(AFP) – Donald Trump shared doctored images showing Taylor Swift and her fans supporting his presidential campaign, in an apparent effort to tap into the pop singer’s mega star power in the US election. Swift has not yet publicly thrown her weight behind any presidential candidate in the November 5 election, but she backed President Joe Biden in 2020 and has previously been critical of Trump.
On Sunday, Trump shared screenshots of posts with manipulated images –- including some that an expert said appeared to be AI-generated -– suggesting that the pop star and her fans, popularly known as Swifties, support his campaign. In a post on his social media site Truth Social, which included an image of Swift clad in an Uncle Sam outfit and instructing her fans to vote for Trump, the former president wrote: “I accept!” That image, in the style of a poster, was either “AI-generated or just classically manipulated,” Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.
The post also includes photos of women wearing shirts with the slogan “Swifties for Trump,” some of which Farid said had the “tell-tale signs of being AI-generated.” What makes the mash-up “particularly devious” is its combination of real and fake imagery, with at least one photo of a woman wearing such a shirt looking legitimate, Farid said. There was no immediate comment from Swift about the post by Trump, who separately shared on Truth Social a video of a supporter voicing the dubious claim that “Swifties were rallying for Trump.”
“You’re going to let this go uncorrected?” A.J. Delgado, a former advisor to the Trump campaign in 2016, wrote in a post on the platform X that was addressed to the singer’s publicist. Trump’s post also drew online mockery and scorn from the singer’s fans, some of whom called on her to take legal action against the former president. Swift’s massive popularity and sway over her fans could make her support valuable in the upcoming US presidential election. Both Republicans and Democrats have long wanted her support, but the megastar has been largely reticent about her political leanings.
In a demonstration of her star power, when Swift encouraged her fans to register to vote last fall, directing them to the nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org, her plea had an immediate impact. Following her message, the institution said it recorded more than 35,000 new registrations, 23 percent more than last year and the most since 2020. Swift’s feelers into politics have been heavily scrutinized, making her a ripe target for political misinformation and right-wing conspiracy theories. Her reserve led many critics to speculate Swift was a closet Republican, until 2018, when she broke both her silence and the internet by endorsing the Democratic opponent of far-right US Senator Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee.
She has since spoken out in particular for the legal right to an abortion and LGBTQ rights. In recent weeks, intense speculation has swirled on social media that Swift will endorse Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the November election. The megastar has not commented publicly, but that has not stopped legions of fans from forming a group called “Swifties for Kamala,” attracting tens of thousands of followers on platforms including Instagram and X.
In recent months, a tide of AI-fueled political disinformation has prompted alarm over its potential to manipulate voters as the presidential race heats up. “No one is immune to AI’s harms, not even Taylor Swift,” said the campaign group Accountable Tech. “Without urgent intervention, it’ll only get worse.” – Anuj CHOPRA
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