AI-generated content in American politics
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Content made with generative artificial intelligence has been used in American politics since the 2020s. The use of generative AI by American political figures has been subject to criticism from many sides of the political spectrum. Republican president Donald Trump has notably used generative AI in several posts to Truth Social during his second term, many of which have made headlines due to their inflammatory nature.
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History
Generative AI has increased the efficiency with which political candidates were able to raise money by analyzing donor data and identifying possible donors and target audiences.[2][clarification needed]
A Democratic consultant working for Dean Phillips has admitted to using AI to generate a robocall which used Joe Biden's voice to discourage voter participation.[3]
In April 2023, the Republican National Committee released an attack ad made entirely with AI-generated images depicting a dystopian future under Joe Biden's re-election.[4]
In August 2024, The Atlantic noted that AI slop was becoming associated with the political right in the United States, who were using it for shitposting and engagement farming on social media, with the technology offering "cheap, fast, on-demand fodder for content".[5]
The initial version of the Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment of children's health issues, released by a commission of cabinet members and officials of the Trump administration, and led by US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reportedly cited nonexistent and garbled references generated using artificial intelligence.[6][7]
Democratic governor Gavin Newsom has used AI-generated images to criticize Trump.[8][9][10]
In the midst of disruptions to food stamp distribution during the 2025 US government shutdown, anonymous social media users began using OpenAI's Sora to post slop videos of welfare queens complaining, stealing, and rioting in supermarkets; many comments to the videos appeared unaware that they were AI-generated, or acknowledged that they were AI-generated but nonetheless useful in pushing a narrative of widespread welfare fraud.[11]
On September 6, 2025, Trump posted an image on Truth Social making a reference to "Chipocalypse Now". Trump's post consisted of an AI-generated image showing Trump frowning and wearing a U.S. Cavalry hat and sunglasses, in front of Lake Michigan with the city of Chicago behind him with a smoke and fire spread across the background with five U.S. Army helicopters in the sky. The words "Chipocalypse Now" are rendered in a font resembling that in which the title of the 1979 film Apocalypse Now was styled.[12]
On February 5, 2026, Donald Trump shared a video of Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes in a Truth Social post.[13] The two-second AI-generated clip of the Obamas portrayed as apes set to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" appeared at the end of a one-minute two second long video, the rest of which was about false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. The post received at least 4,650 likes, 409 comments, and 1,470 reTruths before it was deleted the next morning.[13] The short clip was part of a longer AI-generated video posted in October 2025.[14] The post received widespread backlash and bipartisan condemnation of the video as racist.[15]
In April 2026, Trump posted a picture of himself depicted as Jesus, drawing widespread criticism from Evangelicals and Catholics, resulting in Trump deleting the post hours later and claiming he believed he was depicted as a doctor.[17][18][19][20]
Election campaigns
In 2023, while he was still running for re-election, the presidential campaign of Joe Biden prepared a task force to respond to AI images and videos.[21] The campaign for the 2024 Republican nominee,[22] Donald Trump, has used deepfake videos of political opponents in campaign ads and fake images showing Trump with black supporters.[23][24]
AI slop is frequently used in political campaigns in an attempt at gaining attention through content farming.[25] During the first five months of his second term in 2025, Trump posted several AI-generated images of himself on official government social media accounts, including him as the Pope, him as a Jedi, and him as a muscular man.[26] In August 2024, Trump posted a series of AI-generated images on his social media platform, Truth Social, that portrayed fans of the singer Taylor Swift in "Swifties for Trump" T-shirts, as well as a photo of the singer herself appearing to endorse Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. The images originated from the conservative Twitter account @amuse, which posted numerous AI slop images leading up to the 2024 United States elections that were shared by other high-profile figures within the US Republican Party, such as Elon Musk, who has publicly endorsed the utilization of generative AI, furthering this association.[27]
Michigan GOP candidate Anthony Hudson posted an AI-generated video showing Martin Luther King Jr. endorsing his campaign, later claiming it was uploaded by a volunteer.[28]
Protests
In response to the nation-wide No Kings protests in October 2025, Donald Trump posted a video depicting himself flying a fighter jet and releasing feces on crowds of demonstrators, including Democratic influencer Harry Sisson.[30][31]
Foreign interference
Officials from the ODNI and FBI have stated that Russia, Iran, and China used generative artificial intelligence tools to create fake and divisive text, photos, video, and audio content to foster anti-Americanism and engage in covert influence campaigns.[32] The use of artificial intelligence was described as an accelerant rather than a revolutionary change to influence efforts.[33] Regulation of AI with regard to elections was unlikely to see a resolution for most of the 2024 United States general election season.[23][34]
Disasters and wars
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the United States, members of the Republican Party circulated an AI-generated image of a young girl holding a puppy in a flood, and used it as evidence of the failure of President Joe Biden to respond to the disaster.[35][36] Some, like Trump supporter Amy Kremer, shared the image on social media but acknowledged that it was not genuine.[37][38]
In February 2025, Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social depicting a hypothetical Gaza after a Trump takeover. The video's creator claimed it was made as political satire.[40]
