Trump appears to be promoting a false image of himself as a star NFL player

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump posted what appeared to be an AI-generated image of himself as a star NFL player on Truth Social on October 21.

While in Pennsylvania yesterday, the former president not only held a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and served french fries at McDonald's in Bucks County, but also attended a Pittsburgh Steelers-New York Jets football game.

After arriving midway through the first quarter, the former president was greeted by Trump Steelers fans, whom the former president thanked on Truth Social, writing, “Thank you Steelers fans for the great welcome tonight. November 5th will be the most important day in the history of our country!

Verified photos of the former president at Sunday night's football game show him in a suite at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, wearing a blue suit and red tie.

However, the image posted on Truth Social shows Trump on a football field wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey – there is no evidence that this ever happened.

Trump's torso and arms also appear to have been altered to appear more muscular than in other photos and videos of Trump in gym clothes, such as those posted on the Trump Golf Instagram account in July.

According to an image detector search by “Is It AI?”, there is an 81 percent chance that the photo was created by AI.

Another AI image detection website, AIimagedetector.org, also concluded that the image was likely generated by AI, stating that the image was about 30 percent human-generated and nearly 70 percent AI-generated became.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign and the Pittsburgh Steelers via email after hours for comment.

This isn't the first time Trump has posted seemingly digitally altered photos of himself on social media. In August, he posted a photo of himself and various allies in what appeared to be photoshopped superhero outfits.

In 2023, he posted a widely shared photo of himself kneeling on the ground praying, which Forbes said was most likely created by AI.

Trump has also posted AI-generated images of his critics. In August, he posted fake images that suggested Taylor Swift had endorsed him, as well as an AI-generated photo of Kamala Harris speaking in Chicago with a communist flag.

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