If our analysis of the viral video is right, the media has fallen for something not officially recorded by the Republican nominee.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump made waves among the Indian community recently when he attended a ‘Hindus for Trump’ event earlier this month. The event was organised by his supporters from the Republic Hindu Coalition, and even featured a few Bollywood stars coming out in support of the candidate. Now, it appears Trump is furthering the opportunity to woo India-American voters with a new television ad.
The 30-second video, which has gone viral, features a Diwali greeting to his Indian followers, clips from the Republican Hindus event, as well as a outtake of Trump saying “Ab ki baar Trump sarkaar.” However, despite reports that the video has been playing across Indian-American channels in the US, we believe it’s a fake. The evidence is clearly visible to the discerning eye. The first telltale sign is that the supposed advertisement’s quality is far below some of Trump’s other television ads. In addition, the piece of footage where Trump is copying Modi’s slogan is out of sync with the audio, and also features a jump cut, consistent with doctored footage.
BuzzFeed News, on October 26, reported that Shalabh Kumar, chairman of the Republican Hindu Convention, claims the ads are playing across TV channels and that he personally sat with Trump as the presidential hopeful rehearsed the tagline. However, Kumar declined to comment on how much Trump’s campaign is spending on the TV spot. Additionally, his claims are a little suspect as his earliest tweets and Facebook posts regarding the video appear on October 26, a full day after it first appeared in a piece by Indian Express (which also stated the video’s authenticity couldn’t be verified). This aside from the fact that Trump has been reported to not even listen to his own speech writers before presidential debates, making his readiness to sit down and practice a single line with a relatively minor adviser suspect.
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 "Donald Trump, US elections 2016, Presidential Election 2016, Narendra Modi, Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC)")
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