Donald Trump has shared doctored images on social media suggesting he has the support of Taylor Swift and her many fans ahead of the US presidential election.
Taylor Swift, whose influence on some young American voters is highly scrutinized, has not yet officially given her support to any candidate for the November 5 election.
But in 2020, she endorsed Joe Biden over President Donald Trump, accusing the Republican of having “fanned the flames of white supremacy and racism throughout [son] mandate”.
On Sunday, the former Republican president posted manipulated images — some of which one expert says were created by artificial intelligence (AI) — suggesting that the singer and her fans, known as “the Swifties “, would support his campaign.
In his message on his Truth Social platform, accompanied by an image showing Taylor Swift dressed as Uncle Sam asking her fans to vote for Trump, the former president wrote: “I accept!”
The star’s image is either “generated by AI or simply manipulated in a classic way,” Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.
The post is accompanied by photos of women wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Swifties for Trump,” some of which Mr. Farid said are “typical” of AI-generated images.
No bias, but…
Taylor Swift and her entourage did not immediately respond to the post.
Republicans and Democrats alike have sought to capitalize on the artist’s immense popularity, but she has so far avoided taking sides.
The singer demonstrated her influence last September, when she posted a message on Instagram inviting her tens of millions of followers to go to the Vote.org platform to register to vote.
The organization had recorded more than 35,000 new registrations that day, a 23% jump from the same day a year earlier.
Hailing from rural Tennessee, Taylor Swift began her journey in country music, a genre particularly popular with conservatives.
She had been reluctant to share her political views until 2018, when she announced her support for two Democratic candidates in Tennessee’s midterm elections.
She has also since defended abortion rights and the rights of the LGBT+ community, issues championed by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.