Donald Trump appears to have falsely implied that he has Taylor Swift's support by posting fake images on social media that show her and her fans endorsing him.
The Republican presidential candidate posted the message “I accept!” along with images taken from his other social media accounts, many of which appear to have been created using artificial intelligence.
The post sparked backlash among Swifties, who accused Trump of spreading misinformation.
The singer is not endorsing a candidate in the 2024 election, but supported the Democrat in 2020 and criticized President Trump during his presidency.
One of the photos Trump shared showed Swift fans wearing T-shirts that read “Swifties for Trump.”
The post appeared to be labelled “satire” and the headline read, “Swift fans turn to Trump after ISIS disrupts Taylor Swift concert.”
Swift recently canceled three concerts in Vienna over possible security threats after police arrested two people on suspicion of plotting Islamic State-inspired attacks.
Another reposted photo imitated a World War I US military recruiting poster, with Uncle Sam's face replaced with Swift's and the words “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”
NBC News reported that two of the images Trump reposted featured real women who support him.
Swift supported the Democrat in the 2020 election and criticized President Trump during the nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd.
“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, how dare you feign moral superiority before threatening violence?,” she wrote on Twitter/X. “I will be voting to remove you in November.”
Earlier this year, the BBC discovered dozens of deepfake images depicting black people supporting Trump, without any evidence that the images were linked to his campaign.
