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President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated clip of Gaza reimagined as a Dubai-style luxury resort, featuring scenes of him sipping cocktails with a shirtless Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk eating flatbread. The video is backed with an AI-generated song featuring lyrics such as “Donald’s coming to set you free” and “Trump Gaza number one.”
While the video begins with clips of children and armed soldiers surrounded by rubble and ruined buildings, the scene quickly changes to one of skyscrapers, yachts, and luxury hotels to depict Trump’s proposal to “take over” the war-torn Palestinian territory, envisioning its transformation into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The story behind the AI-generated video
The 78-year-old President has made a number of comments suggesting that the U.S. could “own” and “clean out” the Gaza Strip. His vision includes leveling the existing infrastructure and relocating its approximately two million Palestinian residents to neighboring Arab countries. This proposal has been widely criticised as promoting ethnic cleansing.
In the video, Trump is portrayed as the figure responsible for bringing wealth to Gaza. A boy holds a golden balloon shaped like his head, small Trump statuettes and busts line shop displays, and a massive golden statue of him stands in the centre of a palm tree-lined street. Other scenes include bearded bellydancers on a beach, Musk dancing as money rains upon him, Israel’s president Netanyahu on a sun lounger, Trump partying with a woman in a nightclub, Teslas racing through streets, and the caption “Gaza 2025…Whats next?”
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, citing war crimes. While AI-generated content has been used by creators on both sides of the conflict as propaganda since it began on Oct. 7, 2023, Trump’s comments have inspired a number of Westernised reimaginings of Gaza. Some feature golf courses and refer to the territory as “Gaz-A-Lago” or “Gaza Riviera.”
Backlash from Trump’s followers
It’s not clear who created the latest video, but it has been shared widely by pro-Isreal social media accounts. After the President reposted the video on his Truth Social platform and Instagram, he received tens of thousands of comments, many of which condemned it as “disrespectful.”
“As President Trump has said, Gaza in its current state is uninhabitable for any human being,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to NBC News in response to the backlash about the video. “President Trump is a visionary, and his plan to have the United States involved in Gaza’s rebuilding will allow for Palestinians to resettle in new, beautiful communities while improving conditions in the region for generations to come.”
Learn more about the ethical challenges and risks posed by generative AI technology and best practices for overcoming them.