By Penny Rosenberg
October 19, 2026
A deepfake video of Washington County chair candidate Nafisa Fai speaking in front of an upside-down U.S. flag went viral Thursday—moments before she participated in a candidates forum that evening.
On the same day as the forum, an account on X called “End Wokeness,” with 3.9 million followers, posted the video, a 26-second clip of Fai speaking at a community event in Minnesota last weekend. The post said:
Oregon politician Nafisa Fai just held a rally in MN, speaking Somali, with an American flag UPSIDE DOWN.
Enough with the pretending already.
These are not Americans.
Comments on the post suggested that she be deported.
The X account has been reported by The Washington Post and others to be the source of false claims that Haitian refugees in Springfield, Ohio, eat cats and dogs.