By The Editorial Board
It’s happened to most of us. We see a video of a puppy and piglet waiting out a rainstorm together in a cave. When they emerge, a beautiful double rainbow has formed off in the distance. The animals are so cute and the scenery so idyllic that we feel compelled to send it to as many of our friends as possible.
Only to find out the video had been generated by artificial intelligence.
That’s OK; it may have been a little embarrassing to be duped by something like that. But essentially, no harm was done. Older generations have exhibited difficulty in differentiating AI-generated content from genuine, that problem will compound as the technology progresses.
It becomes more dangerous when public figures, especially government officials, spread AI-generated media. Take, for instance, the recent image posted to X by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The image features President Donald Trump, Kennedy and several other high-ranking government officials seated around a lavish Thanksgiving meal on Air Force One.
At first glance, the image appears real but upon close inspection, the meal on the table is clearly AI-generated. What makes the post even stranger is that the rest of the image is real, except the extravagant Thanksgiving meal was actually a spread of McDonald’s Big Mac’s and fries.
Kennedy is not the only official in the Trump administration posting AI-generated content to social media. The president himself frequently posts AI-generated videos to Truth Social, taking shots at political opponents.
During the recent government shutdown, Trump posted an AI-generated video blaming the Democratic Party for layoffs and departmental budget cuts. The video features an AI-generated parody of Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Trump and Vice President JD Vance are imagined as part of a ghostly backing band, with the titular ‘Reaper’ being represented as Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget.
During the shutdown, 670,000 federal employees were furloughed, and thousands more worked through it without pay. Videos such as the one posted by Trump trivialized the plight of federal workers during the shutdown. The president did not genuinely care about their well-being but only about their value as political pawns.
On another occasion, the president posted an AI video of himself in the cockpit of a fighter jet, defecating on No Kings rally attendees below.
These are not social media posts you would expect from a head of state but rather from a 13-year-old trying to create offensive content in an attempt to create political division. Instead of responding to valid criticisms like adults, the Trump administration is behaving like petulant children.
Nearly a year into Trump’s second term, social media has played an important role in the administration’s communication with the American people. In February, the official White House account posted a video to X with the caption “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” The video features close-up shots of detainees being bound in chains and loaded onto a waiting plane.
This video and similar videos posted by the Department of Homeland Security make it clear that the Trump administration does not view illegal immigrants as human beings, but merely as props for social media engagement. The dehumanizing rhetoric and imagery used by Trump against illegal immigrants, characterizing them all as violent criminals, bears a striking resemblance to old defenses of slavery.
These types of posts on social media are only helping further the divide between political parties. To help the country heal, social media platforms should take steps to ban AI-generated content.
