A Taylor Swift song to soundtrack Donald Trump’s latest political controversy? Alexa, play “Don’t Blame Me.”
During an interview with Fox News published Wednesday, the former president and 2024 Republican presidential nominee addressed his recent social media posts that contained suspected artificial intelligence-generated images of Swift in support of his campaign.
When asked by Fox Business correspondent Grady Trimble if he was “worried” about the pop superstar taking legal action against him, Trump claimed he had no knowledge of the origins of the images, which were posted to Truth Social over the weekend.
“I don’t know anything about them other than somebody else generated them. I didn’t generate them,” said Trump, although he did not name the creator of the images. “These were all made up by other people.”
Former President Trump on the AI-generated images of Taylor Swift: “I don’t know anything about them other than somebody else generated them.” pic.twitter.com/gBEzxx4L4o
— Grady Trimble (@Grady_Trimble) August 21, 2024
Trump said AI is “always very dangerous in that way,” citing his own experiences with AI impersonations.
“It’s happening with me too,” he said. “They’re having me speak – I speak perfectly, absolutely perfectly – on AI, and I’m endorsing other products and things.”
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to Fox News Digital that “Swifties for Trump is a massive movement that grows bigger every single day,” adding, “While Kamala Harris is guilty as sin for all the hurt she has caused every American.”
USA TODAY has reached out to a representative for the Trump campaign for comment.
AI-generated images of Trump have previously circulated on social media, including fabricated photos of the former president being taken into police custody, attending a cookout with Black supporters and leading a crowd down a street lined with American flags.
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On Sunday, Trump took to Truth Social and posted several purportedly AI-generated images alluding to Taylor Swift and Swifties’ support for his campaign, despite the singer vocalizing disdain for the Republican nominee in the past.
“Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump,” read one generated image of Swift as Uncle Sam, while another seemingly AI image, marked as satire, read, “Swifties turning to Trump after ISIS foiled Taylor Swift concert.” The latter image referenced a suspected terrorist plot planned for Swift’s Vienna concert earlier this month. Austrian authorities, with help from U.S. officials, thwarted the alleged attack.
The pictures included a mix of real and AI images, including of Swifties for Trump supporters, akin to the real group MAGA Swifties.
What are Taylor Swift’s political views?
The “I Can Do it With a Broken Heart” singer has not endorsed a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. However, she gave insight into her political beliefs in her 2020 Netflix documentary “Miss Americana.”
While discussing her endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., in the 2018 midterm elections, Swift’s publicist Tree Paine warned her about Trump coming after her. Swift quipped, “I don’t care. If I get bad press for saying, ‘Don’t put a homophobic racist in office,’ then I get bad press for that.”
The conversation resulted in Swift’s Oct. 7, 2018, Instagram post in which she cautioned her fans to not vote for Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. (Blackburn was ultimately elected to the U.S. Senate.)
View this post on Instagram
“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now. I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country,” her caption read.
Swift wrote that she “cannot support Marsha Blackburn” because “her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me.”
After listing Blackburn’s stances on issues such as women’s safety and LGBTQ+ rights, Swift wrote: “These are not MY Tennessee values.”
