"No power for 90 days, but buy this coin and you'll be fine." Bestie, that's not a news alert. That's a sales pitch with a deepfake on top.
Since early November, videos have been flying around Facebook and Instagram that seem to show President Donald Trump announcing a 90-day blackout of the US power grid. The twist? The same clips tell you a crypto token is your ticket to keeping the lights on (and getting rich). People were genuinely scared: Snopes says readers emailed asking if they needed to stock up. Here's the Trump 90-day blackout fact check.
VERDICT: FALSE. Trump never announced a 90-day blackout, and no credible source has reported a coming nationwide power outage. Snopes found the clips were made by using AI to change Trump's mouth movements and audio in real videos where he was talking about other things. The videos push crypto tokens called "United States Power Reserve" (USPR) and "United States Asset Reserve" (USAR).
The Claim
On 6 November 2026, a creator called Shythechosen posted a video on Facebook and Instagram with the overlay text "TRUMP CONFIRMS NO POWER FOR 90 DAYS." In the fake clip, "Trump" stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and says power in America will be down for 90 days, and only people holding the "United States Asset Reserve" will have electricity. The creator then appears on screen saying that buying the USPR token could make people a lot of money during the "blackout."
Snopes' screenshot of that Instagram post shows more than 40,000 likes. Another Facebook user, Derrick Speaks, shared the same Trump clip but plugged a different token, USAR. A second Shythechosen video has a fake Trump outside the White House claiming "hospitals will go dark" and "no heat in January," and saying the token will be "over a dollar each" on 30 November.
What We Found
1. The original videos exist, and Trump says nothing about a blackout. Snopes ran a reverse image search and traced the Reflecting Pool clip to a real Trump appearance on 2 November 2026. The same head movements appear just after the 23:21 mark of the original video, where Trump was criticising Democratic candidates ahead of the midterms.
2. The White House clip is from a different conversation. The second fake came from real footage from 7 November, where Trump spoke to reporters about Russia, Ukraine and Iran. Snopes matched the frames using a man getting into a car on the left of the shot.
3. A third fake reused a "60 Minutes" interview. An account called Aug Crypto posted another "TRUMP CONFIRMS THE POWER WILL GO DOWN FOR 90 DAYS" clip. Its clothing and setting matched Trump's April interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes."
4. AI did the lip-sync. According to Snopes, someone used AI to alter Trump's mouth movements and audio so he appears to say things he never said. That's the classic deepfake playbook: take real footage, swap the words.
5. It looks coordinated. Snopes found several Facebook accounts posting the same kind of scripted reels, including Shythechosen, Speaks, Josh Smith, Stefa Jefa and Aug Crypto. The same accounts also posted AI-altered clips of Elon Musk, Taylor Swift and Warren Buffett pushing the same blackout rumour and crypto offer.
6. No official word. There is no credible report of a planned 90-day nationwide outage. Snopes asked the White House and the accounts for comment and said it would update its story if they replied.
Where the "90 Days" Idea Came From
The rumour borrows from a real story. On 30 September 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced FORTRESS ("Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability"), a Pentagon plan to make US military bases more self-reliant. Fox News later reported the plan would require bases to keep running for at least 90 days without civilian power, fuel, water or supply lines. Snopes rated that report mostly true, but noted the Defense Department had not officially confirmed the 90-day figure.
Key point: FORTRESS is about military bases being able to run off-grid, not about the government switching off power for everyone. The scam takes a real, slightly scary headline and twists it into "the grid is going down, buy my coin."
Why This Is a Crypto Scam Pattern, Not Just a Fake Video
Fear plus a "solution" you can buy is a red flag. The US Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor.gov alert on crypto scams warns that fraudsters use AI deepfakes of celebrities and government officials to win trust, and that promoters can hype "memecoins" on social media, sell when the price rises, and leave everyone else with big losses. It also says never to make investment decisions based only on social media. The New York Attorney General has warned about the same trick: scammers edit existing videos to change a famous person's voice and mouth movements.
We've seen this energy before: deepfake-style fakes drove our checks on the Florida Learjet crash AI photo and the Jeff Bezos hair transplant photos. And if someone calls claiming to be the government, read up on fake FBI and FTC agent scam calls.
How to Check Viral "Breaking" Videos Yourself
- Find the original clip. Grab a few frames (screenshots) and run them through Google Lens, Bing Visual Search or TinEye. Tools like InVID-WeVerify can pull keyframes from videos for you.
- Match the setting. Same suit, same podium, same background, but different words? Watch the original speech at the same moment. If the audio doesn't match, it's edited.
- Check the official source. A 90-day national blackout would be on the White House website, the Department of Energy, utility companies and every major news outlet. If it's only on reels, it isn't real.
- Follow the money. Any "news" video that ends with "buy this token" is selling something. Real government announcements don't come with a coin ticker.
- Watch the mouth. AI lip-syncs can look slightly off: blurry teeth, lips not matching sounds, or a voice that sounds flat. A clean-looking video still isn't proof, so always do the source check too.
- Search fact-checkers. Try "claim + fact check" and look for Snopes, PolitiFact, AFP Fact Check, Reuters or Full Fact.
Want the full toolkit? Read our guide on how to check fake news in India (and anywhere). For context on the vote these clips were cut from, see our US midterm elections 2026 explainer.
FAQ
Did Trump announce a 90-day blackout? No. The clips are AI-altered. Snopes traced them to real Trump videos from 2 and 7 November 2026 where he talked about the midterms and about Russia, Ukraine and Iran, not a blackout.
Is the US power grid going down for 90 days? There is no credible report of a planned nationwide 90-day outage. The real 90-day story is about the Pentagon's FORTRESS plan for military bases to run off-grid, not about cutting civilian power.
Are USPR and USAR tokens linked to the US government? Nothing in the Snopes investigation or any official source links these tokens to the US government. They were promoted only through fake Trump videos and influencer reels.
How can I tell if a video of a politician is a deepfake? Find the original footage with a keyframe reverse image search, check the speaker's official channels and credible news, and treat any celebrity video selling a coin as a scam until proven otherwise.
Sources
- Main source: Snopes, "Are videos showing Trump announcing 90-day blackout real? Don't be fooled" (Jordan Liles, 10 Nov 2026)
- Snopes, "What we know about Pentagon's FORTRESS initiative to keep military bases running off-grid" (Laerke Christensen, 26 Oct 2026)
- US SEC, Investor.gov: "5 Ways Fraudsters May Lure Victims Into Scams Involving Crypto Asset Securities"
- New York Attorney General: investor alert on investment scams using AI-manipulated videos
Image credits
- Featured image: original Factash graphic.
- Screenshot of the shythechosen Instagram post: Snopes (via @shythechosen on Instagram)
