A few weeks ago, Donald Trump thought it would be funny to accuse US Vice President Kamala Harris of using AI for an image of a crowd greeting her at the airport. “Did anyone notice that Kamala cheated at the airport?” Trump asked angrily, jabbing his thumb into his phone. “There was no one on the plane and she used AI… She should be disqualified because making fake images is election interference. Anyone who does that cheats on anything!”
Just as some animals are more equal than others, some politicians are more honest. So when the former president himself posted an apparently AI-generated image this week of what appeared to be the back of Harris' head brandishing a giant hammer and sickle in front of a huge Communist crowd, he probably didn't think of it as election interference. Trump has also recently shared AI-generated images of himself, Elon Musk, and Taylor Swift.
These images are worrying, especially considering that most image generators have guardrails against including real people in their content, but Trump doesn't seem to be trying to make these images seem real — I think he's just trying to be funny.
AI-generated images and deepfakes are poor man's memes
Someone on the Trump campaign team has learned to use AI image generators and become a bit more improvisational. Dance Together This isn't an example of election-manipulative deepfake media as many disinformation critics fear. It's an example of a candidate desperately trying to stay in the algorithm. AI generation requires a few prompts and perhaps a paid subscription to the generator. It's much cheaper and quicker than hiring a creator who would have to spend time coming up with an idea and creating it before it's ready to be published.
AI-generated images and deepfakes are the poor man’s memes. The ones that do succeed are humorous content designed to spread online, created by individuals who know how to embrace the language and culture of the internet and incorporate the zeitgeist into social posts designed to resonate and go viral. Combining text with images and video is a delicate art, and one that the Harris campaign excels at. Everyone on the internet knows about the coconut tree, and those who frequent the internet know Charlie XCX’s praise for “Kamala being a brat.”
In contrast, the AI posts Trump shared are cheesy Algo fodder, not the best in internet humor. Another way he's experimenting is pairing AI images with real images to lend credibility or just improve comedic potential. The “Accept!” post is accompanied by an image of a Swift fan suggesting “Trump support,” combining a real photo of a woman wearing a “Swift Fan Trump” T-shirt with a satirical AI image of a fan wearing the same slogan T-shirt, and an AI-generated image of Swift dressed as Uncle Sam. The image is captioned, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” This is the kind of content your family's prodigal uncle forwards to you, given to him by his buddies because he has nothing else to do.
Trump doesn't expect or need Swift's support, so his incredulity is a source of humor. These posts are not meant to convince his audience that Swift really supports him, but to keep the drip-fed content from drying up in his supporters' Facebook groups and WhatsApp conversations. Trump has also always been a tease. He knows that Swift's fans will react angrily to his posts. He also knows that stoking this outrage will amplify his content in Truth Social and X's algorithms and get it picked up by mainstream media. When people call him out for posting such content, some see it as a legitimate way to fight misinformation, but his fans just don't seem to get the joke. (Of course, if the joke had even a few decent laughs, it would be easier to understand.)
The idea that Harris is a communist, that Trump and Musk are dance buddies, and that even Taylor Swift fans can’t escape being Trump fans, are consistent with the narrative of popularity, familiarity, and fame that Trump likes to pursue. Narratives matter far more than truth, especially in the United States, where political ideology is so powerful that it’s one of the most important factors in deciding whether to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Trump’s AI posts are best understood as part of the seductive mixture of truth and falsehood that has always been a hallmark of his rhetoric, rather than outright misinformation meant to be taken at face value. Trump isn’t interested in telling the truth. He’s interested in telling his own truth. So are his most ardent supporters. In his world, AI is just another tool for doing so. Whether he’s prepared to accept the reality that he can’t take or accept a joke is another story.
Sophia Smith Gaylor is a journalist, content creator, and author of Losing It.
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