Presidential hopeful Donald Trump shared a doctored photograph falsely showing rival Kamala Harris with Sean “Diddy” Combs but later deleted it.
Trump shared the photo on his Truth Social page implying that Harris attended one of Diddy’s “Freak Offs”, the rapper has been indicted for racketeering and sex trafficking.
However, the photo is actually from 2001 showing the vice president with talk show host Montel Williams, whom she briefly dated, along with Williams’ daughter Ashley at a charity event. The photo can be seen here on Getty Images’ website.
The image that Trump shared is an obvious fake with Diddy’s head clearly composited on. The relatively low resolution of the original image stands out in contrast with the photo of Diddy’s head which is from a higher-resolution photo.
The image had text on it that reads: “Madam Vice President, have you ever been involved with or engaged in one of Puff Daddies Freak Offs?”
However, Trump apparently regretted sharing the post and took the rare step of deleting it. Neither the ex-president’s campaign nor the Harris campaign has commented on the photo.
NBC News notes that both Trump and Harris have previously interacted with Diddy, X users shared multiple photos of Trump and Diddy together in real life from years gone by.
The Election of Fake Images
Trump is no stranger to posting fake images whether they be AI-generated or good old-fashioned Photoshopped. The Republican nominee caused a stir when he shared AI-generated images of young women wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Swifties for Trump.” The post suggested that the pop star had endorsed Trump which prompted Swift to announce she was voting for Harris.
“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote on Instagram.
Last week, California passed a new law that makes it illegal to create deepfakes related to the 2024 election. The law took effect immediately and made it illegal to create and publish deepfakes related to elections 120 days before Election Day and 60 days thereafter. It’s unclear whether Trump’s post would fall foul of the new law which is already being challenged.