Trump’s fighter jet joyride just turned the skies over protesters into a nightmare— but what’s the “dirty liquid” really dropping? 😤
Crowned and cockpit-ready, he soars over Times Square, unleashing a brown storm on the No Kings masses below. A presidential prank or a power play gone viral? One clip, millions outraged… and the internet’s exploding.
Watch the chaos unfold ➡️
Late Saturday night, as the echoes of millions chanting “No Kings” faded from streets across America, President Donald Trump fired back from his Truth Social perch with a 19-second AI-generated video that plunged his online feed into scatological chaos. Depicting a crown-topped Trump at the controls of a fighter jet emblazoned with “King Trump,” the clip shows the 79-year-old commander-in-chief soaring over a simulated Times Square before unleashing a torrent of thick brown sludge onto throngs of protesters below—set to the pulsating strains of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” from the Top Gun soundtrack. The “dirty liquid,” as one viral X post dubbed it, splatters across AI-rendered demonstrators, including a recognizable likeness of left-wing influencer Harry Sisson, who had live-streamed from the real New York rally earlier that day. What began as a satirical jab at the massive anti-administration demonstrations has since ballooned into a digital firestorm, drawing condemnation from Democrats as “disgusting” and “authoritarian,” while Trump’s allies hail it as “hilarious” red meat for the base. With over 10 million views across platforms by Tuesday, the video underscores a presidency where memes meet mayhem, and AI amplifies the divide.
The footage, which Trump reposted from an anonymous creator account around 10:45 p.m. ET on October 18, opens with a hyper-orangified avatar of the president strapped into the cockpit, aviator shades perched on his nose and a gleaming gold crown tilted jauntily atop his signature coif. The jet, a sleek F-16 knockoff with “King Trump” stenciled in bold red letters along the fuselage, banks sharply over a CGI New York skyline. As the camera pulls back, the payload bay doors yawn open, dumping viscous brown globs that cascade like a grotesque monsoon onto the pixelated crowds waving placards reading “No Kings Since 1776” and “Power to the People.” The protesters scatter in slapstick horror, one figure—Sisson’s digital doppelganger—wiping sludge from his glasses with exaggerated dismay. The video cuts abruptly to real footage of Sisson at the actual protest, bridging the fabricated filth with on-the-ground reality.
Sisson, a 23-year-old TikTok activist with over a million followers, wasted no time firing back on X: “Can a reporter please ask Trump why he posted an AI video of himself dropping poop on me from a fighter jet? That would be great thanks.” Vice President JD Vance, ever the quick-draw defender, replied: “I’ll ask him for you Harry,” attaching a laughing emoji that only fanned the flames. By Sunday morning, #TrumpPoopJet had trended nationwide, amassing 450,000 mentions, with users from Hollywood heavyweights to everyday marchers decrying the clip as juvenile and dehumanizing. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis, fresh from a Los Angeles rally where she taped a “No King” sign over a parking violation notice, posted: “This isn’t leadership; it’s a tantrum from a toddler with a flight simulator.” Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who emceed a No Kings kickoff event in L.A., quipped on his show: “If that’s the president’s idea of bombing the enemy, no wonder the government’s shut down—he’s too busy unclogging the Oval Office plumbing.”
The video’s timing couldn’t have been more pointed. The No Kings protests, organized by a coalition of grassroots activists dubbing themselves the “People’s Resistance Network,” erupted on October 18 in response to what organizers call Trump’s “authoritarian power grab.” Drawing an estimated 7 million participants across 2,700 events in all 50 states—from megaphone-wielding masses in Times Square to candlelit vigils in rural Montana—the rallies decried a litany of grievances: the ongoing government shutdown now in its 12th day, which has furloughed 2.1 million federal workers and halted services from national parks to passport processing; executive orders expanding presidential authority over judicial reviews; and the White House’s push for a $500 billion military expansion tied to Trump’s June birthday parade, a spectacle critics likened to a “dictator’s ego trip.” Signs proliferated with Revolutionary War flair: “Sorry for Being Weird, This Is My First Dictatorship,” “No Kings But What We Have Here Is a Tyrant,” and effigies of Trump in chains dragged through Chicago’s Loop. Celebrities swelled the ranks—Mark Ruffalo in Atlanta, Robert De Niro in D.C., Glenn Close in Boston—lending star power to chants echoing the Declaration of Independence: “America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people.”
This marked the third wave of No Kings actions since Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, following June’s 5-million-strong mobilization against the military parade and a July flare-up over immigration crackdowns. Organizers, led by former Bernie Sanders aide Nina Turner and ex-Obama staffer Jon Favreau, framed the weekend as a “patriotic defense of democracy,” with turnout surpassing even the 2017 Women’s March. “We showed up, stood up, and now the hard work begins,” Turner posted on Instagram, urging ballot-box reprisals in the 2026 midterms. Yet Republican countermeasures were swift and scornful: House Speaker Mike Johnson branded the rallies “Hate America” circuses, while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy floated ties to “pro-Hamas Antifa agitators,” a claim echoed by Trump surrogates on Fox News.
