Viral Video Of Qatar Emir Criticising Donald Trump Is Deepfake

A video shows Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, criticising US President Donald Trump following his Middle East tour. 

In the video, the Emir allegedly says, “I truly regret inviting Trump, the robber, to the Middle East. He didn’t come to discuss cooperation, he came to collect tributes… In his eyes, these grand gestures are not courtesies, but spoils of war. What he needs is not allies but admirers…As long as he feels like a king, he will almost agree to any deal…He doesn’t need agendas, he just needs cameras…”

Newschecker received the video on our WhatsApp tipline (+91-9999499044) requesting to be fact checked. 

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A keyword search for “Qatar Emir,” “regret calling” and“ Donald Trump” on Google did not yield any credible reports/official releases on the alleged remarks by the Emir. 

We then looked up the keyframes of the viral clip on Google Lens  which led us to a Facebook post by Al Jazeera, dated October 30, 2017. It featured a video interview of the Emir in the same background as seen in the viral clip, and credited the same to CBS ‘60 Minutes.’ 

We skimmed through the 2017 report by the CBS on the Qatar Emir’s interview, but did not find any such comments as heard in the viral clip. 

On carefully analysing the viral clip, we observed that the lower portion of the Emir’s jaw looked blurry/smudged. 

We then ran past a segment of the video on AI detection platform Hive Moderation which found an overall 94.1% likelihood of the media containing I generated or deepfake content. 

Another AI audio detection tool, Resemble.ai also found the voice heard in the video to be “fake.”

We checked multiple sections of the audio on Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector which found them to be “likely deepfake.” 

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Hence, the viral clip of the Qatar Emir criticising Donald Trump was found to be manipulated using AI. 

UPDATE ON 22/05/2025

Claim

Another video claiming to show Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, strongly criticising US President Donald Trump, allegedly saying that the “camels of the desert have more dignity”.

The archived version of the post can be seen here. We received this video on our Whatsapp tipline (+91-9999499044), too, with users requesting us to fact-check it.

Fact

Newschecker ran a reverse image search of keyframes, which led us to this X post by Doha News, dated May 15, 2025, stating that the Emir underlined urgent diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and push for regional stability while praising Trump’s return to the world stage. At no point in the video did the Emir criticise Trump, while we also noticed that in the viral clip the lip movements seemed unnatural, indicating AI-manipulation.

We next ran select excerpts, where the Emir is speaking, past AI-content detection platform Hive Moderation, which found them 83.6% and 92.9% likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content. We ran the audio past Resemble AI’s Deepfake Detector, which stated that the voice was “Fake”. The Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector, too, found the voice to be “likely a deepfake.” 

Sources
Facebook Post By Al Jazeera, Dated October 30, 2017
Report By CBS, Dated October 30, 2017
Hive Moderation Website
Resemble.ai Website
X post, Doha News, May 15, 2025
Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector