A social media post shared to Truth Social on Sunday by Donald Trump consisted of AI-generated photos falsely showing Taylor Swift and her fans endorsing him, carrying an air of sarcasm from the Republican presidential candidate.
Several of the photos, which were taken from right-wing X accounts that have shared false images/news in the past, depicted Swift fans wearing t-shirts that read: “Swifties for Trump”. One of these images appeared as a fake news headline with a label of “Satire,” and with a headline reading, “Swifties Turning to Trump After ISIS foiled Taylor Swift Concert.”
Two of the images Trump re-posted feature real women who are Trump supporters, NBC News reported.
Swift recently cancelled three concerts in Vienna due to a possible security threat, and police have arrested two people on suspicion of planning attacks inspired by the Islamic State group.
Another one of the photos Trump re-posted depicted Swift as Uncle Sam in a recreation of a World War I army recruitment poster, reading, “Taylor Swift wants YOU to VOTE for Donald Trump.”
The former president wrote “I accept!” as a caption alongside the images, expressing a mocking tone of the singer, who has not yet formally endorsed a candidate but has supported Biden and spoken out against Trump in the past.
While Swift has not yet responded to Trump’s post, fans of her have denounced them, accusing him of spreading misinformation and are calling for Swift to sue Trump.
On Sunday, Trump also shared an AI-generated image depicting Kamala Harris holding a communist military rally at the Democratic national convention, with a Soviet Union flag hanging in the background, and what appears to be soldiers in the crowd.
A few days prior, he posted a deepfake video of him and X owner Elon Musk, who has endorsed him, dancing together. Last week, Musk debuted Grok, an image generator that works based off prompts, which has contributed to the practice of creating AI content surrounding political figures, the election, celebrities and copyrighted works, and even sexualized and violent content.
In addition to sharing these false images, Trump also wrongly asserted that a genuine image of one of Harris’s campaign rallies was produced by artificial intelligence, maintaining the well-documented event never took place.
As the use of artificial intelligence grows more prominent, so do concerns over it being used to promote false narratives and it creating a general skepticism of all media, particularly if it’s coming from public figures who hold influence.
