A video that appeared online this week has ignited debate over what’s real and what’s not in the age of AI.
The clip shows what appears to be a black bag and a long white object being thrown out of an upstairs window at the White House.
Within hours, it had gone viral, leaving viewers wondering whether it was authentic or fabricated.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump responded by insisting the footage was “AI” and “fake,” even though his own press team had earlier suggested it was genuine.
The contradiction left the public with more questions than answers.
Trump Stands Firm
Speaking to reporters during an event on the relocation of U.S. Space Command headquarters, Trump brushed off the video.
He argued it couldn’t be real because, according to him, the windows in the White House can’t be opened.
“I know every window up there,” Trump said. He described them as heavy, sealed, and bulletproof.
He even shared a personal anecdote about former First Lady Melania Trump. According to him, she once wished she could crack a window for fresh air, only to be reminded that White House windows are locked tight.
“Each one weighs about 600 pounds,” he added. Trump went further, blaming AI for the confusion.
“It’s the kind of thing they do,” he told reporters. “If something happens really bad, just blame AI.”
Also read: President Donald Trump Bans ‘Woke AI’
Mixed Messages
Hours before Trump’s comments, several media outlets reported that White House officials had given a different explanation.
They said the video showed a contractor performing maintenance while the president was away.
That version seemed straightforward, but once Trump dismissed the clip as AI trickery, the official line became blurry.
The White House later declined to clarify the conflicting statements, fueling further speculation online.
Therefore, debates raged about whether the footage was staged, authentic, or digitally manipulated.
Experts Weigh In
To help cut through the noise, Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert from the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed the clip.
His assessment leaned heavily toward the video being real, not AI-generated. Farid noted that the shadows, including the one cast by the tossed bag, appeared physically accurate.
The motion of the flags in the background also looked natural, with none of the “glitches” often seen in AI-created videos.
“The overall structure of the White House appears to be consistent,” he explained, pointing to details like the placement of flags and lighting.
Farid added that he found no digital watermarks or visual distortions that usually hint at artificial generation. His conclusion: there was no obvious sign that the clip had been faked with AI tools.
The White House Windows
Interestingly, Trump is not the first person to complain about White House windows being sealed.
Back in 2015, Michelle Obama joked on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that one of the things she looked forward to after leaving the White House was rolling down a car window.
“The windows in our house don’t open,” she said at the time, echoing Trump’s point in a lighter way.
Her comment adds an odd twist to the current debate. If the windows really can’t be opened, how could a bag be tossed from them?
Yet if they can, then Trump’s dismissal might not hold up against what people see in the video.
