Trump revives debunked ‘MedBed’ conspiracy theory in deepfake video

Donald Trump stirred online outrage on Monday after posting an apparent AI-generated video of himself promising every American access to all-healing “MedBed” hospitals, reviving a widely debunked conspiracy theory.

The deepfake video – posted on Saturday on the US president’s Truth Social account and later deleted – was styled as a Fox News segment and featured his daughter-in-law Lara Trump promoting a fictitious White House launch of a “historic new healthcare system”.

The phoney clip then purported to show Trump announcing from the Oval Office that “every American will soon receive their own MedBed card”, guaranteeing access to “new hospitals led by the top doctors” and “equipped with the most advanced technology.”

The only problem? Such hospitals do not exist.

MedBed, a theory popular among far-right circles and the QAnon conspiracy movement, refers to an imaginary medical device equipped with futuristic technology that adherents say can cure any ailment, from asthma to cancer.

Some QAnon adherents believe that “MedBed” technology was used to keep president John F. Kennedy alive for years after his assassination and that it is deliberately being withheld from ordinary citizens by a secretive government cabal.

“How do you bring people back to a shared reality when those in power keep stringing them along?” asked Noelle Cook, a researcher and author of The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging.