Donald Trump has been condemned after posting an AI-generated video of himself wrestling and befriending a tiger, hours after sharing real footage of a young British man being attacked by the same animal before his death.
The US president shared the original footage of 23-year-old William Chapman being attacked at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster with his 13 million followers on Truth Social on Tuesday.
Trump accompanied the video with the message:
“Don’t ever mess with nature! President DJT.”
The footage did not show Chapman’s death, but showed the tiger biting and clawing him after he entered its enclosure. He was pronounced dead at the scene following the incident on Saturday.
Trump then posted further big-cat material, including a montage appearing to show people being attacked by lions.
Later came an AI-generated video in which Trump himself takes Chapman’s place in a fictionalised version of the encounter.
Instead of being seriously injured, the president chases the tiger, wrestles with it, appears to tame it and eventually embraces the animal while The Tokens’ The Lion Sleeps Tonight plays in the background.
The AI video also shows Trump copying a pointing gesture made by Chapman in the real footage shortly before he was attacked.
William Chapman’s family had asked people to stop sharing the footage
The posts have caused particular anger because Chapman’s family have already appealed for people to stop circulating graphic footage and AI material connected with his death.
In a statement, the family described William as a “bright, warm and engaging young man” who had experienced significant mental illness over a number of years and had been prescribed strong medication.
They said they were devastated by his death and wanted investigators to establish why he entered the enclosure.
His relatives also criticised the way footage of his final moments had spread online, saying the material was “deeply offensive” and causing them “severe distress”.
South Yorkshire Police and other authorities have similarly urged people not to circulate distressing footage of the incident.
Trump nevertheless shared the real attack with millions of followers before producing the AI version in which he apparently succeeds where Chapman did not.
The White House’s Rapid Response 47 account also shared footage of the real attack on X.
Trump’s AI version ends with him hugging the tiger
The AI-generated clip was posted shortly before midnight and appears to recreate elements of the real incident while replacing Chapman with Trump.
It begins with the president confronting the animal before showing him chasing it away and play-fighting with it. Rather than being attacked, Trump eventually makes friends with the tiger and the pair embrace.
The soundtrack is The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Trump then followed that with another AI-generated video comparing himself to a lion fighting hyenas while a narrator describes the animal as the “king of the jungle”.
The sequence immediately attracted criticism online, including from people who said they had previously supported the president.
One person commenting on the White House post wrote:
“A family is grieving and you decide to post their family members’ final moments to the entire world.”
Another said:
“I voted for you but not for this. Can’t you just get an intern to run your social media campaign?”
Others described the decision to circulate the footage as “disgusting” and “sick”.
Chapman died after entering the tiger enclosure
Emergency services were called to Yorkshire Wildlife Park shortly after 1.30pm on Saturday after Chapman entered the enclosure of Altai, a five-year-old male Amur tiger.
Police said Chapman had been visiting the park alone.
He had scaled a barrier before approaching the animal, which weighed about 200kg. Visitors raised the alarm and the park was evacuated, but Chapman suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The wildlife park remained closed for several days afterwards.
Authorities have launched a health and safety investigation into how Chapman was able to enter the enclosure and whether any further measures could have prevented what happened.
Altai will not be euthanised.
Chapman was a former child actor who had attended Jackie Palmer Stage School and appeared in television productions when he was younger. His family said they hoped the investigation would examine what role his mental health and medication may have played in his actions before his death.
Trump regularly posts AI-generated material
The president has increasingly used AI-generated videos and images through his Truth Social account, often putting himself at the centre of exaggerated or fantastical scenes.
His previous posts have included images depicting himself alongside religious figures and videos attacking political opponents, while the White House and pro-Trump accounts have embraced memes and AI imagery as part of their online communications.
Researchers have described the administration’s approach as a form of “memetic warfare”, using deliberately provocative online material to dominate attention and make criticism itself part of the engagement cycle.
But the Yorkshire Wildlife Park posts differ from an ordinary political meme because they are connected to a real death that happened only days earlier.
Trump did not merely create a fictional video involving a tiger. He first circulated footage of Chapman being attacked, then followed it with an AI version in which Trump appears in a similar setting, copies one of Chapman’s gestures and emerges unharmed.
Chapman’s family have asked for the real footage and AI material relating to his death to stop being shared. Hence, we decided not to include the footage or Donald Trumps post in this article.
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