Glaring error spotted in Trump's presidential library hype video: ‘Is he stupid?’

On Tuesday, Eric Trump revealed a video mock-up of President Donald Trump’s planned presidential library, but by Wednesday, critics couldn’t help but point out what appeared to be a glaring error.

The nearly two-minute video, which appears to have been made, at least in part, using generative artificial intelligence, shows interior and exterior shots of a tall skyscraper in Miami, Florida, with a large U.S. flag displayed on its facade. What drew critics’ attention, however, appeared within the first 15 seconds of the video.

“Trump’s new library mock-up has an American flag with 56 stars,” noted liberal influencer Brian Krassenstein, writing in a social media post on X on Wednesday to their nearly 1 million followers. “Is he just that stupid or does he really think he’s going to make 6 more states in the next 2 and a half years?”

Such errors are common in video generated using GenAI, though some suspected the error may have had a deeper meaning.

“It is speculated that it might have to do with the annexations that the president dreams of making,” wrote Venezuelan journalist Emmanuel Rincón Wednesday in a social media post on X to their more than 600,000 followers, according to X’s automatic translation service.

Andrew Kaczynski, CNN senior politics reporter, argued otherwise.