Trump Wrongly Claims Photos of Harris Rally Crowds Are AI-Generated

Jeremy Gray

A large crowd gathers in an open hangar for a political rally. The stage displays a "Harris Wally" sign. Two large aircraft, including one with "United States of America" marked on it, are parked in the background against a clear sky. Many people are taking photos.

Former President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that photos of large crowds at Kamala Harris’ recent August 7, 2024, Michigan rally were fake and generated using artificial intelligence (AI).

“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?” Trump asked on Truth Social on Sunday, emphasis his. “There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive “crowd” of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane.”

“She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the “crowd” looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING — And they’re even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!” the former President and current Republican nominee continued.

The crux of the conspiracy is that some visible reflections on the plane’s fuselage do not show the crowd. Numerous accredited photos from the event show that the plane was angled away from the rally crowds, so of course, it wouldn’t show people in a reflection.

The originator of this claim is right-wing political commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who was pardoned for a felony by President Donald Trump in 2018.

Getty photographer Andrew Harnik, who was at the event, tells The Daily Beast, “It was a large crowd, and the pictures that I took that are on the Getty website speak to that.”

There were other Getty photographers on site, as seen in the Tweet below.

If photos from trusted sources are insufficient, there is also video evidence from numerous separate news organizations, including the local Michigan news network MLive.

While current AI technology means it is technically possible to create “fake” crowds in still photos, even if Getty Images would never do that, using AI to create realistic, believable crowds in video is not yet possible. In addition to the X post below, there is also a nearly two-hour video of the event that was broadcast live by C-Span.

Trump’s new doubts follow his claim during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago last week that “nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me.” Despite a lack of supporting photographic evidence, Trump also compared the crowd at his January 6, 2021 speech to the one that attended Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

American voters should prepare for many more discussions on crowd sizes at political rallies leading up to election day, as it has become a prevalent taking point among both campaigns, with Trump claiming that the media is under-reporting his crowd sizes and over-reporting the people at Harris events and the Harris campaign poking fun at Trump’s interest in crowd sizes.

As for AI-generated images in politics, that can happen and is a significant concern among tech companies.

Image credits: Featured image is a screenshot from a news video of the Harris campaign rally in Detroit on August 7, 2024

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