The president's son, Eric Trump, has claimed that X messages containing conversations seeking insider information from UFC event commentator Daniel Cormier are actually AI deepfakes.
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Eric Trump denies sending text messages to UFC commentator Daniel Cormier, claiming the screenshots are AI-generated spoofs.
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The leaked screenshots appeared to show Trump asking Cormier if any fights at the UFC Freedom 250 event were rigged for betting purposes.
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Cormier uploaded the screenshots but deleted them 15 minutes later, later tweeting to ask if people were "really this dumb"
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Critics question if Trump will sue for defamation, while reporters confirm Trump claims he has never spoken to Cormier.
The UFC Freedom 250 event, held on Sunday to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States, also coincided with President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and generated a lot of hype prior to the event.
Shortly before the start of the fights, former martial artist and UFC commentator Daniel Cormier shared several screenshots claiming to be chats with Eric Trump, the third child of the president.
“I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for bringing this to light,” read the post, along with the fact that Cormier would not tolerate insider behavior. The supposed insider trading would have involved Trump reaching out to Cormier for betting advice for the Ultimate Fighting event.
Inside the alleged interchange between Cormier and Eric Trump was the latter brazenly proposing, "I'll just cut to the chase.” The text read, “Are any of the fights tomorrow rigged? I’ve been eying the Lopes fight, and I think an upset wouldn’t be too unrealistic. $$”
The supposed replies from Cormier were that he, himself, wasn’t allowed to bet on anything internally and that, to his knowledge, all of the contestants were in good physical shape.
In an attempt to clear matters up, Eric Trump took to his official X account to state: “We are aware of the fake, AI-generated screenshots being circulated online. I have never spoken to Daniel.”
The post gathered almost 8 million views and a swell of comments.
One Democrat asked, “Why would Daniel Cormier fake DMs that he was in?” and addressed the legal implications of Eric Trump potentially suing Cormier.
Why would Daniel Cormier fake DMs that he was in?
undefined The Blue Wave (@TheBlueWave2026) June 15, 2026
Are you accusing the former Heavyweight Champion of deliberately defaming you? Are you going to sue? @grok
In turn, Grok’s in-built AI protectively voiced that “Eric Trump isn't claiming Cormier personally faked the DMs. He's saying the screenshots circulating are AI-generated fakes,” before arriving at “screenshots prove nothing by themselves in 2026.”
Cormier himself deleted the initial X post, 15 minutes after initially posting it. He subsequently took to X to ask, “Are people really this dumb?”
Are people really this dumb?
undefined Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) June 14, 2026
Shortly afterward, Wall Street Journal reporter Brian Schwartz posted on X that Eric Trump denied the conversation with Cormier ever happening.
NEW: Eric Trump is denying to me that this conversation with @dc_mma ever happened.
undefined Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbWSJ) June 15, 2026
“That is absolutely not me. I didn’t even know who the guy was… This is some kind of AI spoof. This is crazy,” Trump tells me. https://t.co/7DREY6ZM2R
There have been several incidents of insider trading in the last few months, especially on sites like Polymarket, a decentralized real-world event betting site, which saw an incident in May of an engineer who reputedly took part in insider trading.
The merry-go-round of who-said-what looks set to continue, as deepfake incidents blur the lines further between credibility and incredibility.
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