Trumps AI Selfies The New Political Playbook
The AI Portrait Trend Reaches the White House
The viral trend of using artificial intelligence to reimagine personal photos has officially reached the political main stage. What started as a fun way for everyday people to see themselves as Renaissance paintings or anime characters is now a tool in the presidential communication arsenal. Former President Donald Trump, once a target of AI-generated content, has embraced the technology for his 2024 campaign. "It works both ways," Trump remarked at a news conference, humorously suggesting, "If something happens that’s really bad, maybe I’ll have to just blame AI."
A Strategy of Spectacle and Memes
The AI images shared by Trump and his team are not meant to deceive; their fictitious nature is self-evident. When Pope Francis was rumored to be unwell, Trump joked about wanting the job, and a week later, an AI-generated image of him as the pontiff appeared on his social media. Similarly, after a post likening himself to a king, the White House X account quickly followed with an AI-generated royal portrait. This approach is consistent with Trump's signature style: loud, unapologetic, and designed to capture attention. It also aligns perfectly with his social media team's promise to continue its heavy use of memes, a strategy that has helped the administration's official accounts gain over 16 million new followers. The White House even leans into the joke, once posting a photo of a sign on its lawn that read, “oMg, diD tHe wHiTE hOuSE reALLy PosT tHis?”
Modern Memes and Historical Political Imagery
According to political historian Evan Cornog, Trump’s AI portraits are primed for immediate reaction. "By the time you’ve seen it, you’ve understood it," he says, noting the effortless consumption for the audience. The power of political imagery is a long-standing tradition. President William Henry Harrison won the 1840 election by portraying himself as a "man of the people" with log cabin imagery. Decades later, cartoonist Thomas Nast used scathing illustrations to sway public opinion against the corrupt "Boss" Tweed. The difference today is the technology. Generative AI offers a level of realism, accessibility, and automated possibility that was previously unimaginable. As Cornog points out, past presidents "had to actually have fought in a war to run as a war hero." Now, they can simply generate the image.
The Psychology of AI-Generated Truth
The images shared by the Trump administration often project a heroic vision of the president, emphasizing his and the nation's potency. Generative AI allows users to broadcast their inner "fantasy lives," but it can also be used to reinforce a subjective reality. AI expert Henry Ajder notes that many people share AI content that, while obviously fake, is seen as a "revelatory kind of representation." This feeds a mentality that says, "We all know they’re really like this." Consequently, even if people know an image is fabricated, "they still see it as kind of reflecting and satisfying a kind of truth — their truth about what the world is like."
Master of the Attention Economy
The lack of subtlety in Trump's AI images is key to their viral success. They provoke strong reactions, from people lamenting the loss of presidential decorum to others celebrating the trolling. Even some supporters find it odd, with one user commenting, "I voted for you, but this is weird and creepy. More mass deportations and less of whatever this is." But for Trump, all engagement is good engagement. He successfully cashes in on the attention economy—whether you smiled or were outraged, he made you look. This is an evolution of his first-term strategy, where he used Twitter in an unprecedented way. Now, as one Reddit user dubbed him, he is the "Troll in Chief." The point isn't whether he actually thinks he should be a king or a pope. The strategy sticks to a proven recipe: crude comedy mixed with wishful thinking. When asked if the posts were appropriate, Trump’s response was simple: "Have to have a little fun, don’t you?"
