Believe it or not, yet another right-wing news outlet has been duped by an obvious AI-generated clip created to disparage poor people who are struggling to buy food because their food stamps have been suspended. On October 30, Newsmax — a TV network aimed at viewers who consider Fox News too liberal — aired an AI-produced video allegedly showing a woman angrily confronting a supermarket cashier, threatening to leave with her groceries unpaid because “they cut her food stamps. ” The video is fake. It’s the same footage that Fox News ran as real in an article meant to stir outrage over supposed abuses of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides crucial food aid to nearly one in eight Americans monthly and has long been a target of the right. SNAP is now under heightened pressure amid a prolonged government shutdown that is causing funding shortages, risking aid for those who depend on it. This episode is a disturbing example of how pervasive AI technology is being used to deepfake reality and spread misinformation — a warning sign of its potential misuse to attack political opponents. Newsmax featured the fifteen-second AI clip in a recent segment titled “The Cost of Free Stuff, ” where anchor Carl Higbie criticized SNAP beneficiaries for their supposed “entitlement” — despite the fact that all recipients live near or below the poverty line, many being children, elderly, or disabled. “Perhaps that person is in that position because of their own decisions and should make better life choices, ” Higbie stated regarding the millions who are now uncertain if they can feed themselves or their families. “I think the government shutdown has woken people up to this entitlement and abuse. ” Higbie then mocked SNAP recipients for their weight, at which point the AI video was played. Meanwhile, a chyron ran: “We Are Only Nation Where Poor People Are Obese. ” Higbie even speculated about the life of the woman in the fabricated video. “By feeding people this junk, they get less healthy like the woman I just showed you, ” he said, referring to the AI-generated figure. “I’m willing to bet she’s probably also on some sort of government healthcare subsidy program as well. ” But she isn’t real; the clip was likely created with OpenAI’s Sora 2 video app, released last month and already shown to be capable of producing believable footage of people committing crimes.

Fifteen seconds is the maximum length standard Sora users can generate. Newsmax has left the clip on its social media pages without issuing a correction, a serious lapse that would have been scandalous in any other era. The mistake was noticeable enough that Newsmax commentator and intelligence analyst Ryan McBeth flagged it in a video, dismissing it as an innocent error without malicious intent. To somewhat preserve Newsmax’s credibility, McBeth claimed he gathered proof of the clip’s AI origin and sent it to Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, who “takes stuff like this seriously” and purportedly responded by promising a correction, according to McBeth. We cannot verify whether this correction was made, but the segment’s clips remain up on Newsmax’s social channels. The broader picture is that the American right has boldly embraced AI to produce political imagery. The Trump administration regularly uses AI-generated images to mock opponents and glorify the president, while racist influencers distribute AI-faked videos showing Black people supposedly planning to sell their food stamps for cash. Expect more incidents like this going forward, where AI allows questionable news outlets to spread misinformation quickly and offer corrections—if at all—much later.