--- title: "Trump Posts AI-Generated Video of Genderqueer Bellydancers Frolicking" description: "President Trump posted a baffling AI-generated video promoting his vision for \"Trump Gaza\" — bearded belly dancers and all?" date: "2025-02-26" modified: "2025-02-26" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/trump-ai-genderqueer-bellydancers" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "gaza" - "trans rights" - "trump" --- # Trump Posts AI-Generated Video of Genderqueer Bellydancers Frolicking ![President Trump posted a baffling AI-generated video promoting his vision for "Trump Gaza" — bearded belly dancers and all?]() *\Image: Donald Trump\* Late last night, Donald Trump took to Truth Social, the social media platform [he has a majority stake in](), to publish a hallucinatory AI-generated video of what he purports a Trump-ruled Gaza Strip might one day look like. The video opens with synthetic clips depicting a war-torn Gaza, where ominous automatic rifle-wielding figures stand by while children run through rubble. That dire scene then melts away, and viewers are instead greeted with a string of AI-generated clips advertising an imagined [Gaz-a-Lago](): seaside high-rises, a person who looks like billionaire Elon Musk eating snacks and throwing cash at kids, a giant golden statue of the current American president, and Trump himself dancing with a scantily-clad woman and lounging poolside with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. People in this imagined Gaza also, apparently, according to the video, carry around golden balloons designed to look like Trump's head, and buy tiny golden statues of the [self-styled]() American king. (The advertisement is even soundtracked by a promotional song, which sounds to be likely AI-generated as well.) And yet, somehow, that's not even all. Incredibly, the video also showcases a cohort of AI-generated dancers moving sensually on a beach, who despite their more traditionally feminine, ab-baring outfits have long hair and beards that present as masculine. Indeed: in Trump's gold-filled Gazan fantasyland, his imagined "riviera of the Middle East" includes gyrating trans, genderfluid, or otherwise gender-nonconforming bellydancers. ![]() The inclusion of the dancers in the clip is confounding given Trump's and his MAGA base's contempt for transgender and gender nonconforming people. Immediately after taking office, the 47th president signed an [executive order decreeing]() that it's now the "policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female." Trump has also signed executive orders blocking people under the age of 19 from [access to gender-affirming care](), banning trans women from[ competing in women's sports](), and forbidding trans people from [serving in the military](). Several of these actions, [among others](), are under some level of federal review. But as judges weigh the legality and [scientific accuracy]() of the orders, the message is loud and clear: the Trump White House thinks there's something wrong with trans people, and will do anything possible to make their lives more difficult. On an intertwined note, the administration has also been hard at work waging a war on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including the [erasure of references to LBGTQ+ health]() from public databases. The president has elsewhere piled in on the demonizing of drag shows, [canceling future drag events at the Kennedy Center]() — where Trump, breaking from past presidencies, recently took over the board and programming — while parroting the baseless far-right claim that drag performers target American kids. "Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth," the president [claimed]() — again, baselessly — earlier this month in a Truth Social post. "THIS WILL STOP." All to say, it feels *very* unlikely that the current president's vision for Trump Gaza would include provocatively dancing seaside xaddies rocking long beards and midriff-revealing bikinis and skirts. But here we are, and to that end, the dancing figures' inclusion in the promotional video raises unfortunate questions. After all, this isn't the account of a random poster; this is an official channel of the *president of the United States.* It's hard to believe that the clip went through any comprehensive review by a communications team, let alone careful scrutiny by the president himself. Of course, Trump has a well-documented [affinity for AI](). During the run-up to the 2024 election, he posted AI-generated images depicting his then-opponent, former vice president Kamala Harris, [as a communist](); synthetic pictures [himself praying](); and AI-made imagery showing [fake lines of immigrants]() pouring out of apocalyptic-looking hospitals. And on the note of scrutiny, he's also been known — with alarming frequency — to mistake synthetic content as the real deal: the faux "[Swifties for Trump]()" debacle was a perfect example, as was his recent mistaking of an [AI crypto meme]() for a real image of a General Motors car. (It's also worth noting that the AI slop has been [embraced more broadly by the MAGA movement]() — though [other folks]() have been dipping their toe in that pool these days, too.) To be sure, there are plenty of real things wrong with this video. That the president of the United States would post AI slop advertising the remodeling of a war-torn region — a place where tens of thousands of Palestinians, children included, are dead and dozens of Israeli hostages are still awaiting release — at a time when continued peace talks are entering a crucial and tentative new phase is disturbing on its face. The AI-generated Trump Gaza ad also fails to show the grim realities of what it means to [forcibly displace millions of people](), as Trump himself has said his grand remodeling idea would involve. And, by the way, [Judeo]()-[Christian]() texts are pretty clear that installing giant golden statues in or near the Holy Lands is... [well, not great](). Add it all up, and our bearded beachfront heroes feel like the only real glimmer of hope in this synthetically-crafted dreamscape — even if their inclusion is likely the result of a too-quick social media trigger finger. **More on Trump Administration close-reading:** [*Trump Appears to Have Accidentally Declared That Every Person in America Is Now Female*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()