US president Donald Trump has been known to post some bizarre things to his Truth Social account (just this week he shared an AI video of armed Canada geese with combovers marching across ‘Lake America’), but the Republican’s unusual social media content has led to people falling for an AI-generated image which wasn’t shared by the 80-year-old at all.
The graphic, which includes an ‘American 24/7’ watermark, shows Trump in religious robes bearing the cross and the number 47, holding a bible in his right hand and waving to people with his left. He is depicted wearing a white ‘Make America Great Again’ hat, too.
Oh, and all of this is happening while he’s walking on water. Seriously.
Alongside the imagery is text which describes Trump as “pastor. President. Protector”, says he “walks with God” and that “America is his mission”.
It’s not out of place for Trump to lean into religion in his social media posts, as he posted an image of himself as the Pope in May last year following the passing of Pope Francis, and in April this year he shared an AI image of him as Jesus healing people (though he later claimed the graphic was actually of him “as a doctor”).
The image began to circulate on X/Twitter on Sunday when Rick Wilson of The Lincoln Project tweeted: “What in the name of blasphemy is this trash?”:
“What a stupid TL [timeline] we’re living in,” commented Mayra, known online as LePapillonBlue2:
However, on this occasion, Trump didn’t post the image at all.
As mentioned above, a watermark is seen on the image which reads ‘American 24/7’, and the fact checking outlet Lead Stories tracked down the original post on Facebook, which was shared on 23 August.
It’s not the only piece of Trump-affiliated content to fool the internet in recent days, as a fake Truth Social post – dated 29 August – purported to show the president claiming the US military “eats the best” food, alongside an AI-generated image of a service member eating a burger with his hands, one of them having six fingers.
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