President Donald Trump was quick to offer his take, brushing off the clip as a digital creation and expressing his unease about the technology at play. He declared with certainty, “That’s probably AI-generated video content. It’s got to be because I know every window up there. Number one, they’re sealed, and number two, each window weighs about 600 pounds.”
He sounded a note of caution, saying AI is “good and bad” but filled with deceit, then joked, “If something happens, really bad, just blame AI.” In this viral video, the object in question tumbles from a window on the White House’s second floor, an area that houses Trump’s private quarters during his presidency.
Experts Weigh In
Over the weekend, sources with inside knowledge offered a different narrative. They said the footage did not involve digital trickery at all, attributing the toss to workers involved in ongoing construction inside the building.
Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and chief science officer at detection company GetReal, weighed in after reviewing the clip. He stated, “We do not detect any digital watermarks that are sometimes inserted at the point of AI generation. The shadows in the scene, including the shadow cast by the tossed bag, are all physically consistent.”
He added that the movement of the American and POW/MIA flags looked genuine, and there were none of the subtle glitches seen in many digitally generated videos.
Trump, meanwhile, reminisced about the White House’s famously unyielding windows. He mentioned that his wife, Melania, had once lamented her futile wish for fresh air, telling him, “Love to have a little fresh air come in,” only to be reminded that the reinforced, bullet-resistant glass cannot be opened.
As the video continued to spark debate online, the White House did not immediately comment or provide new details.
During the weekend when the video emerged, Trump actually spent a chunk of his time away from the White House at his Virginia golf club, returning later in the week, while rumors about advanced AI models swirled in the tech community.
