WHAT WAS CLAIMED
US President Donald Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskiy a cokehead in a press conference.
OUR VERDICT
False. The clip is a deepfake.
AAP FACTCHECK - A video in which Donald Trump appears to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a "total cokehead" is fake, despite social media claims they are the US president's actual words.
Experts have pointed to signs the video is a deepfake manipulated with artificial intelligence, and the original press conference from which the footage is taken features none of the comments shown in the fake clip.
An Instagram post's caption claims: "Donald Trump exposing the president of Ukraine the cokehead not my words President Trump's words. Everything he's saying is true anyway."
Overlay text on the clip says: "Finally we call it what it is. Never been more proud of this administration!"
In the video clip, Trump is seen supposedly saying: "Today I'd like to address the pandemic of fraud that's taken place in Ukraine over the past four years.
"The four-foot-two sweat pants model Zelenskiy, total cokehead, has been nothing more than a middle man for laundering money from our treasury back into the pockets of bigwigs, fat cats and politicians stateside."
He then adds: "Elon, clever Elon, is what I call him, he and his team of autistic-adjacent heroes at DOGE, have done a tremendous job of identifying financial whodunnits aplenty, perpetrated through various NGOs."
Andrew Lensen, an AI expert at New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington, says while there are no clear visual artefacts or "weirdness" often seen in deepfakes, some elements do stand out as indicating the video is manipulated.
"His speech is too coherent and his delivery is much more monotone and statesmanlike than we would expect from Trump," Dr Lensen told AAP FactCheck.
He pointed out that all Trump's words are delivered in much the same tone, with no emphasis on words such as "devil" or "fraud".
He also said the timing of when he looks at his speech notes doesn't really match with what he is saying.
"I would expect he wouldn't be reading things like 'clever Elon' or 'autistic-adjacent heroes' off a script as those are usually more ad lib from him," he added.
Australian AI expert Toby Walsh pointed out that the language was a little more "unhinged" than the real Trump.
"It's also a bit 'breathier' (in terms of hearing his breathing) than real Trump," said Professor Walsh, who is chief scientist at the University of NSW's AI Institute.
"And the tone is a little younger/stronger than real Trump. But all minor differences that only someone looking for a fake might spot."
AAP FactCheck conducted a reverse image search from a screengrab of the video, which revealed the actual source of the footage was a press conference at the White House on May 12, 2025, featuring the president alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr and others.
A search of the transcript of the full video on YouTube finds the Ukrainian leader's name was said only once — from a reporter asking about the prospect of Trump meeting with Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin, while Trump never utters his name.
Accusations that Zelenskiy is addicted to cocaine have been around since 2019 and have been linked to pro-Russian social media accounts, according to a 2022 fact check by news outlet France 24.
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