President Donald Trump has posted AI-generated content dozens of times on his Truth Social account, establishing a new form of political propaganda that ranges from flattering depictions to attacks on rivals and the spread of falsehoods about his agenda, reports the New York Times.
Over the weekend, Trump posted a video showing himself flying a fighter jet and dumping excrement on protesters following No Kings demonstrations across all 50 states. The 19-second clip depicted Trump wearing a gold crown and manning a plane emblazoned with “King Trump” whilst dumping brown matter onto an AI-generated cityscape.
Trump’s use of the technology has evolved alongside the tools, which have rapidly improved from producing obviously fake images in 2022 to more lifelike renderings, including video and audio, this year. The content is easy to create by typing descriptions into AI-generating tools.
Political experts say even the most anodyne uses of AI by the president normalise these tools as a new type of political propaganda. The approach redefines or in some cases discards the idea of being “presidential”, with posts showing Trump doing a TikTok dance with Elon Musk, depicting political rivals as overweight or winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Creative and effective”
The White House described the strategy as part of Trump’s successful social media approach, with assistant press secretary Liz Huston stating no leader has used social media to communicate directly with the American people more creatively and effectively.
Trump’s AI usage began in earnest during his 2024 campaign. After his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, he claimed Haitian immigrants in Michigan were eating cats and dogs, a racist conspiracy theory for which there was no credible evidence. Trump responded to backlash by depicting himself embracing cats, ducks and dogs, with supporters sharing the images widely online.
The president has also attacked opponents through AI content. On 30 September, Trump posted a deepfake video of Chuck Schumer, the US Senate minority leader, using fabricated audio to make it appear the senator called fellow Democrats “woke pieces of shit”. The video also included a racist depiction of Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic US House leader, dressed in a fake moustache and sombrero set to mariachi music.
Adrian Shahbaz, vice president for research and analysis at Freedom House, observes that the more ridiculous the photo or video, the more likely it is to dominate news feeds, as controversial posts get shared by people who enjoyed them and people outraged by them.
