Awkward times for Eric Trump – answer to the question: what would Donald Trump Jr be like if he was even thicker? – as his role in his father’s attempt to celebrate America’s 250th birthday with a White House punch-up descends into farce.
Eric cried foul after UFC commentator Daniel Cormier shared a screengrab on social media which appeared to show direct messages from Trump minor asking whether any of the fights being staged on the White House’s South Lawn at the weekend would be rigged.
In the messages, since deleted by Cormier, Eric seems to be asking: “Anything you can tell me about the fighters tomorrow? Who you got winning?” and “Are any of the fighters injured that you know of?”
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He then appears to go on to say “I’ll just cut to the chase. Are any of the fights tomorrow rigged? I’ve been eyeing the [Diego] Lopes fight and I think an upset wouldn’t be too unrealistic. $$”, to which Cormier is shown to reply “No none of our fights rigged and honestly I am appalled that you would even ask me something like that”.
Sharing the exchange on X, Cormier appeared to write, “I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for bringing this to light, however I refuse to stay silent. Shame on anyone trying to ruin this beautiful event.” Everything has since been deleted, though, with both sides making the claim that the post, which appeared on Cormier’s own account, were somehow AI-generated.
“We are aware of the fake, AI generated screenshots being circulated online,” wrote Eric Trump. “I have never spoken to Daniel. He has since deleted his post, which confirms it was clearly fabricated.”
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Alas for poor Eric, the claim was rather awkwardly contradicted by X itself, owned by his father’s on-off chum Elon Musk, which posted ‘added context’ to the 42-year-old’s post.
“Multiple journalists and eyewitnesses confirm Daniel Cormier posted the screenshots himself before deleting them,” it said. “Deleting a post from a verified account does not confirm fabrication, and participants in a conversation cannot ‘fall for’ AI fakes of their own direct messages.” It then posted two links to the story in the US sports media.
Quite why Cormier might have posted fake posts of his own direct messages – or indeed, who AI-generated them, is unclear – but to doubt it you’d have to somehow believe a family member of Donald Trump would seek to make a few bucks betting on his own father’s tawdry birthday spectacle. And of course, venality like that would never occur to a Trump.
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