DNC anti-'misinformation' account caught pushing provocative fake audio of Donald Trump Jr.

The Democratic National Committee's rapid response account FactPostNews, established in January as part of an initiative to "combat online misinformation," was caught Wednesday pushing a fake audio clip purporting to show Donald Trump Jr. voicing support for turning against Ukraine and arming Russia.

"The audio in question, which was amplified by the official X account of the DNC, along with countless other major anti-Trump accounts, is 100% fake," a spokesman for Donald Trump Jr. told ABC News. "It appears to be an AI-generated deepfake."

Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the co-founder of GetReal Labs who is an expert on digital forensics and synthetic media, appeared to agree, suggesting that the audio viewed millions of times and shared at least 6,600 times on X was most likely generated by artificial intelligence.

The clip was presented as an excerpt from the Feb. 25 episode of Don Jr.'s podcast ... even though the episode still had not been uploaded.

In the fake audio clip shared by the DNC's FactPostNews account, thousands of other partisan accounts, and foreign outfits like Visegrád 24, a voice made to resemble Trump Jr.'s says, "I honestly can't imagine anyone in their right mind picking Ukraine as an ally when Russia is the other option."

"I mean, just think about it: Massive nuclear power loaded with natural resources everyone needs, literally the biggest country on the planet. And ha ha, there's Ukraine, which has Chernobyl and some radiation-proof dogs," continues the voice. "Meanwhile, the Biden administration is like, 'Oh, yeah, this is definitely the ally we need. Let's dump all our money into them.' Honestly, if anything, the U.S. should have been sending weapons to Russia."

Mediaite reported that there were immediately suspicions about the authenticity of the audio, especially since the clip was presented as an excerpt from the Feb. 25 episode of Don Jr.'s podcast, "Triggered with Donald Trump Jr.," on Spotify, even though the episode still had not been uploaded to the platform as of Thursday morning. In the full Feb. 25 episode that aired on Rumble, the remarks were nowhere to be found.

Andrew Surabian, a Republican strategist and spokesman for Donald Trump Jr., tweeted, "This is 100% fake AI generated audio, but I'm sure that won't stop anti-Trump resistance accounts from continuing to dishonestly spread it."

Citing a policy against "misinformation," a spokesman for the DNC told ABC News that the post was removed as soon as it was learned that the audio spread online was fake.

When Democrats launched FactPostNews, DNC chief mobilization officer Shelby Cole said in a statement, "The Republican disinformation machine is powerful, but we believe a stronger weapon is giving people the facts about how Trump and his administration are screwing over the American people."

The DNC does not appear to have bothered issuing a public apology for presenting provocative Russia-based falsehoods to its audience as "facts."

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