How Trump is Using AI to Attack Enemies and Rouse Supporters

The era of A.I. propaganda is here — and President Trump is an enthusiastic participant.

After nationwide protests this weekend against Mr. Trump’s administration, the president posted an A.I.-generated video to his Truth Social account depicting himself as a fighter pilot, careening through major cities and dropping excrement on protesters.

It was the latest example in a yearslong shift by Mr. Trump to deploy fake imagery, generated by artificial intelligence, as part of his social media commentary.

Mr. Trump has posted A.I.-generated images or videos at least 62 times on his Truth Social account since late 2022, according to a review by The New York Times of his posts to the social network. The fake imagery has included blistering attacks on his political rivals, flattering depictions of himself, and misleading political campaign materials made entirely by A.I. tools.

Overall, he has attacked his opponents, including top Democratic leaders and his Republican rivals, with A.I. imagery at least 14 times.

In the run-up to the 2024 election, Mr. Trump posted at least 19 A.I. images or videos in support of his presidential campaign, including an image of Elon Musk next to a D.O.G.E. logo long before the cost-cutting idea became reality.

Mr. Trump posted at least seven times this year attempting to score political points by bringing to life his policy ideas, mocking criticism against them or celebrating his administration.

And, most of all, Mr. Trump posted at least 21 fantastical reimaginings of himself — rendered, for example, as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize or even a king.

Some of the posts were likely to mislead viewers or amplify political divisions. Others were jokes with obvious markers of A.I. trickery. Political experts said that even the most anodyne uses of A.I. by the president would normalize the tools as a potent new part of modern political propaganda.

“Trump is the most notable person sharing this content, but this is really becoming an international, new form of political messaging,” said Henry Ajder, an expert on A.I. and the founder of Latent Space Advisory, an A.I.-consulting firm. “It’s designed to go viral, it’s clearly fake, it’s got this absurdist kind of tone to it. But there’s often still some kind of messaging in there.”

The White House has responded to questions over Mr. Trump’s use of A.I. imagery by suggesting it was part of his successful social media strategy.

“No leader has used social media to communicate directly with the American people more creatively and effectively than President Trump,” Liz Huston, the White House’s assistant press secretary, said Friday in an emailed statement.

Mr. Trump’s use of the technology has evolved alongside the tools, which have rapidly improved from producing obviously fake images in 2022 to more lifelike renderings — including video and audio — this year.

In countries around the world, the tools have offered new ways for politicians and candidates to bring to life their partisan arguments. Politicians have, for instance, used A.I. to imagine futures they want voters to fear, such as punctuating anti-immigrant messages by using A.I. to depict classrooms overcrowded with immigrants.

For Mr. Trump, the tools helped him to visualize the supposed effects of “open borders” during his campaign, contrasting two A.I. images: one an idyllic scene, the other an overcrowded one with trash piled out in the open.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Generated by A.I.

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times.

The content can be rapidly created by typing descriptions of the desired images and videos into A.I.-generating tools like Grok or ChatGPT. Some videos were made using multiple A.I. tools, such as a video of Robert De Niro that Mr. Trump shared last year: Someone replaced the actor’s lip movements with A.I.-rendered manipulations to match a voice soundalike that was also created by A.I. audio tools.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times.

The New York Times used tools designed to detect A.I. images to help identify the fakes, alongside manual review. Content that could not be clearly identified as A.I., and posts that appeared to primarily show real videos that had been edited by A.I.-powered filters, were excluded.

Mr. Trump’s use of A.I. content began in earnest during his re-election bid, when the tools became sophisticated enough for amateur creators to produce realistic images of famous people, including Mr. Trump.

Last September, after his first debate against Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee and then the vice president, Mr. Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants in Michigan were eating cats and dogs — a racist conspiracy theory for which there was no credible evidence.

Mr. Trump responded to the backlash that followed by posting a flurry of A.I. images depicting him embracing cats, ducks and dogs. His supporters shared the images widely online.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Generated by A.I.

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times.

“The more ridiculous the photo or video, the more likely it is to dominate our news feeds,” said Adrian Shahbaz, vice president of research and analysis at Freedom House, a nonprofit focusing on democracy and liberty around the world. “A controversial post gets shared by people who enjoyed it and people outraged by it. That’s twice the shares.”