Trump’s aerial retort fits a pattern of provocative digital theater that’s defined his second term. An NBC News analysis from earlier this month tallied over 50 AI-generated posts on Truth Social since July, roughly half in the volatile August-September stretch amid shutdown talks. Past hits include a meme of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero and mustache—slammed as racist by the New York Democrat—and a deepfake of Vice President Kamala Harris as a socialist puppet master, which racked up 15 million views before platform moderators intervened. “These aren’t gags; they’re weapons,” warns media scholar danah boyd of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, noting how AI’s hyper-real sheen blurs satire with incitement. “Trump’s mastered turning outrage into oxygen—every share is a win for his algorithm.”
The White House doubled down Sunday, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the video “lighthearted fun at the expense of sore losers.” Trump himself, teeing off at Trump National Doral before a Fox Business interview, dismissed the protests as “a joke” orchestrated by “radical left clowns.” “I’m not a king—I work my ass off to make our country great,” he told host Maria Bartiromo, adding a nod to the clip: “But if they want to play kings and queens, I’ll give ’em a royal flush.” Vance amplified the meme machine, posting his own AI edit: Trump in a cape and scepter, superimposed over the Lincoln Memorial. “Funny stuff,” Vance captioned it, drawing 2.5 million likes from MAGA faithful.
Critics, however, see darker currents. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at a No Kings debrief in Washington, likened the video to “a bully’s cheap shot—degrading dissent with digital diarrhea.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded an ethics probe into White House AI use, tweeting: “This isn’t the Oval Office; it’s a bad acid trip.” On the left flank, progressive outlets like The Nation decried it as “violence by proxy,” tying the sludge symbolism to Trump’s past rhetoric on “shithole countries” and crowd-size taunts. Even some conservatives cringed: National Review’s Rich Lowry called it “unpresidential juvenile delinquency,” while Fox News’ Dana Perino opted for a diplomatic dodge: “Humor’s subjective, but timing matters.”
The shutdown’s specter looms largest, now the longest since 2018-19’s 35-day impasse. Democrats, holding the Senate, refuse to budge on Trump’s $2 trillion border wall addendum without healthcare safeguards, stranding 800,000 IRS refunds and stalling veterans’ benefits. No Kings framed the impasse as monarchical overreach, with protesters in hard-hit D.C. suburbs waving IOUs from furloughed feds. Economists peg daily losses at $500 million, per the Congressional Budget Office, with polls showing Trump’s approval dipping to 42% amid the stalemate—a Gallup tracker released Monday. “This video distracts from the real dump: on American families,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi in a floor speech, brandishing a printed still of the jet’s underbelly.
AI’s role in the fracas has ethicists sounding alarms. The clip, likely crafted with tools like Midjourney or Runway ML, exemplifies “deepfake diplomacy’s dark side,” per a Brookings Institution report from September. Trump’s embrace—reposting without watermarks—skirts platform policies on misleading media, though Truth Social’s lax moderation shields it. “It’s not just funny or foul; it’s fracturing trust in visuals,” says boyd. “When the president turns protesters into cartoon villains, it normalizes erasure.” X lit up with counter-memes: Photoshopped Trumps in clown crowns, jets rerouted to Mar-a-Lago. One viral thread from activist @mariaaureacava1 linked the video to Variety’s coverage, garnering 68 views and calls for “digital disarmament.”
As the week unfolds, No Kings vows escalation—a November “People’s Congress” in Philadelphia, birthplace of the republic. Trump, undeterred, teased more “surprises” at a Bedminster fundraiser Tuesday, hinting at AI cameos from “old pals” like Elon Musk. For Sisson, the personal sting lingers: “From TikTok kid to Trump’s toilet target—guess that’s viral now.” In a nation where protests pulse and posts provoke, the skies over America feel a little murkier, the line between jest and jeopardy ever thinner. One thing’s clear: in the arena of outrage, Trump’s got the high ground—and the payload.
Yet amid the muck, glimmers of unity emerge. Bipartisan calls for AI labeling legislation gained traction Monday, with Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) co-sponsoring a bill mandating disclosures on political deepfakes. “Satire’s fine; deception’s not,” Rubio posted, a rare olive branch. Protesters, too, pivot to policy: petitions demanding shutdown relief hit 1.2 million signatures by noon Tuesday. As one D.C. marcher told Grok News, placard dripping with ironic brown paint: “He can drop what he wants—we’ll rise above it. That’s the American way.”
The jet’s engines fade, but the aftershocks rumble on. In a White House where tweets topple treaties, Trump’s sludge drop isn’t just a stunt—it’s a symptom of a republic reckoning with its reflections, real and rendered. Will it galvanize the aggrieved or galvanize the gullible? History, that ultimate editor, waits for the next frame.