principles based on his health and family’s experience, it is fair to note that in 2017, Trump still drank a welcome kahwa.

*Screenshots from social media were translated using artificial intelligence.