Fact Check: Did Trump sign an executive order allowing offensive slurs?

WASHINGTON, DC: Social media descended into chaos late last month when an eyebrow-raising video started making the rounds, supposedly showing President Donald Trump signing an executive order allowing people to call their friends two offensive slurs.

One X (formerly Twitter) user who posted the video on Wednesday, January 29, captioned it: “IT’S HAPPENING." That post alone racked up a staggering 18 million views and over 200,000 likes as users flooded the comments with reactions.

When some tried to add community notes clarifying that the video was bogus, the original poster reportedly pushed back and refused to back down.

The now-infamous clip showed what looked like Trump sitting at the Resolute desk and declaring: “Today, I am signing an executive order making it legal to call your friends fgs and r*****s, if they are doing something f***y or r******d. F**s and r*****s, ladies and gentlemen. We've got to start calling our friends this again. And we will. We're going to call them f**s and r*****s again.”

Fact Check: It didn't happen

While plenty of users saw the video and immediately knew it was fake, others weren’t so sure. A quick scroll through the replies showed people asking whether it was real, with some even insisting that it had to be legit.

The truth, however, is that the video was created using a blend of deepfake technology and AI-powered voice cloning. The original, unaltered footage came from Trump’s Oval Office address about the Covid-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020.

Some skilled video editor took that clip, edited his lip movements, and overlaid a completely fabricated AI-generated voice — making it seem like Trump was casually endorsing the use of slurs, Snopes reported.

Not the first AI hoax about Trump's executive orders

AI-generated fake news about Trump has been popping up left and right. Just last month, another ridiculous deepfake video claimed Trump had signed an executive order banning men from wearing skinny jeans.

One of the most popular versions of that video was posted on Instagram, where it pulled in more than 53,000 likes. The caption declared, “Trump signs an executive order demanding grown men no longer wear skinny jeans.” The footage was even doctored to include a Fox News “Breaking News” chyron that read: “TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER FOR NO MEN'S SKINNY JEANS.”

The clip showed a man briefing Trump on the supposed order: “And lastly, sir, we have an executive order demanding that grown men stop wearing skinny jeans.” Trump responds by saying, “That's a big one, huh? Lot of people are waiting for this for a long, for years, for decades.”

But once again, it was all smoke and mirrors. The footage was cleverly edited from real clips of Trump signing executive orders, and no AI software was even needed—just some old-fashioned video editing. The mastermind behind the viral hoax was Barry Hulsey, a content creator who runs a men’s style YouTube and Instagram channel.

Hulsey confirmed that the clip was fake, telling one commenter that it was as “real as a unicorn.”

Trump's alleged Pride month ban

Another fake Trump-related claim hit social media in late January, this time alleging that he had signed an executive order banning Pride Month.

On January 24, an X post with over 1.5 million views claimed, “BREAKING: Trump just signed an EO banning gay pride month. This is the way. Veterans only get one day.”

While Trump has made moves to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from the military and reinstated service members who were forced out due to vaccine mandates, no such executive order banning Pride Month exists.

As of February 2, there’s no trace of it under the official Presidential Actions section on the White House website, and major news outlets haven’t reported on any such order—something Reuters fact-checked and confirmed.