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| - Ahead of the November 2024 U.S. presidential election, social media users shared a viral video (archived) purportedly containing audio of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. endorsing Republican nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in a speech.
One version was viewed more than 1.1 million times on a pro-Trump X account called MAGA Resource; however, the post was later removed.
The footage, shared repeatedly on X, showed the civil rights activist speaking over clips of Democrats, Trump and other segments of video. The audio stated, in part (emphasis ours):
We've been told again and again that we cannot vote for the man that did more for the Black community than any other president. If a Black man dares speak out in support of Donald Trump, a Democrat is always there to call that man an Uncle Tom, a house n***o, or even worse. We've been used by the Democrats. For decades we've supported the party of slavery and Jim Crow, supported the party of the Klu Klux Klan. Broken promises and broken homes. Our families demolished, our communities destroyed. And yet we continue to vote for the Democrats.
[…]
Enough voting for Democrats who claim they care about us, but enact the very policies that push us down and keep us there. Enough of these frauds and liars, who claim to be against racism, yet believe an individual's race is their defining quality. Once we say enough, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.
We recognize that Donald J. Trump kept the promises he made to all Americans. And we will vote for Donald Trump as our president, and we will fight beside him to make America great again. We will not allow the American dream to die. And as we unite under the banner of President Trump and America First, let there be no doubt that yes, as the man always says, the best is yet to come!
However, the audio in the above video is fake. King never made such a speech and never endorsed Trump, therefore we have rated this recording as fake.
Given that King was assassinated in 1968 — when Trump was just a young man, not running for president, and only just graduating — such a speech is anachronistic and out of touch with the realities of the time King was alive.
King's daughter Bernice King denounced the video on X, writing: "Delete this, @MAGAResource. It's vile, fake, irresponsible, and not at all reflective of what my father would say. And you gave no thought to our family."
The clip was indeed deleted by MAGA Resource soon after, but it continued to be shared by other accounts.
The video in question clearly shows manipulated footage of King speaking. Furthermore, given he died in 1968, the civil rights leader would never have addressed the issues of the present-day Democratic Party, like the legal issues of U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden.
Hive Moderation, a website with a tool that detects deepfake content or media created using artificial intelligence software, concluded there was a 99% chance the audio was AI-generated.
(Hive Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection)
A preliminary search of archives containing King's speeches produced no results showing him expressing similar sentiments to those in the social media video.
This is not the first time we have fact-checked quotes attributed to King. In the past, we have covered quotes paraphrased from his original speeches, as well as his purported views on issues like capitalism.
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