Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has posted on social media fake images suggesting that pop star Taylor Swift and her legion of fans are backing him in the upcoming United States election.
Trump posted the images, all of which appear to be AI-generated deepfakes taken from right-wing social media accounts with a history of sharing misinformation, along with a message saying “I accept!”
One image showed smiling Swift fans, known as Swifties, wearing T-shirts with the text: “Swifties for Trump”. Another depicted Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, a character from a first world war US Army recruitment poster, urging people to vote for Trump.
A third showed a fake headline, beneath the tag “satire”, suggesting Swift fans turned to Trump after one of the singer’s concerts was cancelled in the Austrian capital, Vienna, earlier this month when it was targeted by hardliners.
Swift, who has not publicly endorsed a presidential candidate for November’s election, supported the Democratic Party in 2020. She also publicly criticised Trump during his presidency amid nationwide protests following George Floyd’s murder by police officers.
“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?” she posted on X, then known as Twitter, in 2020. “We will vote you out in November.”
Swift is yet to respond to Trump’s post. The images are the most recent in a slew of AI-generated images posted by Trump in recent days as the presidential candidate, known for spreading falsehoods, further muddies the waters in an already fraught presidential campaign.
On Sunday, he shared an AI-generated image depicting presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaking at a communist rally at the Democratic National Convention, which is being held in Chicago this week.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2024
Trump has also shared a deepfake video of him dancing to the Bee Gees’s song Stayin’ Alive with billionaire Elon Musk. X owner Musk has endorsed Trump, holding a glitch-filled two-hour conversation with him on the platform last week.
Trump also falsely claimed last week that a genuine photo showing thousands of supporters attending a campaign rally held by Harris and her running mate Tim Walz at a Detroit aircraft hangar was AI-generated.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. “There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!”
