No, Lady Gaga did not publicly slam Donald Trump or his stance on Russia

The context

More than 2.4 million TikTok users to date have viewed a video featuring a photo of Lady Gaga and an audio clip criticizing Donald Trump. 

The audio, which begins with the words "Donald Trump, you are a total disgrace to America," focuses on Trump's alleged affection for Russia as evidenced by his past and present actions, including congratulating Russian President Vladimir Putin on the prisoner swap that took place in early August and not believing the intelligence agencies that claimed Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

The video was posted by @kamala.harris.fan, an account that openly supports presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Other TikTok users responded with more than 24,000 comments, mostly praising the celebrity's alleged opinion of Trump. Some of the most popular comments read: "Well said Lady Gaga," "Lady Gaga has said what we all think and feel but so eloquently!" and "Thank you for your support Lady GaGa!"

Although the comments section is dominated by those who do not doubt the authenticity of the recording, some users also questioned its authenticity, saying that Lady Gaga's voice was different from usual. "Is this really Lady Gaga's voice? I love her but this doesn't sound like her. But whoever it is great message!" wrote one user. 

However, Lady Gaga is not the author of the audio clip in question. This video is another in a series of misleading representations purporting to show celebrities taking sides in the presidential race. For example, Taylor Swift didn't endorse former President Donald Trump, Ryan Reynolds wasn't photographed wearing a pro-Kamala Harris shirt, and the Communist Party USA never endorsed Joe Biden's now-defunct campaign, CNN has debunked. 

In fact

TikTok allows users to transfer their audio recordings to other contexts. This means that audio created (or uploaded) by one user can be used by a fellow user in their video. While this is often used playfully, voice effects - plenty of content featuring people talking like chipmunks, babies, and robots - can also be used to add someone else's voice to your own (or a third party's) image.

(Source: TikTok/Screenshot)

In this case, the thumbnail in the bottom right corner takes us to the profile of the user @the1christin and the original video uploaded on August 4. There are several reasons to believe that the recording was made by the person behind this profile. First, there are no inconsistencies that would indicate tampering or manipulation. For example, there are no abrupt changes in volume or missing parts of the recording that could be red flags, nor are there any inconsistencies between the speaker's facial expressions and the words spoken. The accents used in the speech are visible on the speaker's face (especially the accented words), and there is a clear vocalization of the oral cavity for different words. The entire visual torso, including the muscles in the neck, indicates that the person in the video is speaking. There are also no unusual pauses or breaks in the speech pattern. 

Analyzing the timbre of the voice confirms that this recording was not made by Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga's singing voice has been described as mezzo-soprano, and her speaking voice is also considered dark and husky, whereas the voice of the TikTok creator is much brighter.

Finally, the creator confirmed that she had made the sound recording in another video. She expressed how honored she was that the video had reached a wider audience but that she was its actual author.

(Source: TikTok/@the1christin/Screenshot)

Verdict

The audio recording claiming Donald Trump was a disgrace to America was created by another creator on TikTok, not Lady Gaga. Therefore, we have marked the post as false.