US Election 2024
Trump Campaigns with Fake Photos to Win Over “Swifties”
Watch in the video: Democrats take shots at Trump – he posts fake images of Taylor Swift. Video source: RTL.de
Taylor Swift is one of the most influential women in the world. Donald Trump knows this and tries to win over her fans – in very questionable ways.
US presidential candidate Donald Trump posted fake images of pop star Taylor Swift to convince her fans to vote for him in the November election. Trump shared a fake “Uncle Sam” poster featuring Swift’s face, which read: “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” Trump captioned it: “I accept!”
The poster featuring the singer was either “AI-generated or simply classic manipulation,” said digital forensics expert Hany Farid from the University of California to the AFP news agency.
Creator Confirms Fake Taylor Swift Photos
Other obviously manipulated images displayed women wearing T-shirts with the inscription “Swifties for Trump.” While two of the images shared by the former president do show a real woman supporting Trump, most of the depicted women are not real but representations of people created with artificial intelligence.
The images shared by Trump were originally posted by Trump-friendly accounts on X. One of these accounts has also published several guides on using generative AI tools on its Substack blog. In a reply on X, the same account confirmed that the images Trump posted were generated by AI. Farid criticized: Trump’s post is “particularly sneaky” because at least one of the fan images actually looks real.
Pop Star Has Not Yet Taken a Clear Position
Swift herself has not publicly backed Donald Trump or the Democrats’ presidential candidate, Kamala Harris. However, in the past, she has repeatedly criticized Trump and campaigned for the current US President Joe Biden before the 2020 presidential election. She also advocates for abortion and LGBTQ rights, with the English acronym LGBTQ standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer.
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Although a public endorsement from the singer is still lacking, tens of thousands of her fans have already expressed support for the Democratic candidate. The “Swifties for Kamala” page has tens of thousands of followers on online platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. Similar pages exist under the name “Swifties for Trump” – though with significantly fewer followers.
The newly released images are part of a social media campaign some pro-Trump accounts launched over the weekend to suggest that more and more Swift fans were supporting Trump. In fact, there is no evidence for this.