Trump Posts AI Video Dumping Feces on 7 Million "No Kings" Protesters, Defended by Johnson and Vance as "Satire"

On the evening of October 18, 2025—the same day approximately seven million people participated in “No Kings” protests across 2,700 events in all 50 states—President Donald Trump posted a 19-second AI-generated video to Truth Social showing himself wearing a crown, piloting a fighter jet labeled “KING TRUMP,” flying over Times Square and dropping brown substance widely identified as feces on protesters below. When questioned, Vice President JD Vance told reporters: “The president is joking, and we’re having a good time.” House Speaker Mike Johnson defended it explicitly: “Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes. Because that is what President Trump does.”

The No Kings Protests: Context

October 18, 2025 represented one of the largest coordinated protest actions of Trump’s second term:

• Approximately 7 million participants across the United States
• 2,700 separate events organized in all 50 states
• Theme: Rejection of authoritarian governance and defense of democratic norms
• Trigger issues: Immigration enforcement tactics, judicial independence threats, media restrictions

The “No Kings” branding explicitly referenced American founding principles rejecting monarchy and authoritarian rule. Protests included diverse coalitions—civil liberties organizations, immigrant rights groups, journalists, clergy, and citizens concerned about democratic backsliding.

The scale represented significant public opposition to Trump administration policies, with turnout comparable to major Women’s March events and larger than most Trump-era protests. That evening, rather than any official presidential address or acknowledgment of citizen concerns, Trump posted the AI-generated defecation video.

The Video: Technical and Content Details

Trump’s 19-second video, posted to Truth Social approximately evening of October 18, featured:

Visual Content:

• AI-generated animation showing Trump wearing a crown
• Trump piloting a fighter jet marked “KING TRUMP”
• Flight path over recognizable Times Square location
• Brown substance (widely interpreted as feces) dropping from jet onto crowds below
• Protesters running from the falling substance

Audio:

• Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” (from Top Gun soundtrack)
• Used without permission from the artist

Targeting:

• Video specifically mentioned left-wing influencer Harry Sisson by name
• Clear reference to that day’s No Kings protests nationwide

Official Amplification:

• The official @WhiteHouse account reposted the video
• Made it not just Trump’s personal expression but official government communication

Artist Response: Kenny Loggins Demands Removal

Kenny Loggins, whose “Danger Zone” was used without permission as the soundtrack, demanded removal of the video. His statement:

“I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us.”

This continued a pattern throughout 2025 of artists demanding Trump administration cease unauthorized use of their work:

• Jess Glynne (deportation video soundtrack): “This post honestly makes me sick”
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (cease-and-desist for “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”)
• Theo Von (demanded removal of footage from DHS deportation video)
• Pokémon Company (disavowed unauthorized use of theme music)

The systematic unauthorized use of copyrighted material for government trolling content—coupled with artists’ universal condemnation—demonstrates the administration’s deliberate rejection of both intellectual property norms and artist consent.

Vice President Vance: “The President is Joking”

When reporters questioned Vice President JD Vance about the video, his response embodied the administration’s troll culture defense strategy:

“The president is joking, and we’re having a good time.”

This framing—treating seven million protesters expressing democratic concerns as punchline for presidential “joke”—exemplifies what researchers identify as ressentiment politics: political satisfaction derived not from policy outcomes but from witnessing enemy suffering and humiliation.

Vance’s “having a good time” characterization positions democratic participation itself as target of mockery. The protesters’ earnestness—taking democracy seriously enough to organize 2,700 simultaneous events—becomes evidence of their foolishness deserving ridicule.

Speaker Johnson: “That Is What President Trump Does”

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s defense on ABC News provided even more explicit validation:

“Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes. Because that is what President Trump does and people are having fun with this.”

On October 21, Johnson told Axios:

“The president uses social media to make the point. You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that. He is using satire to make a point. He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents.”

Johnson’s framing is critical on multiple levels:

“That is what President Trump does”: Acknowledgment that trolling constitutes established presidential policy, not aberration requiring explanation or apology.

“People are having fun”: Validation that cruelty directed at political opponents serves as bonding mechanism for supporters—Adam Serwer’s “the cruelty is the point” dynamic.

“Using satire to make a point”: Defense that ironic distance provides plausible deniability for violent imagery—the video isn’t literal call to defecate on protesters, just “satirical” expression of contempt.

“He is not calling for the murder”: Setting bar so low (“at least it’s not murder”) that dumping feces on millions becomes acceptable presidential communication.

The Speaker of the House—third in presidential succession—defending presidential mockery of millions of peaceful protesters as legitimate governance represents unprecedented erosion of democratic communication norms.

Pattern: AI-Generated Presidential Trolling

NBC News documented “dozens of pieces of synthetic media including AI-generated images and deepfake videos” on Trump’s Truth Social account since January 2025, with “about half of those posts coming in the months of August and September.”

The feces video exemplifies several

patterns:

AI as Deniability Tool: “It’s not real” becomes defense for depicting violence/humiliation while maintaining the psychological impact of the imagery.

