A state-run TV network in Russia has released a spoof video, portraying US President Donald Trump as Russian President Vladimir Putin's pawn. The video also used an edited version of quotes spoken by Trump himself in different circumstances.
Russia Today (RT) has released the video, "White House special counsel: RT offers job to Donald Trump." RT's YouTube channel provided a description under the video, which was uploaded on September 22, stating that "on November 3, elections will be held in the United States, in which the 46th president of the country can be elected. In the meantime, we decided to imagine how the work of the current American leader on our TV channel would look like. RT will closely monitor the voting process on [Translated via Google translator]."
The RT Video Showing Fake Donald Trump
The video showed a post-US-election scenario when RT in Moscow offered a job to Trump after losing the election to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. It features an actor who dressed up like the US president and making body movements like Trump.
The video was apparently meant for those who have accused Trump of being a puppet of Putin, amid concerns over a possible election meddling attempt by Russia that they did during the 2016 election.
The spoof video starts with Trump getting out of a car, entering the RT headquarters, and then into a dressing room outside of which is written his name as 'Donald Trump: RT Special Host'.
Then the video shows Trump proudly showing off a signed contract of '$1,000,000,000' while saying that "It was a very nice offer from President Putin. I could have said no thank you, or I could have said thank you. And I said... I'll take it!"
Why RT?
The actor is then heard explaining his reasoning for joining RT—using real Trump's edited audio—in an on-camera interview along with footage of him exploring the newsroom. In the next scene, the actor sits behind an anchor's desk and while looking at the teleprompter he says, "I can't read this. They change fast. Changes so fast."
In the video, the fake Trump can be heard saying that "It's an amazing country [Russia], you know, so many friends in Russia, and I'm very excited to be here." These comments were taken from a 2013 interview when Trump went to Moscow during the Miss Universe contest.
The actor also in the video praised the government of Russia for the salary which they have offered to Trump, saying "They're very nice. I make a lot of money with them. They pay me millions and hundreds of millions." In reality, the US president made those comments in reference to Saudi Arabia at a 2015 campaign rally.
The video then shows Trump admiring walls of the Kremlin and while comparing it with Mexico border walls, he says, "A great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me." But again, in reality, he made these remarks when real Trump talked about the border walls between the US and Mexico.
Timing Behind Such Video
This video coincided with a CIA report which concluded that Russian President Putin is "probably directing" a campaign to denigrate former US Vice President Biden.
As reported by the Washington Post, the CIA assessment mentioned about some officials who assessed that Putin and the senior-most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia's influence operations aimed at denigrating the Biden, "supporting the U.S. president and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November."
