Wayne L. Smith, an engineer in the Washington, D.C., area, scoffed at an image he saw last week of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gleefully nestled among a group of smiling Black people. Seeing the image immediately alarmed him.
“Everything he does to try to get Black people to like him is fake,” Smith said. “Why wouldn’t that photo be fake, too? It just didn’t feel right.”
Smith’s instinct about the photo was correct; it was created by Trump supporter and conservative radio host Mark Kaye, who admitted he used artificial intelligence to create the image and posted it on social media for his 1 million Facebook followers to see. Kaye did not respond to an NBC News request for comment.
“I’m not out there taking pictures of what’s really happening. I’m a storyteller,” Kaye told BBC News, which tracked down the images’ origins. He added, “If anybody’s voting one way or another because of one photo they see on a Facebook page, that’s a problem with that person, not with the post itself.”
Trump’s campaign did not respond to an NBC News request for comment on this article, but last week one campaign official said: “The only ones using AI to meddle in an election are President Trump’s opponents. The Trump Campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these AI images. Nor can we control what other people create and post.”
In this election cycle, Trump has made some headway with Black voters. Sixteen percent of them said in an NBC News poll published in February that they would consider voting for Trump if the election were held today. That’s compared to the 12% who supported Trump in 2020.
Still, this photo generation was the latest in a series of awkward efforts — including claiming he’s being persecuted in the legal system — by Trump, his campaign and his supporters to try to show a connection with Black voters.
“They want our vote but don’t know how to get it,” Smith said. “Biden’s no peach, but…
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