WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump refused on Monday against an AI-generated picture of him as the pope sent by the White House on social media and said it was a harmless joke, but communications experts said they didn’t see the funny side.
The weekend AI-Generated Positions of Trump Dressed in White Papal Wests, and another of him who practiced one of the red light sabers preferred by villains in the Star Wars films seemed typical of the provocation that the president employs to provide energy to supporters and wizard critics.
Since returning to the office on January 20, Trump has dominated news cycles. In an otherwise relatively quiet weekend, the two pictures ensured that Trump remained an important topic of conversation on social media and beyond.
Throughout his political career, Trump has embraced bold visuals, from posing in a trash to stand outside a church under protests against police brutality. But the experts told Reuters that AI images, unlike these rooted, in fact blur facts and fiction in ways that can mislead.
“I think we are seeing a new phenomenon composition of social media and AI power, organized for political power and narrative dominance,” said John Wihbey, director of AI-Media Strategies Lab at Northeastern University in Boston.
“He exploits this unprotected territory,” Wihbey said. “I suppose politicians around the world will start using generative AI and social together in newfound ways.”
Trump told journalists on Monday that the pope image was sent as a joke on his truth’s social account, which was then relocated by the White House across social media.
“I had nothing to do with it,” Trump said. “It was just that someone did it in fun. That’s fine. Must have a bit of fun, right?”
The White House did not answer questions about who other than Trump posts to the social account of his truth and who created the two memes.
For many Catholics in the United States, Italy and elsewhere the image of Trump was dressed as God’s representative on earth is offensive.
Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wrote on X: “This is an image that insults believers, offends institutions and shows that the head of the global right enjoys being a clown.”
Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso saw the white house’s posting of the AI images as a deliberate attempt to generate humming.
“He is the first influencer president,” Ceraso said of Trump, calling on the Democrats not to be caught by bending controversy.
Trump, he said, taking his signals from professional wrestling: “You can be the evil guy or the good guy as long as you get crowd reaction.”
Since he became president, Trump has sent Ai-Generated Pictures of a Strandfront in War-Ravaged Gaza and of himself as a king and as an al Capone-type gangster.
Danger ahead
Jennifer Mercieca, a presidential rhetoric researcher at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, argued that Trump was trying to project images of strength at a time when his presidential approval assessment is falling.
“Trump’s policy is unpopular and his presidency is unpopular,” Mercieca said. “In this context, Trump has created a visual fantasy about himself as a hero who tries to persuade the nation (and the world) that he is actually a hero.”
The latest Reuters/Ipsos vote had Trump’s approval assessment of 42%, with 53% of the respondents rejecting him and showing concerns mounted among Americans over his economic and immigration policy. He peaked with 47% in the first days of his presidency.
Northeastern University’s Wihbey said a larger test of AI’s ability to distort political reality will come if Trump tries to put in more “photo-realistic” images suggesting historical events and scenes that did not appear.