Mr. Trump’s embrace of A.I. content has accelerated since he re-entered the White House in January, increasing in sophistication alongside tools that can now generate superrealistic A.I. videos and audio. It was not clear in most cases whether the imagery was posted by Mr. Trump or by a member of his team, but the message-conscious president is famous for controlling his own social media accounts. It was also not clear in many cases whether the A.I. imagery was created by Mr. Trump or someone in the White House, or whether it originated elsewhere and was simply reposted by Mr. Trump’s account.

The president has used A.I. imagery to highlight policy ideas and appeared to joke about issues that were roiling the public. For instance, when he appointed himself as the head of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he published an image of himself depicted as a conductor. He also posted an image of himself atop a mountain, next to the Canadian flag, punctuating his suggestion that Canada should become the 51st state.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Generated by A.I.

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times.

In recent months, Mr. Trump has demonstrated a willingness to use A.I.-generated content to skewer opponents and stoke deeper tensions.

This month, he posted a video depicting the Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, in stereotypical Mexican garb. The video used A.I. to replace the voice of the Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, making it seem as though he was disparaging the Democratic Party.

In a televised statement, Mr. Jeffries criticized the video as racist. Then, in another post, Mr. Trump posted that interview, edited with A.I. tools to include four A.I. versions of the president as members of a mariachi band.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times. The original clip was trimmed to show only the part generated by A.I.

Mr. Trump was also widely criticized for a video he posted in February depicting “Trump Gaza,” a futuristic version of the war-torn region rendered as a beachfront paradise with a gold statue of Mr. Trump at its center.

Democratic lawmakers and advocates for Palestinian rights called the video insulting and disturbing. The White House responded: “Trump is a visionary.”

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times.

The backlash has not slowed the president’s use of the technology, especially during moments of national outrage. He posted a video showing himself shaking hands with a figure in the Cracker Barrel logo after an uproar among conservatives over the company’s plans to remove an older white man from its logo in favor of a text-only version. As he toyed with plans to send the National Guard to Chicago, he posted an A.I.-generated image of himself imagined into the film “Apocalypse Now” above the title “Chipocalypse Now” and a caption that read, in part, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times.

The memes and videos have deceived some social media users, who replied to his posts asking whether they were real or fake.

After Mr. Trump posted a video that included a fictitious, A.I.-generated arrest of former President Barack Obama, a few users on Truth Social signaled that they were not sure whether the footage was real.

“Whoa…. Did this really happen?” wrote one user.

“Is this real footage of Obama being arrested????” wrote another.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times. The original clip was trimmed to show only the part generated by A.I.

A.I. tools have been embraced by scammers and conspiracy theorists, who have used the technology to make too-good-to-be-true videos of news reports about miracle medicines or astounding discoveries.

Mr. Trump posted one such video last month about a news report concerning “medbeds,” a fictional health product described as a cure for a variety of illnesses. Medbeds have been an obscure conspiracy theory among internet users. It was not clear why Mr. Trump posted the video or whether he knew it was A.I.-made, and the video was soon deleted from his account. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said during a news briefing that the president “saw the video and posted it,” but offered no explanation.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times.

In at least some cases, generating A.I. fakes has proved effective at seizing Mr. Trump’s attention. After Mr. Trump did not win a Nobel Peace Prize, despite openly lobbying for one, he posted an image originally posted by the Israeli government depicting him receiving the prize amid applause and confetti.

After the government shut down over a funding fight this month, Mr. Trump posted a video depicting himself and members of his cabinet in ominous cloaks reminiscent of the Grim Reaper.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Note: “Generated by A.I.” label and red slash were added by The New York Times.

The video was created by Dilley 3000 Meme Team, a guerilla messaging outfit that is deeply loyal to Mr. Trump and has produced dozens of videos skewering Democrats and praising Mr. Trump. The group is run by Brenden Dilley, a podcaster and former congressional candidate, and a team of content creators who organize online. Mr. Dilley declined to comment.

“The truth no longer matters, all you have to do is go viral,” Mr. Dilley wrote on X during Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign.