Is the video showing Donald Trump unveiling a "cardboard Ayatollah" in the Oval Office to Laura Ingraham real? No, that's not true: The video posted on X clearly states it is "Made with AI." The original footage that was posted on Fox News on March 19, 2025, showed Trump revealing the framed Declaration of Independence to Ingraham, not a cardboard Ayatollah.
The claim appeared in a March 10, 2026, video posted on X account @GizmoMemes (archived here) which opened:
Donald Trump shows Laura Ingraham the cardboard ayatollah 🤣
Meme w/ @BasedRose
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post of @GizmoMemes on X.)
The post has a label that reads, "Made with AI," as this screenshot shows (red circle added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: post of @GizmoMemes on X.)
The original footage of Trump showing Ingraham something behind a blue curtain is from a March 19, 2025, video posted on Fox News (archived here). Beginning at 3:33 in the video, Trump tells Ingraham it is "very cool" that he has the Declaration of Independence hanging in his office and that it must be protected by drapes because of light sensitivity as shown in the screenshot below. He did not show her a picture of a cardboard Ayatollah:
(Image source: screenshot from Fox News.)
The chyron on the video posted on X tags the two accounts that created the video and does not match the real Fox News chyron.
The post tags the X account @BasedRose (archived here) as the co-creator of the video. That account replied to a Newsweek fact-check about the video with the message, "Thank you, Newsweek, for this honor and for pointing out the obvious. So brave!" The poster did not dispute that it was AI-generated. Here is a screenshot of the post:
(Image source: post of @BasedRose on X.)
