Former president Donald Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to claim that an image of him playing golf while looking overweight was AI-generated.
Trump wrote, “The Fake News used Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to create the picture on the top left. These are despicable people, but everyone knows that. The other pictures are me hitting Golf balls today to show the difference. Sadly, in our Country, Fake News is all you get!”
It is unclear as to how the picture got Trump’s attention but the image has been around for at least six years and appears to be a good old-fashioned Photoshopped image.
According to Snopes, Trump’s head has been edited onto the body of the eccentric golfer John Daly — himself a Trump supporter. In the original image taken in 2017, Daly has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
But none of this stopped Trump from accusing the “Fake News” of creating a false narrative. The post came just as the ex-president was being handed a $355 million fine in a New York courtroom.
To drive the point home, Trump shared images of himself playing golf looking more svelte while wearing his signature red “Make America Great Again” cap.
Trump and AI Images
Trump, who famously accuses various media of being “fake news”, can now say something is AI thanks to the rapid rise of the technology.
But he recently fell short of it after sharing an AI image of himself praying with six fingers on each hand.
With Trump’s level of fame and the proliferation of generative AI, it is inevitable that he will be one of the most recreated individuals with the technology. In March last year, as court cases swirled around him, a series of AI images generated on Midjourney showing the former president being dramatically arrested went extremely viral.