Donald Trump appears to have shared a series of fake images on his social media site, suggesting Taylor Swift and some of her fans are endorsing him for the upcoming election.
The pictures posted by the former Republican president on Truth Social included a mock poster of Swift dressed in red, white and blue, with a caption that said: “Taylor Swift Wants You To Vote For Donald Trump.”
“I accept!” Mr Trump wrote.
Swift has not publicly endorsed a candidate in the 2024 race but previously supported Joe Biden and has criticised Mr Trump in the past.
Image: Donald Trump shared the images on Truth Social, his own social media platform
The images also included fans wearing “Swifties for Trump” T-shirts.
While two of the images feature a real woman who supports Mr Trump, most of the women depicted aren’t real, Sky News’ US partner NBC News reports. At least 15 are representations of people created using artificial intelligence.
The images he shared had originally been posted on X (formerly Twitter) by pro-Trump accounts. One of those accounts also posted multiple guides to using generative AI tools on its Substack blog, according to NBC News.
“There is no Swifties For Trump movement – but there should be,” acknowledged one of the accounts that Trump reposted on Truth Social, in a caption on the AI-generated images.
However, Mr Trump’s campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Reuters news agency that the “Swifties for Trump is a massive movement that grows bigger every single day”, when asked for comment about the fake Swift image.
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Swift has been performing her final Eras shows of the European leg of her tour, which is due to finish at Wembley Stadium tonight.
Image: Kamala Harris has taken over as the Democratic candidate from president Joe Biden. Pic: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Some of Swift’s fans previously mobilised to support Kamala Harris’s campaign. The vice president is set to be formally nominated as the 2024 Democratic candidate at the party’s national convention in Chicago this week.
Shortly after Mr Biden announced he was not running for re-election in July, a group called “Swifties for Kamala” launched on social media. It has more than 61,000 followers on X and is not affiliated with the singer or Harris.
“We do not represent every Swiftie, but I think there is a reason we don’t need AI to show our support for Kamala,” the organisation’s co-founder, Irene Kim, told NBC News in a statement.
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On Day 77, US correspondents Mark Stone and David Blevins answer your questions on everything from Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and their impact on American consumers, to Trump’s relationship with Putin and if they have plans for the Arctic, and penguins.
If you’ve got a question you’d like Mark, Martha, and James to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.
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Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.
Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.
The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.
In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”
Image: Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP
Image: Pic: AP
Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”
Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Image: Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP
Image: People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
Image: A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.
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“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.
Image: A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters
Image: A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.
Protesters refuse to take Donald Trump’s policies lying down
It was built to honour George Washington, a founding father of the United States.
And in the shadow of the 555ft Washington Monument, protestors were refusing to accept Donald Trump’s policies lying down.
“Stand tall,” they chanted, again and again.
“In every city, stand tall. In every state, stand tall. In truth, stand tall. In justice, stand tall.”
Those words, shouted by thousands on the city’s iconic mall, were reinforced by the words on their placards and t-shirts.
A minister, wearing a t-shirt with ‘Troublesome Priest’ printed on it, told me she found what was happening in the US government “appalling and immortal”.
One man said he had won the long-distance award, having travelled 2,750 miles from Hawaii for the protest.
“I finally reached a breaking point,” he added. “I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Another woman said: “We have to speak up, we have to act, we have to do something, because this is not America.”
I asked her what she would say to those who argue the people did speak when they elected Donald Trump as president.
She replied: “Some people have spoken and then some people have not and those of us that have not, we need to speak now.”
Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Image: People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters
Image: Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP
Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”
The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.