Fake! Images created by artificial intelligence depict law enforcement officers restraining former President Trump as he attempts to escape.
Deepfakes of Trump being arrested flood Twitter. The Images showed the former president resisting arrest by officers resembling NYPD, as he tries to flee, have gone viral on Twitter ahead of the possibility of his indictment this week.
Manhattan grand jury is expected to decide whether to charge Trump with falsifying business records linked to payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. If indicted, he would become the first former US president to face criminal charges.
Images showing Trump falling down while being arrested
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
The manipulated images, which have been viewed over four million times, depicts Trump resisting arrest by officers resembling the New York Police Department. Some show him attempting to run away from them.
In anticipation of Donald Trump’s rumored indictment, government, and political officials have been receiving an increase in online threats. Some have even discussed plans for violent actions, including “January 6 times ten”. Founder of Bellingcat, Eliot Higgins, shared a series of deepfake images of Trump’s arrest, created using the text-to-image generator, Midjourney.
Eliot Higgins wanted to visualize the possible indictment of Donald Trump. Using an AI art generator and prompts like “Donald Trump falling down while being arrested,” he created and shared images on Twitter. The images showed the former president surrounded by blurry and indistinct officers.
“I was just mucking about,” Said Higgins. “I thought maybe five people would retweet it.”
The images were made with the prompt, “Donald Trump falling over while getting arrested. Fibonacci Spiral. News footage”.
The fabricated images display illegible text on the uniforms of the officers, as well as warped facial features and hands. In one of the images, Mr. Trump is depicted wearing a police belt.
The AI-generated images also feature protests by Donald Trump Jr. and Melania Trump against the supposed arrest.
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
Meanwhile, in AI Trump world: pic.twitter.com/8pzeIZws0k
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 21, 2023
Another fake AI-generated mugshot of Donald Trump has been circulating on Twitter, shared by a user named O’Keefe Reborn.
https://twitter.com/okeefe_reborn/status/1637200974879006722?s=20
AI’s Disruptive Power
Higgins faced consequences from the AI art generator, Midjourney, which he used to create the images, but was not provided with any explanation. He reported being locked out of Midjourney’s server on Wednesday without any communication about any violation of rules.
Midjourney describes itself as an “independent research lab” and did not respond to a request for comment.
The series of photos also shows Trump “In Prison”.
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 21, 2023
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 21, 2023
On Tuesday, the New York Police Department stated that no arrest of Donald Trump had been made. The agency issued a statement in response to the circulation of AI-generated images depicting the former president being restrained by officers.
Certain Twitter users widely shared images claiming them to be real pictures, although they were fabricated…