Did Obama and Buttigieg really drop ‘Project Unity’? Here’s the truth

Claim:

In November 2025, former U.S. President Barack Obama and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg unveiled a plan called “Project Unity” that boosted support for Democratic candidates.

Rating:

In November 2025, a rumor circulated on social media (archived) that former U.S. President Barack Obama and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, both Democrats, unveiled a plan called “Project Unity” that boosted support for political candidates from their party.

The posts claimed Obama and Buttigieg spoke publicly about the plan, citing “C-SPAN cameras” that supposedly zoomed in on Obama during the announcement. They also attributed the following quote to Buttigieg: “Donald calls it chaos. We call it a crossroads. This project is our blueprint: secure borders without cruelty, jobs without exploitation. And if Washington can’t get it done — we will.”

According to the posts, the clip trended on X and caused Democrats to surge 16 points in “battlegrounds” or “swing states.”

(JohnLennon Fan Club via Facebook)

One of the posts also included a link in the comments to an advertisement-filled article about the alleged collaboration between Obama and Buttigieg. 

However, there was no evidence as of this writing that the politicians had publicly announced a plan called “Project Unity.” As such, we’ve rated this claim false.

A search of the C-SPAN website (archived) didn’t return any videos of the two discussing the supposed blueprint. 

Likewise, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo turned up no credible news reports supporting the claim. Since Obama and Buttigieg are public figures, reputable media outlets would have likely reported on such a collaboration. 

Yahoo’s AI Summary, however, claimed Obama and Buttigieg were collaborating on the project, citing a Facebook post that shared the false rumor (archived). Artificial intelligence tools like this one can be unreliable and may inadvertently contribute to the spread of misinformation.

Snopes reached out to the Obama Foundation for comment and will update this story if we receive a response.

While it’s unclear who authored the posts, they are part of a trend of false stories about celebrities and politicians shared on social media. The story was seemingly written to generate advertising revenue for external websites or to boost engagement on social media.

AI likely helped create text, photo

Like other posts that spread similar false rumors, both the text and at least one image appeared to have been AI-generated. 

For example, the AI-detection tool GPTZero indicated it was “highly confident” that the text in one of the Facebook posts was AI-generated, though it’s worth noting these types of tools are not always accurate.

(GPTZero AI-detection tool)

We independently identified signs of AI generation. For example, the text contained over-the-top, emotionally charged language, such as “48 seconds of White House fire that might seal Dems the crown in 2028” and “like a loaded gun.” This type of language is often found in AI-generated content designed to elicit strong reactions and drive engagement.

The description of Project Unity was also plausible but generic: “Rebuilding borders, economy and trust.” AI often invents concepts that sound like they could be real but don’t actually exist.

An analysis of an image used in one of the posts (archived) spreading the false story also indicated that it was likely created with AI.

The AI-detection platform Sightengine estimated a 99% probability that the image, which appeared to show Obama and Buttigieg shaking hands, was AI-generated. Hive, another AI-detection platform, similarly flagged the image as likely containing “AI-generated or deepfake content.”

We also noted telltale signs of AI generation, such as unnaturally smooth skin and awkward body positioning. 

(Hive AI detector)

More red flags

Other evidence also raised red flags about the Facebook posts’ claims.

For example, page transparency tabs for two of the Facebook pages (archived here and here) that shared the false claim about Obama and Buttigieg revealed that most of their page owners were based in Vietnam — a country that has repeatedly appeared in research into fabricated, AI-generated stories tied to major news events and public figures.

A separate Facebook page shared a nearly identical story (archived) about Obama and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas. Notably, that post also mentioned a plan called “Project Unity” and included an image that was likely AI-generated. Its page managers also were based in Vietnam (archived).

For further reading, we debunked a claim that the Department of Government Efficiency stopped an annual multimillion-dollar payment to Obama for “royalties associated with Obamacare.”