Targeting Specific Individuals: Harry Sisson named explicitly, continuing Trump’s pattern of using presidential platform to direct supporter harassment at critics.

Copyright Violation as Norm: Systematic use of others’ creative work without permission, defended as free expression when artists object.

Official Government Amplification: White House account reposting makes clear this is not personal social media but official communication strategy.

Defiance Through Mockery: Rather than addressing protesters’ concerns or acknowledging scale of opposition, Trump ridicules them through scatological imagery.

White House Communications Doctrine

The feces video operated within established White House communications framework articulated throughout 2025:

Kaelan Dorr (White House Deputy Communications Director, March 27, 2025): “The arrests will continue. The memes will continue.”

Billy McLaughlin (White House Digital Content Director, August 2025): “We did not build a cautious, government-style account. We built a fast, culturally fluent content machine designed to cut through the noise and win online… every post had intention.”

Karoline Leavitt (White House Press Secretary, October 1, 2025): “He’s incredibly transparent… He likes to share memes. He likes to share videos… I think it’s quite refreshing that we have a president who is so open and honest, directly himself.”

The feces video was not deviation from but exemplar of stated doctrine: government communication prioritizing engagement metrics, troll aesthetics, and “owning” critics over democratic deliberation or policy discourse.

Authoritarian Parallels: Duterte and Bolsonaro

Political scientists studying democratic backsliding identify closest parallels in leaders who combined vulgar communication with state violence:

Rodrigo Duterte (Philippines, 2016-2022):

• Admitted operating death squads killing 27,000-30,000
• Mixed explicit violence threats with crude humor
• Defended communication style: “You don’t get results when you do not say putang ina mo”
• Called President Obama “son of a whore,” Pope Francis “son of a bitch”

Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil, 2019-2022):

• Ran campaign with slogan “Let’s shoot the PT supporters”
• Academic research documented “legitimation of hate and political violence through memetic images”
• Created “aesthetic crisis” with gaudy patriotic fan art normalizing authoritarian messaging
• January 8, 2023 insurrection mimicked Trump’s January 6 after months of social media mobilization

The shared pattern: social media used to normalize state violence through humor, vulgarity, and ironic distance while maintaining plausible deniability. Trump’s AI video of defecating on protesters follows this template—violence depicted as entertainment, criticism dismissed as humorlessness.

The Desensitization Dynamic

Research on media violence demonstrates three effects when violence is coupled with humor:

1. Humor elevates arousal beyond violence alone
2. Humor serves as reinforcement/reward for violence
3. Humor diminishes seriousness of violence, undermining inhibiting effects of harm cues

L. Rowell Huesmann’s research on children exposed to political violence found: “Exposure to violence leads kids to have a certain way of thinking about aggression and violence… Leads to normative beliefs that it’s OK—it’s sanctioned by the highest levels of society, by your government.”

When the president depicts defecating on millions of protesters, House Speaker calls it “satire,” and official White House accounts amplify it—violence doesn’t disappear, it becomes aesthetic. The harm to democratic culture doesn’t stop; the capacity to respond to harm appropriately degrades.

Significance: Presidential Contempt as Official Policy

The October 18 feces video matters not as isolated crudeness but as crystallization of governing philosophy:

Scale Matters: Seven million people participated in democratic protests; presidential response was AI-generated mockery depicting defecation on them.

Official Endorsement: White House account reposting, plus Johnson and Vance defenses, made clear this represents approved communication strategy, not personal excess.

Democratic Participation as Punchline: The act of citizens organizing protests becomes itself the target of ridicule—earnestness about democracy positioned as evidence of foolishness.

Violence Normalized Through Humor: Depicting assault on protesters framed as “satire” that critics are too uptight to appreciate.

Irony Poisoning Goes Presidential: The defense “he’s joking” allows simultaneous expression of contempt and denial of sincerity—critics can’t object without proving they “can’t take a joke.”

Pattern Confirmed: The video exemplified broader documented pattern of Trump posting “dozens” of AI-generated deepfakes, with cabinet officials defending trolling as legitimate presidential behavior.

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die identifies four indicators of authoritarian behavior:

1. Rejection of democratic rules
2. Denial of legitimacy to opponents
3. Toleration or encouragement of violence
4. Readiness to curtail civil liberties

When the president posts video of defecating on millions of peaceful protesters, defended by Speaker of the House as “what President Trump does,” the third indicator—toleration/encouragement of violence—becomes explicit policy. The violence is both depicted (AI video) and conceptual (treating democratic participation as deserving humiliation).

By November 2025, the question is no longer whether such communication represents norm violation—it represents established norm. The controversy cycle (outrage → media coverage → official defense → video remains posted → next meme) has become routine. Each incident establishes that such behavior carries no meaningful sanction, creating permission structure for escalation.

When seven million Americans protest and the presidential response is an AI video of dumping shit on them, defended by the Speaker of the House as satire—the merger of 4chan troll culture with federal authority is complete. The question is not whether it happened, but whether democratic culture can survive it.