President Trump is using AI-generated content to glorify himself and attack rivals, raising concerns about misinformation and the erosion of trust.
WASHINTON, USA (AFP) – In a stunning and unprecedented move, President Donald Trump has embraced artificial intelligence-generated content as a core element of his administration’s communications strategy, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy on his Truth Social channel. Since embarking on his second term, Trump has weaponized AI imagery, glorifying himself in surreal scenarios while casting his political opponents as villains and objects of ridicule.
Trump, known for his penchant for conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims, has leveraged hyper-realistic fake visuals to amplify his breathless social media commentary, particularly during moments of national unrest.
Last month, a digitally fabricated video surfaced on Trump’s Truth Social account depicting him as a crowned monarch piloting a fighter jet emblazoned with “King Trump.” In the clip, set to Kenny Loggins’s “Danger Zone,” the jet releases what appears to be excrement onto throngs of protesters below. The post coincided with nationwide “No Kings” protests, organized in response to what critics decried as his increasingly authoritarian tendencies.
Adding to the spectacle, the White House recently shared an AI-generated image of Trump as Superman amidst fervent social media speculation regarding his health. Accompanied by the captions “THE SYMBOL OF HOPE” and “SUPERMAN TRUMP,” the post further solidified the administration’s embrace of AI-driven propaganda.
This marks the first time a sitting American president has so overtly employed AI-generated content as a means of shaping public perception, raising concerns about the potential for misinformation and the erosion of trust in factual reporting. As Trump’s AI-fueled reality continues to unfold, questions linger about the long-term implications for American democracy and the integrity of political discourse.
Trump’s AI Fantasies: Pope, Lion, and Maestro in a Digital Dreamscape
President Donald Trump’s foray into the realm of artificial intelligence-generated imagery has taken an even more surreal turn, with the former reality TV star now depicted as everything from the Pope to a roaring lion and a conductor at the prestigious Kennedy Center. These fabricated visuals, shared on Trump’s Truth Social platform and occasionally by the White House, have sparked confusion and debate, blurring the lines between reality and digital fantasy.
The authenticity of these images has been questioned by social media users, highlighting the potential for deception in the age of AI. While it remains unclear whether Trump himself or his aides are responsible for generating the content, the White House has remained silent on the matter, declining to comment on inquiries from AFP.
Wired magazine has dubbed Trump “America’s first generative AI president,” underscoring the unprecedented nature of his administration’s embrace of AI-driven propaganda.
Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the advocacy group Free Press, told AFP, “Trump peddles disinformation on and offline to boost his own image, attack his adversaries, and control public discourse. For someone like him, unregulated generative AI is the perfect tool to capture people’s attention and distort reality.”
In a particularly egregious example, Trump recently triggered outrage after posting an apparent AI-generated video of himself promising every American access to all-healing “MedBed” hospitals. The clip, styled as a Fox News segment and featuring his daughter-in-law Lara Trump promoting a fictitious White House launch of the “historic new health care system,” promoted the widely debunked “MedBed” conspiracy theory popular among far-right circles. The video was later deleted without explanation.
The incident underscores the potential for AI to amplify disinformation and conspiracy theories, raising serious concerns about the impact on public discourse and trust in factual information. As Trump continues to push the boundaries of AI-generated content, the need for greater regulation and media literacy becomes increasingly urgent.
AI-Fueled Political Warfare: Trump’s Trolling and the Erosion of Shared Reality
As President Donald Trump continues to deploy AI-generated content to glorify himself and attack his rivals, experts are raising concerns about the erosion of shared reality and the weaponization of digital imagery for political gain.
“How do you bring people back to a shared reality when those in power keep stringing them along?” asked Noelle Cook, a researcher and author of “The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging.”
Trump has reserved the most provocative AI posts for his rivals and critics, using them to rally his conservative base.
In July, he posted an AI video of former president Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and appearing behind bars in an orange jumpsuit. Later, he posted an AI clip of House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries — who is Black — wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero. Jeffries slammed the image as racist.
“While it would in many ways be desirable for the president of the United States to stay above the fray and away from sharing AI images, Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he sees his time in office as a non-stop political campaign,” Joshua Tucker, co-director of the New York University Center for Social Media and Politics, told AFP. “I would see his behavior more as campaigning through trolling than actively trying to propagate the false belief that these images depict reality.”
Mirroring Trump’s strategy, California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday posted an apparent AI video on X lampooning Republicans after Democrats swept key US elections. The clip depicted wrestlers inside a ring with superimposed faces of Democratic leaders knocking down their Republican opponents, including Trump. The post read: “Now that’s what we call a takedown.”
As AI-generated content becomes increasingly sophisticated and accessible, the potential for political manipulation and the spread of misinformation grows exponentially. The question remains whether society can develop the critical media literacy skills necessary to navigate this new digital landscape and preserve a shared sense of reality.