An audio clip shows former US President Donald Trump saying that Republicans are “the worst group of voters in the country.”
An anonymous user created this fake audio clip of Trump using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
A year-old, false online rumor claims that former US President Donald Trump once told People magazine in 1998 that Republicans are “the worst group of voters in the country.”
The full quote read, “If I had to choose, I would run as a Republican. They are the most stupid group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I can lie and they will.” I'll bet my grades will be great.”
As we previously reported in 2015 and 2020, this quote commonly appears in memes. However, ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, the rumor took on a new lease of life.
On July 7, TikTok user @unclesmudge13 created a TikTok photo post that allegedly featured audio of Trump appearing in memes. The post received nearly 500,000 views.
One user commented below the post, “Most honest words he's ever spoken!!” Another person commented, “This should go viral!”
Other users mentioned artificial intelligence (AI). For example, one user posted, “And this was said before AI.” A different person also said, “Yeah that's not AI either. I heard years ago they were doing the AI thing too.” User @unclesmudge13 replied to the man, “Exactly! I know I heard that on Howard Stern years ago and I think he said the same thing on Oprah.”
However, the audio clip of Trump included in the TikTok photo post was fake. An unknown user created a fake voice using AI technology. Further, as our previous articles reported, we found no evidence that Trump ever said Republicans were “the worst group of voters.”
We've reached out to the TikTok account to ask where the user obtained the audio clip and will update this story if we hear back.
For more information on this rumor, we recommend our January 2024 article, which featured a TikTok post of one of the older quote memes.