Earlier this week, former United States President Donald Trump expressed his outrage at what he claims is an ai-generated photograph that makes him appear more obese than he really is. It appears that Trump is right to call out the photo, but it is not ai-generated.
In a social media post this week, Donald Trump railed against “The Fake News” for using “Artificial Intelligence” to create a fake photograph that showed him as more obese than he really is. He also offered recent photographs on social media as proof that he does not look the way the picture shows.
“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!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, the social media website he helped start after he was banned from Facebook and Twitter in 2020.
As it turns out, the photo itself is actually real and not ai-generated, but it’s not Trump’s body.
As Snopes.com pointed out back in 2017 – long before the proliferation of widespread A.I. technology – the photo is actually of professional golfer John Daly (who, ironically, is a major Trump supporter). However, the photo has been digitally altered to put Trump’s face on Daly’s body.
“President Trump has spent a significant amount of time on golf courses during his first few months in office, but this image is not a legitimate photograph of him. It was created by digitally inserting a picture of Donald Trump’s face onto an image of professional golfer and Trump supporter John Daly,” Snopes said.
So Trump is right that the photo is not of him, but it’s also not AI-generated.
