Media using AI to make me fatter – Trump

Former US president and current candidate Donald Trump has lashed out at American media on his Truth Social platform, accusing them of spreading fake news about him.

A post on his account on Friday showed four photos of Trump mid-swing while playing golf. In one photo, purportedly published by an unnamed US outlet, Trump has a bulging midsection and looks decidedly overweight. In the other three, said to be taken on Friday morning, the pot belly is missing, and Trump appears significantly slimmer and more fit.

“The Fake News used Artificial Intelligence (AI) 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 wrote in the post. His representatives did not respond to media requests for comment.

It is unclear why Trump decided to take news media to task over the doctored picture at this particular time. 

According to fact-checking site Snopes, the photo appeared on social media – and not in news media – back in May 2017. It was in fact altered, although likely not with AI technology, the site claimed, but rather using Photoshop. It is an image of professional golfer and longtime Trump supporter John Daly, with Trump’s head superimposed over Daly’s body. The picture circulated on X (formerly Twitter) at the time and drew a slew of comments and speculation about the then president’s health.

Trump’s photos, including those of him playing golf at his many golf courses, are often altered and used by social media pranksters. One image posted online in 2022 and showing him with a pronounced double chin and deep facial wrinkles garnered hundreds of likes and shares on Facebook before it was proved to be digitally altered.

For no apparent reason, Trump’s post featuring the doctored image coincided with Friday’s ruling against him by a New York judge, which barred the presidential candidate from running his businesses in the state and ordered him and his company to pay $354 million in damages for real estate-related bank fraud.