Supporters of Donald Trump created AI images showing the ex-president being embraced by black people, a demographic that Republicans continue to battle in court.
In a shocking new report from BBC's Panorama program, at least one prominent Trump supporter, Florida-based radio host Mark Kaye, admits to creating the fake image.
“I’m not a photojournalist. I'm not out there taking photos of what's really happening. “I’m a storyteller,” Kaye told the BBC.
The network shared two of the AI-generated images, one showing Trump smiling and with his arms around a group of black women. This image was created by Mark Kaye and his team, reports the BBC.
Another showed Trump in front of a house with a group of young black men. The photo was shared on social media. The story accompanying the picture says that Trump drove past a house in his motorcade and asked to get out to meet the men. The BBC reports that the image is fake.
“At first glance it looks real, but upon closer inspection everyone's skin is a little too shiny and people's hands are missing fingers – some telltale signs of AI-generated images,” a section of the BBC report said .
Supporters of Donald Trump created AI images showing the ex-president being embraced by black people, a demographic that Republicans continue to battle in court
The creator of this image claimed that he was not a “photojournalist” but a “storyteller.”
This image was shared on social media claiming that Trump stopped his motorcade to take a photo with this group of men. The picture is not real
“I’m not saying it’s correct. I'm not saying, “Hey, look, Donald Trump was at this party with all these African-American voters.” Look how much they love him,” Kaye continued.
“If someone votes one way or another based on a photo they see on a Facebook page, that is a problem with that person, not the post itself.”
The person who created the image of Trump with the young black men, identified only as Shaggy from Michigan, apparently blocked a BBC reporter when asked about the images.
'[My posts] have attracted thousands of wonderful, kind-hearted Christian followers,” Shaggy said before blocking the reporter. The post has 1.3 million views.
On Monday, Trump-backed super PAC MAGA Inc. will launch an advertising campaign targeting Black voters in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
This isn't Trump's first brush with AI. Last month he accused nefarious operators of using AI to make him appear overweight while playing golf.
“The fake news used artificial intelligence (AI) to create the picture.” “These are despicable people, but everyone knows that,” Trump complained.
“In the other pictures today I'm hitting golf balls to show the difference.” Unfortunately, in our country there is only fake news!'
Just as Donald Trump was fined $355 million in a New York courtroom on Friday, the former president posted pictures on his Truth Social that made him look fat
The post, which showed a photo of Trump with a pot belly, was accompanied by three other photos showing a slimmed-down Donald, and came at exactly the same time that the judge in his case in New York, Judge Arthur F. Engoron, his verdict came down.
However, further investigation shows that the image is not AI at all, but rather a photoshopped image of 57-year-old golf cult hero and long-time Trump supporter John Daly from 2017.
On the other side of the ballot, AI-generated robocalls went out to New Hampshire voters in January in which Joe Biden used his voice to urge people not to vote because the primary was “bullshit,” adding, “Raise Save your vote for the November election.”
Trump's difficulty connecting with black voters dates back to his first campaign in 2016.
In February, Trump claimed that his four criminal charges would endear him to black voters because they view him as a victim of discrimination, comparing his legal exposure to the historical legacy of anti-black bias in the U.S. legal system.
African-American supporters, including Terrence Williams, Angela Stanton and Diamond and Silk, pray with Trump in the Cabinet Room of the White House in February 2020
In 1989, Trump published full-page newspaper ads calling on New York to reinstate the death penalty as five black and Latino teenagers went on trial for beating and raping a white woman in Central Park. The young people were exonerated
Trump argues he is a victim of political persecution, although there is no evidence that Biden or White House officials influenced the filing of 91 criminal complaints against him.
“I was impeached for nothing, for something that means nothing,” Trump told black conservatives in South Carolina.
“And a lot of people said, 'That's why black people like me, because they've been so badly hurt and discriminated against, and they actually saw me as being discriminated against.'” It was pretty amazing, but maybe, maybe, Is there something there?'
Republicans face an uphill battle in winning over black voters, who overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party. And while black voters' enthusiasm for Biden has waned over the past year, only 25 percent of black Americans said they had a favorable opinion of Trump, according to an AP poll in December.
Trump has a long history of stoking racial tensions. Since his early days as a New York real estate developer, Trump has faced allegations of racist business practices.
In 1989, he took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty to be reinstated in New York as five black and Latino teenagers stood trial for beating and raping a white woman in Central Park.
The five men were finally exonerated in 2002 after another man admitted to the crime and it was discovered that their confessions were coerced.
He spent years spreading the lie that Obama was unelectable to hold office. When he was president, Trump mocked “damn countries” in Africa and said four congresswomen of color should return to the “broken and crime-ridden” countries they come from, ignoring the fact that all women are American citizens and three were born in the United States.