Seemingly overnight, the internet was flooded with photos of former President Donald Trump seemingly surrounded by adoring groups of Black voters. In one idyllically posed portrait, Trump has his arms around two smiling Black women as a larger group scrambles to get in frame.
There’s just one problem with the photos: they’re all allegedly fake.
A BBC investigation revealed that dozens of photos circulating of President Trump and Black people were AI-generated deep fakes.
In another fake photo, Trump is shown in a suit sitting on a porch stoop with a group of young Black men posing with him as if he was a longstanding member of the friend group.
Fake images of Black Americans doing voter drives for Trump also hit the internet. (Note: the conspicuous three armed person).
Many have called out the photos as intentional “disinformation” intended to convince voters that Black Americans support Trump. This strategy likely has more to do with anxious white suburban voters than Black people.
According to the BBC, one of the creators of the fake photos was conservative radio host Mark Kaye. In an interview with the BBC, Kaye said he was “not a photojournalist” and a “storyteller.”
To be clear, no outlet has linked the photos to the Trump campaign, but they certainly fit the demonstrably false narrative they’ve been pushing — that Trump has some overwhelming support of the Black community. The former President who’s victory at the Supreme Court on Monday, reinstating him on the Colorado ballot puts him one step closer to the Presidency has argued that Black people love him for being arrested.
“I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” said Trump late last month.
Polling shows a different story.
Roughly 83% of Black voters in a January USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll said that the legal actions against Trump were “appropriate.” His Black support currently hovers around 12%, which isn’t exactly what I would call an indication that Black voters “like” Trump.
Black voters’ support for former President Joe Biden has slipped in the years since the 2020 election. Still, there’s no indication that Trump has suddenly become a hero in the Black community for getting arrested.