A video has been going viral in the last couple of days that shows Pope slapping US President Donald Trump’s hands in irritation, after Trump wiggled his little finger on Pope’s hand and tried to hold it. The video is supposedly a clip cut from live telecast by CNN.
You can see the video here:
Now who did this ?? #TrumpMeetsPope pic.twitter.com/W76t7vC0MQ
— Rosy (@rose_k01) May 25, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsJust in case you thought that Trump actually decided to play some kid level games with Pope, you are wrong. There are enough hints in the video itself, if you look closely, which prove that it is mischievously edited for some fun.
For example, the shirt cuff of Trump is visible rather prominently in the close-up shot where he is wiggling the pope, but is hidden under his coat throughout the rest of the video. Similarly, the background in the close-up shot shows part of a brown coloured waiting chair, while a black figurine is visible in the background in the rest of the video.
These are clues enough to conclude that the close-up video, where Trump is seeing doing the mischief, was shot separately with some actors wearing similar dresses like those of Pope and Trump, and later inserted in the actual clip of Trump and Pope meeting at the Vatican City.
Alert people on social media have the ability to spot these clues, but you may miss these details if you are either in a hurry to believe things or if you are fooled easily, thanks to either bias or low level of awareness.
The latter happened with senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh, when he slammed Trump while reacting to the above video:
@rose_k01 Can you imagine a Head of State doing this to Pope? I don’t think Trump would last his full term. But who thought he would be US President?
— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) May 26, 2017
In fact, Digvijaya Singh, as is the name spelled by him, went on to predict, based on findings in the edited video, that Donald Trump will not last his full term. Looks like chacha, as Digvijaya is lovingly referred to on Twitter, now wants to attain the reputation of an expert on international politics.
It is not wrong to have high ambitions, but it is important to have a discerning eye to spot real from fake in the current world where video and photo editing tools are used for propaganda as well. But maybe Digvijay Singh doesn’t care much for these details as he himself have been found propagating fake pictures and videos earlier. The latest incident had happened in February this year when he tweeted a morphed photograph of Amit Shah.
Coming back to the Trump video, just in case you wondered if it was a random fun-cut of Trump-Pope meeting video, maybe it was not. The western liberals have long commented on the relationship between Trump and his wife Melania claiming all is not well between the two, including some moments where Melania is supposed to have refused to hold hands with Trump. This video could be a parody of the same and is most probably meant to say, in a funny way, that no one wants to hold hands with Trump as he is always nasty in his relationships.
Or maybe it indeed is just random fun-cut video for fun, but just don’t treat it as a real incident and become a Digvijay Singh.
