Trump shares fake "Swifties for Trump" images
Update: Taylor Swift announced her endorsement of Kamala Harris for president in September.
Former President Donald Trump shared AI-generated images of women wearing "Swifties for Trump" t-shirts to his Truth Social account on Sunday, including a satirical post that claimed Taylor Swift fans were turning to Trump after security concerns forced the cancellation of her Vienna concerts earlier this month.
Trump captioned the post "I accept!" and shared screenshots of four X posts that show women wearing "Swifties for Trump" t-shirts, as well as a fabricated image of Taylor Swift that reads, "Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump."
Swift has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate in this election but endorsed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2020 race. Swift has previously been critical of Trump, including for his comments during the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
One of the X posts Trump included, which showed several women wearing "Swifties for Trump" t-shirts in various colors, had a satire label on it. The creator of that post said it was clearly labeled as satire and that they believed the Republican candidate got "the joke."
There were clear indications in some of the photos shared that they were AI-generated, CBS News' Confirmed team found, including distortions in one woman's teeth, and a belt that had no buckle.
Another sign was in the lettering, which didn't match the folds in the fabric of the t-shirt.
Trump's post also contained two real photos of a Trump supporter named Jenna Piwowarczyk wearing a "Swifties for Trump" t-shirt. The photos were taken at a Trump rally in Racine, Wisconsin, on June 18, and posted to X by Wisconsin Right Now. The images were shared online in the days before Trump reposted the image.
In a video posted on Saturday, Piwowarczyk said she was glad the image of her wearing the t-shirt was going "viral." "It's no secret that millions of young female voters consider themselves Swifties and we don't want them to have to choose between loving Taylor Swift and supporting their conservative ideologies at the ballot box in November," Piwowarczyk said.
Last week, Trump falsely claimed Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign lied about the size of the crowd attending her Aug. 7 rally in Detroit, Michigan. In a post on Truth Social, Trump falsely said a photo of the crowd was created using artificial intelligence and that the crowd in fact "didn't exist." In fact, images and videos from the event showed the crowd was real, and the photo Trump questioned was a real image.
