The President of the United States, Donald Trump, released a video generated with artificial intelligence early on Wednesday in which he is seen chasing, tackling, and embracing a tiger, recreating the tragedy of William Chapman, a 23-year-old who died on October 10 after entering the enclosure of a Siberian tiger at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in England.
The post, shared on Truth Social, has sparked controversy due to its seemingly mocking tone regarding a deadly incident.
The clip, lasting about 23 seconds and widely shared on social media, shows Trump mimicking the gesture of pointing that witnesses attributed to Chapman before the attack, but in his version, the president defeats the animal and ends up hugging it, accompanied by the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
The White House did not issue any statement explaining the reason for the publication.
What intensified the controversy was the sequence of posts: hours before sharing the AI video, Trump had already shared with his approximately 13 million followers on Truth Social the real images of the deadly attack against Chapman.
The young man's family reacted this Wednesday, describing the content circulating on the internet as "deeply offensive," and requested that the images not be collected or republished to protect his privacy.
Criticism came from various sectors. Commentator Harry Sisson posted the video on X with the message, "Trump really posted this AI video with a tiger in the middle of the night. This man is insane and mentally ill," a post that garnered over 1.8 million views.
Journalist Piers Morgan labeled it as "in very poor taste" and demanded its removal. Even the Rapid Response 47 account, which is aligned with the president and has around 2.3 million followers, questioned the judgment of the publication.
Chapman had jumped from an elevated observation walkway into the enclosure of Altai, a five-year-old Siberian tiger weighing about 190 kilograms. Witnesses reported that the young man was wearing headphones, approached the animal, and lay down in front of it before being attacked.
A woman attempted to stop him without success. The park rangers used air shots to distract the tiger while they evacuated the area, but Chapman was pronounced dead at the scene. His family later revealed that he suffered from a severe mental illness.
The video of the tiger adds to a recurring pattern of Trump posting AI-generated content, often in the early hours of the morning and with a provocative tone.
In September of last year, the White House released an AI video depicting the president as the superhero Green Lantern, a clip that surpassed 19 million views. Earlier, in May, the enigmatic clip titled Fire. Boom. circulated, and in February 2025, he used AI-generated images to illustrate his plan regarding Gaza.
The forensic investigation into Chapman's death was scheduled to begin this Thursday, with the Yorkshire Wildlife Park still closed since the day of the incident.
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