Donald Trump at The Believers Summit in Florida in July 2024. Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Trump shared multiple fake images on Truth Social, including one showing Taylor Swift with the caption ‘Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump’.
US presidential candidate Donald Trump has turned to AI to boost his campaign by using fake images to claim endorsement from Taylor Swift and her fanbase.
These AI-generated images show various people wearing “Swifties for Trump” t-shirts, along with one supposed image of Swift herself with the caption “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump”. The former US president shared these images on Truth Social and said “I accept”. Swift has not publicly endorsed any candidate for the 2024 US election.
Two of the images Trump shared show the same woman in different angles. These two images look real while the other images – including that of Swift herself – bear more of the usual traits of AI-generated images.
The images are screenshots posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Guardian reports that the accounts that shared these images have a history of sharing misinformation online.
Meanwhile, Trump also used AI-generated images to criticise presidential candidate Kamala Harris. He shared a fake image of Harris speaking to a crowd at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with a large Soviet Union flag among the crowd, who are all wearing similar military uniforms.
While Trump uses AI-generated images for his own campaign, he has also been quick to accuse others of doing the same. He recently claimed Harris used AI to make the size of one her rallies larger than it was – fact checkers used AI-detection tools on the image and said it was likely real.
The use of AI during elections is a growing concern, raising fears that this technology can be used to spread disinformation, create deepfakes and confuse voters. Elon Musk – now a major supporter of Trump – recently shared a fake campaign video for Harris which used an AI-generated version of her voice. Earlier this year, an AI-generated voice of US president Joe Biden urged people not to vote in primary elections.
The penalties for using AI to lie as part of a political campaign are unclear – precedent in the US allows people to lie in political advertising. But Robert Weissman, copresident of Public Citizen, suggested to The Verge that Swift herself may be able to sue Trump under certain state laws for falsely using her likeness for his campaign.
Meanwhile, a group of US senators recently introduced a No Fakes Act to make the creation of voice and visual likenesses of people, such as AI deepfakes, illegal without their consent.
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Donald Trump at The Believers Summit in Florida. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
