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Former President Donald Trump posted artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of pop star Taylor Swift, falsely implying her endorsement of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump’s post on his Truth Social account included a set of photos, one showing several girls wearing a shirt with printed text saying “Swifties for Trump.” and the caption “Swifties turning to Trump after ISIS foiled Taylor Swift concert,” referencing the attempted terrorist attack at one of Swift’s venues in Vienna. These photos were confirmed to be satire, as the original poster recognized Trump’s repost later in a tweet on his X account.
Another depicts a woman made to look like a pop star in an Uncle Sam costume posing in front of the American flag and pointing toward the viewer with the caption, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” Trump then captioned the post with the message, “I accept!”
Swift’s and Swifties’ Political Stance
Many of the images were identified as generated by AI, causing Swift’s fans to rally against Trump for spreading misinformation. However, at least two photos in Trump’s post were found to depict an actual person.
Jessica McBride, an editor from Wisconsin Right Now, confirmed that she took these photos at a Trump rally in Racine, Wisconsin, in June. The woman in the photos, identified as Jenna Piwowarczyk, provided a statement through Wisconsin News Now:
“I know of so many Swifties who have conservative values and many, many more who have reached out to express their support and appreciation for the ‘Swifties for Trump’ movement,” Piwowarczyk said. “By focusing more on the AI photos than on the REAL person in the photos that Trump shared, I think the media are missing an opportunity to recognize that, of all the millions of Taylor Swift fans, of course, there will be many who support Trump and conservative values and also love her music. We exist. We are real.”
Despite this, Swift has long been known to support the Democratic Party during the 2020 elections. Publicly campaigning for President Joe Biden in a music video of the song “Only the Young” and even criticizing Trump after the latter sent tweets that appeared to threaten the protesters in Minnesota.
“After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November,” Swift tweeted in 2020. Swift’s team neither officially endorsed any candidate for the 2024 elections nor released any comment regarding Trump’s recent actions.
Regulating Election Misinformation
The incident has reignited debates over the use of AI in political advertising and the state of regulations that should govern such practices.
Truth Social’s content policies are undeniably permissive of Trump’s rampage, but other social media platforms have stricter rules about synthetic and manipulated media. X prohibits such posts “that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm,” though enforcement has been inconsistent.
Recently, X has taken no action to mitigate owner Elon Musk’s misinformation attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign without any context that he’s using AI-generated content.
On the same note, experts warn that the federal election laws are not ready for the emergence of deepfakes. There are currently 20 states that have passed legislation to regulate deepfakes during the elections.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, comments that Trump’s posts likely wouldn’t be covered by these laws because they are not presented in a way that’s plausible enough to deceive an average person, which is the condition these laws require.
Yet Swift might be able to personally move with a legal claim under California’s Right of Publicity, which protects the use of a person’s likeness. If Swift can show that using her likeness caused harm or injury, she could potentially take legal action.
Just this year, WIRED already tracked a massive surge in AI-generated election content. As the 2024 election approaches, this incident underscores the growing challenge of navigating truth and authenticity in a digital landscape increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
