Eric Trump moved quickly to squash allegations that he sought insider information about White House-hosted UFC fights, dismissing screenshots that circulated online as fabrications and artificial intelligence forgeries.
The president's son denied ever contacting UFC commentator Daniel Cormier after images purportedly showed messages from an account bearing Trump's name asking Cormier about fight outcomes and whether bets were being placed. The alleged messages, which later disappeared from Cormier's social media, included questions about whether any of Sunday's bouts might be rigged, with specific interest in a Diego Lopes matchup.
Trump took to X to fire back at the allegations. "This is completely fake! I have never reached out to Daniel. In fact, this is scary," he wrote in one post, followed by another claiming the images were AI-generated fakes.
Cormier himself rejected the screenshots as well, responding on social media with "Are people really this dumb?" When approached by a spectator at the event, the retired fighter elaborated: "Not real. I can't believe you guys believe that... I got hacked or something... Who believes stuff like that? That's crazy."
The Trump Organization weighed in through spokesperson Kimberly Benza, who issued a statement emphasizing the dangers of synthetic media. "These screenshots are fake. They were fabricated and do not reflect reality. This is one of the dangers of AI-generated content: false information can spread quickly when people don't verify what they're seeing," Benza said.
The incident overshadowed what was otherwise a high-profile gathering at the UFC event, which coincided with Donald Trump's 80th birthday Sunday. The crowd included prominent tech executives including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, and Crypto.com founder Kris Marszalek.
The event itself faced separate controversy when fighter Josh Hokit repeated a debunked claim about Michelle Obama, drawing immediate criticism.
Author James Rodriguez: "The speed at which these screenshots spread and the immediate denials highlight how quickly misinformation can take hold online, even when both parties involved reject it just as fast."
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