Donald Trump's 'Gaz-a-Lago' video stirs up social media

TOI correspondent from Washington: Some viewers thought his social media account had been hacked. Others saw the 33-second video as "a masterclass in psychological warfare." Still others found it "unhinged," "cringe-worthy" and "batshit crazy."

US President Donald Trump's posting of an outlandish AI-generated video showing a devastated Gaza reborn as a swish Middle East Riviera, complete with a luxury Trump hotel, skyscrapers, and beach resorts, split the internet in the hours after he forwarded the clip.

The video is set to an up-tempo dance track with lyrics rhapsodizing about the US President: “Donald Trump will set you free, bringing the light for all to see, no more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here. Trump Gaza shining bright, golden future, a brand new light.”

The clip shows Trump waltzing with a belly dancer in a nightclub with a “Trump Gaza” store featuring golden statues of the president. It also has shots of an Elon Musk lookalike showering locals with cash, and ends with Trump having drinks by a pool with Benjamin Netanyahu. Bizarrely, it shows two bearded belly dancers with ample bosoms cavorting by a beach.

While Trump's MAGA flock viewed the clip as "epic trolling," it caused revulsion in some circles given the devastation Gaza has been subjected to, with nearly 50,000 people killed in Israeli's punitive attacks to avenge the Hamas terrorist attack that killed more than 1000 people.

Trump has proposed moving out nearly 2 million Gazans to neighboring countries to rebuild the territory as what one troll snidely dubbed as "Gaz-a-Lago." The proposal has few takers, but Trump has been pushing the envelope on it in the same way he has been pressing for Canada to become the 51st US state.

The MAGA supremo has often posted or forwarded such quirky memes and videos that seems par-for-course in the age of social media but which the more orthodox-minded and sensitive find upsetting. At the same time, he has been lashing out at the legacy media, with the White House marginalizing traditional press outlets including wire services and storied newspapers and journals it considers as "woke" and liberal."

On Wednesday, the US President threatened to sue "dishonest authors and book publishers, or even media in general," apparently agitated about a new book that cited anonymous sources to present an unflattering picture of his comeback campaign that returned him to the White House.

"As a President who is being given credit for having the Best Opening Month of any President in history, quite naturally, here come the Fake books and stories with the so-called “anonymous,” or “off the record,” quotes," Trump raged, adding that "They are made up, defamatory fiction, and a big price should be paid for this blatant dishonesty."

"I’ll do it as a service to our Country. Who knows, maybe we will create some NICE NEW LAW!!!" he warned.

At the same time, the White House announced that it would start handpicking media outlets for the presidential press pool, the small, rotating group of reporters who track the President during all working hours and share the output with other media. The White House Correspondents Association has long drawn up the pool roster from major wire services such as AP, Reuters, and AFP, network and cable tv outlets such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN, and traditional print dailies such as NYT and WaPo, all of which are viewed as left-liberal by the Trump dispensation.