President Donald Trump deploys AI-generated imagery to glorify himself and attack critics, a strategy mimicked by his administration and rivals
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has become the first US leader to deploy AI-generated imagery as a central tool of political communication.
In his second term, Trump has ramped up his use of hyper-realistic but fabricated visuals on Truth Social and other platforms.
One post depicts him playing football in the Oval Office with Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he describes as a “GREAT GUY”.
Another AI clip features Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sunbathing at a resort with “Trump Gaza” in the background.
That post followed Trump’s controversial proposal to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
The president has also shared AI-made images showing him dressed as the pope, roaring with a lion, and conducting an orchestra.
A report by the Poynter Institute called it the “first White House administration to embrace and use imagery generated by artificial intelligence in everyday communication”.
Trump has reserved his most provocative AI posts for rivals and critics to rally his conservative base.
Last year, he posted an AI video of former president Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office.
He later shared an AI clip of House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero, which Jeffries slammed as racist.
“For someone like Trump, unregulated generative AI is the perfect tool to capture attention and distort reality,” Nora Benavidez of Free Press told AFP.
Analysts say the AI messaging is a strategy of campaigning through trolling ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
“We should simply see his use of AI-generated political images as just one of many tools he uses to continue this campaign,” said Joshua Tucker of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics.
A study in the journal Nature found that dialogues with AI tools can shift opposition voters’ preferences in the US, Canada and Poland.
Trump’s AI strategy has been mimicked by other departments of his administration and his critics.
Health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr promoted a “Make Santa Healthy Again” campaign using an AI video.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement also deployed AI imagery in its immigration crackdown.
Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom trolled Trump by posting an AI video depicting the president in handcuffs.
