Trump posts image of fake Taylor Swift endorsement

[August 20, 2024]  By Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump has posted a fake social media image of pop superstar Taylor Swift asking people to vote for him in the November election.

A Sunday entry by the Republican candidate on Truth Social showed Swift dressed in red, white and blue with a caption that said "Taylor Swift Wants You To Vote For Donald Trump."

"I accept!" Trump wrote.

Swift has not publicly endorsed a candidate in the 2024 race but has supported Democrats in the past.

The singer backed President Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris in 2020. Harris is set to be formally nominated as the 2024 Democratic candidate at the party's national convention in Chicago this week. Swift also criticized Trump in a 2020 documentary.

A spokesperson for Swift did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump also posted photos of young women wearing "Swifties for Trump" shirts, and a satirical article with the headline "Swifties Turning to Trump After ISIS Foiled Taylor Swift Concert." The article was marked "SATIRE" above the headline.

Swift canceled three shows in Vienna this month after authorities said they had foiled a planned attack. Local officials arrested a 19-year-old man who they said was inspired by Islamic State.

"Swifties for Trump is a massive movement that grows bigger every single day," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement when asked for comment about the fake Swift image.

Several Swift fans and watchdog groups said many of the images posted by Trump appeared to be deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence.

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, U.S. August 17, 2024. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

Advocates in the music industry, Hollywood and Washington have been pushing for federal legislation and other measures to fight the explosion of fake AI images online.

Trump's post was "yet another example of AI's power to create misinformation," consumer group Public Citizen said.

"The potential harms to our society that could result from such misinformation, including abuses of our elections, are wide-reaching and immensely damaging," the group added.

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Swift fan Rebecca Goff handed out friendship bracelets, a common practice among the singer's fans, at a Nevada Democratic Party breakfast.

Goff, 39, said she felt Trump was the antithesis of what she believes Swift stands for, including celebrating girlhood and womanhood.

"That's like the antithesis of what Trump and the GOP are trying to do, especially to women. They're trying to make us smaller. They want us to go back to being just housewives, child bearers," Goff said.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Stephen Coates)

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